Re: Writing Samples

["Huber, Mike" <mrhuber -at- SOFTWARE -dot- ROCKWELL -dot- COM>]

>-----Original Message-----
>From:  Mark Baker [SMTP:mbaker -at- OMNIMARK -dot- COM]
>Sent:  Tuesday, March 24, 1998 9:40 AM
>To:    TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
>Subject:       Re: Writing Samples
>
>Jon Leer writes:
>
>
>>Any writer who shows up without writing samples is hopeless. All writers
>>are judged by what they write.
>
>Not by me. If a writer shows me a manual they wrote for another company,
>what am I looking at? Is it a sample of that company's house style? If so,
>then it tells me nothing about the writer's style. Is it a sample of the
>writer's own style? Then all that proves is that the writer cannot write to
>house style. And how am I supposed to tell the difference?
>-------
>
>In my case, you would know the difference when I handed you a short manual
>and said "This is something I wrote about a gift I made for my brother a
>while back. I keep it in my portfolio because the other work is collaborative
>and follows company style guides."
>
>I might also show work that I did as a volunteer. I don't sell pizzas.
>
>Unless you think a portfolio should only contain work done for money, I can't
>imagine someone who is qualified to write for a living having no samples,
>short of working for a political or intelligence agency that considers all
>your writing in any context to be under control. How can you write well if
>all you write is what you are paid to write? That would be like a musician
>never playing except in concert. (Not to get into the "tech
>writing/creativity" thing, but dang, if writing isn't fun, find another
>career.)
>
>Cut a demo, Dude[ette]!
>