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Second, LeAnne asked me to post her reply to the list.
Laurie
(FWIW, I have already groveled to Eric Ray about seeming to
post an ad. It was not my intention.)
-----Original Message-----
From: Baird, LeAnne [mailto:LeAnne -dot- Baird -at- acs-inc -dot- com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2003 1:09 PM
To: 'LKittle -at- Eidea -dot- com'
Subject: tech writing test
The best one I've ever used is really simple.
Give the writer a workstation and (preferably) software they are used to
writing with, an easily-located (live) browser icon on the desktop, and the
following instruction:
"Write the text of a help topic about making a peanut butter and jelly
sandwich. This topic will eventually be published in HTML, but will be
published in PDF first. Take as much time as you need."
Do not answer any questions the writer asks, just leave them to it. (The
really good ones immediately ask about audience, for instance, but I just
said I had given all the instruction I was going to give.)
I used this when I was building a writing team, and the variation in the
results was startling. We used it for more than a year as we added new
writers to the team, and found we could tell exactly when we had found "one
of us."
The group-voted all-time winner? A nearly-green fledgling tech writer who
chose as her audience visitors to the US from another English-speaking
country:
She began the topic with an explanation of sandwich ingredients, discussed
the kinds of bread that are often used and how they differ, mentioned the
cultural importance of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in growing up in
America. Then she provided a well constructed step-by-step procedure with an
action/result in each step, including the final steps of putting it on a
plate, cutting in half, and serving.
Then she went out to the web and searched (without asking - she was alone in
the room), and created a Related Topics section containing links to several
peanut butter and name-brand jelly sites as well as recipe sites.
In contrast, we also gave this test to a writer with training background who
liked the beginning of projects best--he turned in only an extensive list of
topic headings!
And many, many candidates wrote serviceable but unimaginative procedures
with no context content at all--they didn't make the cut because we were
needing people who could conceptualize, plan, and execute their own projects
from scratch.
Yours,
=LeAnne
p.s. Please post this to the list because I'm on digest.
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