Approaches to Professionalism--A Codified Body of Knowledge
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/10002/32120/01494239.pdf?arnumber=1494239
  access restricted (by the publisher) to members/subscribers/customers only
  peer-reviewed

Rainey, Kenneth T.
IEEE PCS
2005

Abstract:

Professionalism is a recurrent topic of discussion—formally and informally—among technical communication scholars and practitioners. In the diversity among our programs and approaches to technical communication, the difficult issues surrounding certification in technical communication is a professional goal that major stakeholders have typically considered too complex to be addressed. Increasingly, however, many of these stakeholders agree that we can no longer continue to ignore these complex issues. In an earlier article, I have described twelve issues that must be addressed and tasks that must be undertaken to move the profession towards meaningful certification. In that discussion, I also suggest approaches to begin the work on each of these steps. In this present discussion, I address the first of these steps—codification of the bodies of knowledge through the development of an encyclopedia of technical and professional communication. In order to accomplish this, I describe the categories of knowledge in the field and the editorial and organizational structure of the project.