RE: Sample document creation for contract position

["Sarah Blake" <Sarah -dot- Blake -at- microfocus -dot- com>]

> If they manage to interview
> well despite that, I would most certainly administer a writing/editing
test.
> The one I have used successfully is equal parts writing/rewriting,
grammar,
> and basic formatting, and it almost always eliminates candidates who
will
> not be able to perform. 

I was actually very impressed by the 'writing test' I was administered
when interviewing with my current employers.

The first part was a ten-minute grammar/editing test; I was given a
short (two or three paragraph) piece of developer-written text and told
to improve it.  This involved spotting grammatical errors, moving
sentences around to improve the structure, turning lists into bullets,
you get the idea.

In the second part, I was given a genuwine (if obsolete) functional
spec, several pages long, and told to a) lay out the structure of how I
would document the software described and b) make notes, on the spec if
necessary, of the questions I would want answers to before I started
writing.

I thought at the time that the test design showed an unusual
understanding of what it is that technical writers actually do.  I don't
believe the test structure is patented; feel free to copy it :)

Sarah

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