Public writer – Wikipedia

L’ public Writer Defines as “a person who writes letters, acts, for those who do not know how to write or who poorly master the writing” ^{[ first ]} .

This definition of a “person who writes letters for those who cannot write” appears in the dictionaries of the French language in 1835, where the Latin sense of scribe or copyist term writer is then taken up to form the “public writer” phrase.

The public writer writes for and with others any type of text with a private, administrative or professional nature text ^{[ first ]} . To do this, he must master the rules of grammar, syntax and have an extensive vocabulary ^{[ 2 ]} . By showing listening and empathy, he is a social player who allows individuals to meet their obligations in a society where writing is omnipresent ^{[ 3 ]} . Today, this profession is more than ever necessary since it meets a request for writing help ^{[ 3 ]} .

Mastering different types of writings gives the professional a range of tools that makes it versatile and opens up different possibilities to exercise ^{[ 4 ]} . Thanks to communication and information technologies, the contemporary public writer can develop a wide range of editorial services: administrative documents, personal letters, speeches, announcements, web pages, biographies, life stories, literary texts, Corrections, rewritings, etc. He can also run writing workshops ^{[ 5 ]} or ensure permanence within associations or in town halls ^{[ 6 ]} . He knows how to adapt to demand, both on behalf of individuals, businesses and local communities, in order to allow them to communicate effectively ^{[ 7 ]} .

From the scribes of Egypt from antiquity to clerics of the Middle Ages, the needs as a writing man are felt with the development of trade, first, then with the organization of administrative structures afterwards.

Originally, if the writing makes it possible to constitute lists and to take accounts, the scribe can be considered as the first form of the profession of public writer. Over the centuries that follow, the use of writing is partly reserved for political and religious powers. On the European continent, monks are among the rare to be able to write and read texts mainly in Latin.

From the end of XII ^{It is} century at the beginning of XIII ^{It is} A century, the rise of cities was accompanied by an evolution of society with the appearance of the bourgeoisie – those who live in the town – and an enrichment thanks to trade. But the population remains little literate and the need for a third person to write, read, list commercial acts is an increasingly strong need. Already, at that time, the profession of public writer was a response to a service request.

With the organization of trade, the multiplication of professions, the development of the royal and municipal administration, the public writer is the one who writes the agreements, the contracts and the letters which do not require the intervention of a lawyer whose services are much more expensive.

At XIII ^{It is} A century as in the following centuries, the number of public writers varies according to wars and political events that weigh directly on economic activities. In 1280, sixty public writers were identified in Paris ^{[ 8 ]} .

In France, with the development of the profession at XIV ^{It is} A century, among the most renowned public writers, Nicolas Flamel (1330? -1418) had installed his cabinet near the Saint-Jacques-la-Boucherie church in Paris.

During the Renaissance, certain public writers of XVI ^{It is} century have a good situation. Especially those who have managed to develop writing qualities and a mastery of the language. Some specialize and extend their area of ​​skills to legal acts in addition to administrative and commercial texts. Conversely, others less skillful are experiencing difficulties in living (cf. caricatures of Daumier 1808-1879).

The XVII ^{It is} century is a prosperous period during which the public writer meets an often easy clientele who asks him for writing family biographies. For the less wealthy and in small municipalities where there are none, church men often act as editors. Its importance grows because of the high level of illiteracy in France compared to Protestant countries, in which the Lutheran Church forced secular people to learn to read in order to know how to read and understand the Bible.

But the revolution and the period of social disorder that accompanies it will mark an almost fatal stop to the profession with the disappearance of many firms of public writers. Then, the teachers often replace the ecclesiastics to fulfill the role of editor in the most modest municipalities.

At XIX ^{It is} A century, the organization of the Napoleonic administration gave the profession a salutary whiplash by causing a request from the citizens of all the social classes, both from the craftsman and the military non-commissioned officer.

The profession could have disappeared again for lack of necessity when the compulsory school decreased the number of illiterate with the development, in 1882, of free and secular education for all children from 7 to 12 years old by Jules Ferry. Indeed, from the XX ^{It is} A century, the population was increasingly educated and it no longer needs an intermediary to read and write the simplest texts in everyday life. The call to a specialist is only made for the writing of official letters or of contractual importance.

Despite a falling asleep of this profession, the year 1980 saw the birth of the association Academy of Public Writers of France ( AEPF ).

In February 2002 , the Grouping of Consultants® writers (Greek) is created by around twenty people ^{[ 3 ]} . In 2017, it brought together 150 people ^{[ 9 ]} .
AEPF and Greek contribute, like other organizations, to the regular update of the APCE file of this profession of “Public writer – Writing advice” ^{[ ten ]} .

A National Federation of Public Writers (Fnep), created in November 2009, was set for the purpose of promoting the social character of the function. It has since been dissolved – on an indefinite date, even if its Facebook page and its website ^{[ 11 ]} are still online.

