Just under a year ago, STC re-launched its Certified Professional Technical Communicator (CPTC) certification program. This three-tiered program begins with the currently-offered CPTC Foundation certification. CPTC Practitioner and CPTC Expert certifications are planned for launch in 2017 and 2018.

These certifications are cumulative; each is a prerequisite for the next.

Why Certification?

Many different fields have a path to certification, either optional or required, and many professionals have benefited from certification. Certification benefits individuals, employers, and the profession at large. Certification can help you to validate your skills and distinguish yourself from other job applicants who are not certified. Employers can use certification as one way to identify qualified applicants. In fact, a recent US Federal Government for-bid contract required a CPTC-certified technical communicator.

How Can I Earn the CPTC Certification?

The CPTC Foundation certification is exam-based. The exam is 50 questions over 40 minutes, and an 85% score is required to pass. The exam tests knowledge and understanding of technical communication concepts in eight core skill areas:
Project Planning
Project Analysis
Content Development
Organizational Design
Written Communication
Review and Editing
Visual Communication
Content Management
Production and Delivery

How Do I Prepare for the Exam?

You may study for the exam yourself, using the STC Certification Study Guide and a copy of the Certification textbook, Technical Communication Today, 5th Edition, by Richard Johnson-Sheehan.
Alternatively, you can take a class from a CPTC authorized trainer. The CPTC preparation course is held over two days, and covers the eight skill areas and all knowledge necessary to successfully take the exam.

How Do I Take the Exam?

You can register to take the exam online, at the Certification hosting company, APMG. APMG has helped organizations around the world develop and administer professional certification programs.

How Much Does It Cost?

The exam fee is $250 USD, payable to APMG when you register for the exam. If you take a CPTC preparation class, the exam fee is included in the cost of the course.

Where Can I take a CPTC Preparation Course?

Front Runner is pleased to be hosting a CPTC Preparation Course on November 13-14, taking place, at 366 Adelaide St E #433. The instructor, Alan Houser, is an STC Fellow, STC Past President, and a CPTC authorized trainer. Students will have the opportunity to take the exam the second day of the training.

See the Front Runner CPTC course for details and to register.

You can also learn more at the STC CPTC certification information area.

Content reuse is often associated with content management projects and indeed, content reuse is key to successful content management and is frequently the reason companies give for wanting to get into content management.

But, content reuse is an effective business practice on its own and can be implemented without investing the time, effort, and money in a content management initiative. In fact, getting started with content reuse will put you in a better position when, or if, you do decide to proceed with a content management project. Content reuse is really all about the content, not the technology, and the better you plan your content reuse strategy up front, the more effective your reusable content will be.

So, why reuse content? For starters, reusing content is efficient for you, for the company you work for, and for your users. Reusing content helps to ensure that content is consistent regardless of where it appears, enhancing its usability. Reuse also eliminates the duplications that result when writers recreate content that already exists. I’m sure many of us have written the same content, over and over again, simply because we can’t locate the right version for our project, or spent two hours writing a product description only to discover that someone else wrote it last week.

In a content reuse environment, content is written once and used wherever it is required, which not only enhances consistency and usability, but significantly reduces the costs to write and review content. Two (or more) writers and subject matter experts working on the same or similar content is double the cost (or more). Reusing content also facilitates translation; reused content is written, reviewed, and translated once.

Planning and writing for reuse

Reuse doesn’t just happen—you need to plan for it. Your first task is to determine your reuse goals and analyze your content, finding your best reuse opportunities. Where is most of your similar and repeated content? User guides? Technical manuals? Collateral? Online help? Web? Training?

Once you know where you want to reuse content, you can determine how to structure and write it to support reuse. If content is to be truly reusable, its reuse must be transparent to other writers and to your users. While good content should always conform to standards based on usability, in a reuse environment, standards are critical to ensure that content is reusable. If you are reusing a product description that someone else has written, it must fit with the other product descriptions in the document where you are reusing it. In a content reuse environment, all product descriptions must be structured and written the same way, ensuring their consistency regardless of where they are used.

Accessing modular content

Reusable content is modular content, allowing you to easily access components and use them where required. For example, to be able to reuse a product description, you need to be able to access it, independently. A modular approach to your documents allows you to construct with content; you can access the modules you need and insert them where required. Modules can be stored in a central location and given substantive names so all writers can access them as required, without spending hours searching through “the server”.

Summary

Although content reuse makes sense, it isn’t always easy to implement. Reusing content successfully requires much planning. You need to identify reuse opportunities, decide how to structure and write your content, create writing guidelines, and figure out how you will access your reusable content. You also need to design how your content will flow throughout your content lifecycle, from planning, writing, review, translation, and storage. And, while you do need to decide how best to use technology to help implement your reuse strategy, you don’t need to invest hugely in technology to make reuse happen.

 

By: Pamela Kostur – http://www.parallax.ca/

I was down at Harbourfront with my girlfriend as we watched the Canada Day celebrations. As we stood there watching the fireworks, the one thing that really struck me was how many people were watching the fireworks, but watching them through the lens of their camera.

Although they were indeed capturing the moments for posterity, it occurred to me that by focusing (pun only partly intended) on the filming, they weren’t fully experiencing the event; they were only watching the fireworks through the rectangle of their device and therefore oblivious to the surroundings. For me, half of the fun was to experience not only the fireworks, but also the reaction of the people – especially seeing the joy of the toddler on his dad’s shoulders.

Upon further reflection, it seems to me that this isn’t an isolated demonstration on how we can sometimes use technology as a “filter” in terms of our real world experiences. I watch people who think that it’s necessary to tweet or text message at a movie theatre. I don’t know how many times I’ve almost been clobbered as I walk down the streets and someone turns a corner, completely immersed on their cellphone, not aware of where they are going.

There are many more examples where life is experienced vicariously through an electronic device. The irony of this is that the true and full experience is easily obtained, just put down the device from time to time and look around!

Taking pictures or filming special moments help us to capture, reminisce and cherish those moments.

Photography enhances our lives just as technology can.  I’ll always like my tech toys and I’ve found things like my GPS or my smartphone (and the many Android apps that are installed on it) to be a wonderful resource that enables me to get directions, find restaurants, check account balances, or even to check news or sports.

I’d be pretty lost without technology, as it’s an intrinsic part of my daily routine.

I think of this issue as if I were using a camera that had a macro lens and I was focusing in on a flower as I was photographing it. My field of vision would be greatly reduced and I would be missing out what was no longer visible in the periphery, compared to a regular lens.

I’m not suggesting that people abandon their cameras – or their devices – to get the full experience. There’s something to be said for having a record of moments in time; that’s why many of us take pictures or videos. All that needs to be done is to stop and observe from time to time.

By: Rick McCallion

Rick is a seasoned software developer with over 25 years of experience in designing and developing systems. In addition to the software development experience, he is also experienced in training users with various skill sets and assisting organizations in determining their information technology needs.

Rick has taught numerous courses at Front Runner for mature audiences with limited computer experience. He teaches with patience and simplicity, in order for everyone to follow and feel comfortable with the software to use on their own.

Rick welcomes any comments, suggestions or questions.  This article, along with many others, can be found on his blog at http://techumanity.blogspot.com