RE: Writing Test

["James Barrow" <vrfour -at- verizon -dot- net>]

>Andrew Warren wrote:
>>James Barrow wrote:
>>
>>take a look at what I was given and let me know what you would have said.
>>I'll tell you how I answered in my next post.  Here's the test:
>>
>>"In one paragraph (100 words or less) describe what should be included in
>>a good documentation package, and explain why it would be good." 
>
>If it were me, I'd have redlined the "less" and replaced it with "fewer",
>inserted a comma after the closing paren, then refused to continue until
>the question was retyped.

LOL!  I thought about writing that, but was more concerned with issue #2
below.

>Or maybe I'd write, "A good documentation package should include good
>documents (duh! lol) The reason it would be good, is because it has good
>documents.  If you hire me i will write good documents, and, try not to
>write alot of bad documents so all the packages (or most of them anyways
>lol) will be good. THANKS!!!", and I'd dot the exclamation points with
>smiley faces.

You are getting warmer regarding issue #1.

[]

>If I were approaching the test seriously, I guess I'd have an issue with
>the 100-word limit: 

This is issue #1.  When I first read the statement I jumped on the keyboard
because it seemed so simple.  Then the little voice started telling me that
there would be a problem.  When I had finished typing, and did a word count,
I was at 178 (and I thought I had been terse).

>If it's just a test of writing ability, it's too short to discriminate
>among mediocre, good, and great writers; it's barely suitable for weeding
>out the completely incompetent.  If it's not just a writing test -- if the
>interviewer actually wants to know what I think should go into a good
>documentation package -- then the assumption that I can explain it in 100
>words says a lot about his (mis)understanding of the subject.

That's precisely what I was thinking as I started hacking off words to get
to 100.  To call this a writing test is a misnomer.  Maybe a comprehension
test?  Analysis test?

>How'd you answer?

Let me wait for a few more replies before I divulge that.  I just want to
see if anyone else picks up on what I saw/thought.  I will say that I didn't
write a paragraph, I wrote a five-bullet list.  And my final word count was
107.  

I guess a good hint about what I thought issue #2 was would be to say that
somewhere around word 54, I started hearing that tiny voice say "Document
package, document package..."

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