In France [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

The national university degrees that exist are:

• The Professional license: professional & private writing advice, public writer ^{[ twelfth ]} . The terminology of writing advice has been adopted by the University alongside the historical designation of the profession, to better translate the recent enlargement of its fields of intervention. Originally created in 2001 under the title “Public writer, assistant in administrative procedures and private scriptures”, the professional license is provided by La Sorbonne-Nouvelle-Paris 3. This is the first State diploma preparing for the profession. It consists of 400 hours of lessons (rhetoric, writing techniques, linguistics, professional expression, psychosociology, sociology of writing, IT, etc.) and 420 hours of practical internship. In 2001, the Plume et Buvard association ^{[ 13 ]} was born, bringing together professional public writers and graduate public writers, writing advice and biographers who followed the curriculum of the license or obtained the diploma by way of the VAE. The Plume et Buvard association was dissolved in 2019 ^{[ 14 ]}
• The professional license “Public writer and writing advice” ^{[ 15 ]} was created in 2018 at the University of Toulon. She succeeds a D.U. (University diploma) Created in 2000. Training lasts a year and is designed for retraining professionals or aimed at acquiring new writing skills. It is multidisciplinary, combining law, management, literary writing, training in professional, biographical or business writing. Over two and a half days weekly, she offers an intensive writing experience followed by a twelve week internship. The association “Public writers – Authors Associated Councils, trained at the University of the South” (E.P.A.C.A. SUD) ^{[ 16 ]} brings together public writers holding the professional license issued by the University of Toulon.

Public writers in France often come from professional retraining (Greek study ^{[ 17 ]} ) and can also use, before exercising, short training solutions offered by both private and public or remote training centers.
Examples: the Françoise Peters training center (CFFP), The private national center of distance training (Cnfdi) ^{[ 18 ]} , The National Center for Distance Education (CNED) ^{[ 19 ]} or Lilacom ^{[ 20 ]} .

Created in 1980, the Academy of Public Writers of France (AEPF ^{[ 21 ]} ) is an association with the main objective of promoting the profession of public writer, proposes an approval procedure which makes it possible to verify that the applicant has the capacity necessary to be a specialist in the editorial ^{[ 22 ]} . AEPF offers training ^{[ 23 ]} And regularly organizes national symposia, including, every two or three years, a national day of the public writer (JNEP). The AEPF signed in 2021 a ” National objectives convention “With the Directorate of the Prison Administration of the Ministry of Justice which aims to promote and develop the intervention of professional public writers in a penitentiary environment ^{[ 24 ]} .

In 2006, more than 400 professionals were registered in France under the name “Public writers and advice in administrative formalities” ^{[ ten ]} .

In November 2007 , actors in the profession wished to federate by creating the National Union of Service Providers and Writing Advice (SNPCE) ^{[ 25 ]} . This entity is in a process of recognition, defense and promotion of the profession of services and writing advice.

In June 2013 , there are nearly 1,000 private public writers referenced in the yellow pages, in France.

In 2014, the Seppe is created, a union of public writers and writing professionals. It was dissolved on October 21, 2017 ^{[ 26 ]} .

In 2007 the SNPCE, the National Union of Services and Writing Consulting, was created ^{[ 27 ]} .

In 2020, following health problems (COVVI-19), public writers set up barriers (masks, hydroalcoholic gel) and during confinements developed telework (which works very well) ^{[ 28 ]} .

In French -speaking Belgium [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Public writer space [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

The public writer space was created in 1999 at the initiative of the PAC continuing education movement ^{[ 29 ]} . Its objectives are to train public writers, and to install permanence offering free support to people who experience difficulties in the face of reading and writing.

Very quickly, the first permanence opened up in associations and partner public institutions. If, at first, the project was born and developed in Liège, thereafter it gradually extends throughout French-speaking Belgium (Wallonia and Brussels).

Since 2007, the project has been deployed on the scale of the PAC movement. The number of activities in the field has increased. The function evolves, investing more and more the socio -cultural field with both individual and collective projects ^{[ 30 ]} :

It is to fight against all forms of inequalities that cultural presence and action has created a training system, and develops a network of permanence through the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. Indeed, mastery of writing is intimately linked to the conditions of existence of each and each.

Schooling, socio -cultural environment, origin, personal history: we are not all equal in the face of writing.

The main function of a public writer is to allow people to express, with their own words, their requests, emotions or desires. This concerns both groups and individuals.

The public writer undertakes to respect an ethical charter ^{[ thirty first ]} which advocates the fundamental values ​​of permanent education and guarantees confidentiality. Its services are completely free.

Public writers benefit from continuous training. This allows them to diversify their approaches from the audiences, to refine active listening, to keep up to date with the changes in legislation, to exchange practices and experiences, etc. This section, relating to French -speaking Belgium, is the fruit of a collective drafting of public writers in continuing education.

The training provided by PAC is being recognized by the public authorities. A quality label should be granted to them.

In Swiss [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

There is an academy of public writers in Switzerland ( AEPS ).

Au Canada francophone [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

In the litterature [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

At the movie theater [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

On the television [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

At the theatre [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Summary: Meeting between two lost men. After having fled his country at war, a young man named Lanskov needs the services of a public writer, Mr. Martin Rouvesquen, to send a letter to his wife who remained in the country. The disillusioned and graying public writer lets the young exile in his lair. Little by little, in contact, he will open new eyes to the world. Fascinated by the young man’s energy and idealism, the writer is reborn and finds the son he never had.

In music [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Bibliography [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

• Geneviève Madou, Public writer, an old profession of the future , Héricy, Éditions du Puits Fleuri, 2009 , 2 ^{It is} ed. , 315 p. (ISBN  978-2-86739-391-4 , read online ) .
• Catherine Bastien, Public writers , Bonneton, 2000 , 224 p. (ISBN  2-86253-259-2 ) – exhaust.