Re: How To Choose A Good TW Was Re: Giving a surprise test to interviewees?

[Al Geist <al -dot- geist -at- geistassociates -dot- com>]

As I've said before, there is nothing wrong with giving a writing test 
to writers, but make sure you are testing for the a writer and not an 
editor.  The best "writing" test I ever had was one where the 
interviewer gave me a scenario, then asked me to jot down the steps I 
would take to find the necessary information and complete the task, 
including a list of possible deliverables.  That test gave the 
interviewer an idea of both how the I approached a task and how much I 
understood about the process itself.  I must have done good because I 
got the gig and for more pay than they originally offered.  I took a 
different "writing" test for an online Help development project that was 
more an exercise in editing and failed miserably.  Ironically, I was 
asked three months later to take over the project because the person who 
passed the editing test had no clue about HTML, or the difference 
between a troubleshooting manual and an online Help.