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Even the best writers will have a hard time producing anything
resembling their best work given 30-60 minutes with a subject
and template they've never seen before. Unless you're planning
to give applicants an amount of hands-on research. writing and
editing time equivalent to what they'd have to do a real project,
you'll never get a feel for their technical writing ability and the
best you'll get from an exam/test is some idea of their ability to
work with an unfamiliar FM template. I know I'd probably fail
such a test miserably. If applicants interview well, have a
satisfactory portfolio and good references, my choice for the
most reliable "test" would be to assign them a small, quick
turnaround project like a document revision and pay them for
their time. By the time you've done all the real work required
to evaluate an applicant (please tell me this test is not intended
to take the place of the real work) you've probably already
spent more in your time than the cost of a couple of days' pay
for a writer.
> Do you have suggestions of how to test someone's proficiency in
> technical writing (someone suggested asking them to write a user guide
> for a cellular phone or a hole maker, what do you think?).
> thanks
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