Certification

["Knox, Phebe" <pknox -at- CADMUS -dot- COM>]

[11] From: Phebe Knox at cjs-balt 12/29/95 10:09AM (1482 bytes: 25 ln)
To: srm -at- c2 -dot- org at internet
Subject: Certification
Draft message
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          Richard Mateosian,

          You've persuaded me.  No certification. May as well try
          to "certify" fiction writers next. Which is sort of what
          novelist Steven King's college literature class instructor
          tried to do, and King's been complaining about it ever
          since. The instructor said writing wasn't about money or
          popular acceptance, it was about (something self-centered, I
          forget what, but King's description of this guy's
          avant-guard plays in which everyone stood around mute are
          amusing). King rather thought he was wrong. That's rather
          clear from King's subsequent history. Success in the real
          world is the appropriate criterion.

          Don Martillotti's manager's internal dialogue, "Self, why
          hire a certified writer at $45,000 when this uncertified
          person seems to write perfectly well and will doubtless work
          for less..." was charming, and Sue Gallagher's question
          "what skill set" neatly encapsulated a LOT of text on the
          problem of what would go in such a test.

          There are a lot of good writers on this list! No need to
          certify; I can tell who writes well by reading you.

          Phebe Knox          pknox -at- cadmus -dot- com