Re: Samples: hard copy or CD or...?

Subject: Re: Samples: hard copy or CD or...?
From: Isaac Rabinovitch <isaacr -at- mailsnare -dot- net>
To: techwr-l
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2004 18:20:15 -0800

DaveC wrote:


What is the format used today for writing samples?

All the samples I have are hard copy, so I can't put files on CD. Are writers scanning hard copy into PDF if they don't have files? Or just carry them in if/when an interview is arranged?

Thanks,
Dave


Those hard copies are your *only* copies, right? You should have duplicates in any case, so you might as well make the dups electronic, since those can be easily converted back to hard copy.

I'd recommend buying a scanner. For 50 bucks, you can get a decent Canon LED scanner which comes with some fairly good OCR software. Powered by the USB cable, so you can just unplug it, lock down the scan head, and stick it in the closet when you're not using it. I'm using one right now to convert some old bodywork newsletters into a web site.

When I send out writing samples, I usually use Word format, though some of the samples were originally authored in HTML and Frame. This is the format that almost everybody can read and print out. PDF is almost as good, and a small number of people (mostly at Adobe, of course) prefer it. Word format can easily be converted to HTML -- horrendous, unmaintainable HTML, but good enough to put on your web site.

Arguably HTML is more portable even than Word, since *everybody* has a web browser. But people like to print out resumes to pass them around, and you can't be sure their web browser will do a good job. Plus documents with linked graphics are tricky to send and receive as email attachments. Word format gives you the option of embedding your graphics instead of linking, something you can't do with HTML.




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