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> Have you, as a technical writer, been required to take
> a pre-employment writing or editing test?
Only once in my 7 years as a technical writer have I been required to take a
writing test. It was the most awful experience I've had in an interview. Well,
maybe in the end it was a good thing, because I certainly learned enough about
the personality of the person I would be working for, and I would have hated
working there!
This company produces components for programmers to use in their applications
(drop down list boxes, grids, spin controls, and various other widgets). I was
expecting that the writing test would have something to do with writing an
API-like document, since that is what I would be documenting at their company.
Wrong! As I recall, I was given a choice of four or five things to write
instructions for, only one of which had anything to do with *computers*, much
less about software. I think the one that did apply had something to do with
explaining how to copy and paste between Word and Notepad, or something like
that. Basically, I replied that I would refer the user to the Microsoft
documentation that already adequately described how to do this.
The response was quite surprising. The person I had been working with had
seemed really warm and friendly before. It seemed like the writing test was a
mere formality. But after I submitted the writing test (which I was not happy
with), I received a very sharply-worded email indicating that I was not a
writer of sufficient quality for their organization.
If they had merely said that it wasn't going to work out, that is one thing.
But to claim, based on my first-ever writing test, that I was not a good writer
really ticked me off. I wrote back, asking for further explanation. This person
really dumped it on me, then, and only ticked me off more. I decided to end
things there, and be glad I hadn't been offered the job!
Needless to say, I'm going to be much pickier about what writing tests I'll be
willing to take (unless I'm really desperate, of course) in the future.
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