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Subject:Re: Agency and Interviewing Questions From:Elizabeth Vollbach <evollbach -at- PIPELINE -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 11 Dec 1996 05:32:37 GMT
On 9 Dec 1996 14:11:07 -0600, you wrote:
>I know some people hate this, and I don't mean to start a flamewar,
>but a well-designed writing test can really go a long way toward
>determining ability. Have your candidates rework a poorly worded and
>designed technical document (no more than a page long), have them
>describe, in writing, how they approach a new writing project, or
>something else that can help them show you all of their abilities (of
>course, have them do this in the DTP or WP of your choice, so that
>they can do a little design and formatting).
Yes. But "well designed." Most of them aren't. When I've been asked to
take a test, it never, never told them a darned thing about my
abilities as a tech writer or editor. I always felt dejected and dumb,
which I'm not.
For instance, about a year ago a company gave me a short test that
asked me to write a sentence in active and passive voice. They didn't
learn much more about me than Beth threw the ball and the ball was
thrown by Beth. Beth.
