portfolio again - clarification

[Patty Meglio <pmeglio -at- lct -dot- com>]

<It seems to me to be too easy for someone to
> pass of work as theirs when they may not have done anything in the
> document.
>
> Has anyone else had this experience?

<Kind of... I've seen a title in someone's "list of publications" that I 
*knew*
she didn't write. She was involved in the production, but had nothing to do 
with
writing or editing. In her case it's possible that she was so
naive/ignorant/misguided that she didn't realize what a "list of 
publications"
meant (though the svengali who encouraged her to put this on her resume and
probably even wrote the resume knew darn well it was a lie, but that's 
another
story). With so many applicants who are either ignorant or evil enough to 
claim
credit for work they they didn't do, it makes sense to take any sample with 
a
grain of salt and treat it as a starting point for further questions, not
absolute proof of anything.>

Yes, I agree. Though it did not involve employment directly, I had a 
similar experience with a STC competition entry. One of the writers of a 
technical book that took several years to write found out (through my 
knowledge of the competition) that their work had been entered for a book 
award and had won an award. The problem was not that it was entered, though 
the authors had no knowledge of it, but that the person who only had layout 
and copyediting involvement took credit as the author. This was truly a 
slap in the face to the authors and to our profession. Unfortunately, the 
volunteers at the competition do not have the time or resources to check 
the validity of entries, so this could happen again. I can only imagine 
what went on the writer's resume about this book.

Patty Meglio
Technical Communications Specialist
FUGRO-LCT INC.
pmeglio -at- lct -dot- com