Re: job interview question: ethical issues about portfolio

[ICorrino -at- cs -dot- com]

In a message dated 1/13/02 6:50:24 PM Eastern Standard Time, ICorrino -at- cs -dot- com 
writes:

>  On a related note -- I think I know the answer to this, but I'm just 
curious 
>  as to other people's opinions -- is it permissable to add new comments to 
an
>  editing sample? In other words, is it okay if, when assembling your 
>  portfolio, you come across some error you missed at the time, to correct 
it? 
>  Or should the portfolio represent your work exactly as you did it for the 
>  company?

I've gotten a couple of messages asking for clarification on where I was 
coming from with this question, so just to elaborate:   I used to be a 
newspaper reporter, and in journalism it's generally frowned upon to alter 
samples of your published articles. And though it may sound like that's not 
possible, people do it. Often a published article will have some flaw -- 
sometimes the reporter's error, sometimes one introduced by an editor -- and 
there's a temptation to reprint a headline, or to try to mask errors in other 
ways, such as dabbing a bit of whiteout on an unneeded comma or splicing in a 
paragraph that was inadvertantly cut. Then when you photocopy it, it's 
impossible to tell that the article was tampered with. I never did this, but 
I know people who did, and who probably still do. Anyway, I think among most 
journalists these techniques are considered unacceptable. I guess taking out 
a comma wouldn't be too egregious, but when you present a copy of a published 
article and label it as having appeared on page 1 of The New York Times (or 
wherever it appeared -- it's standard to label your clips with that kind of 
info: publication date, page placement, etc.) the article should appear to 
the potential employer as it appeared to the public on that day, in that 
publication.

On the other hand, it *is* acceptable, if you're not happy with the published 
version of a story, to send a computer printout of your original work and 
explain that, for whatever reason, you weren't happy with the way the article 
appeared in print, or to simply say that you wanted the interviewer to see 
your "raw copy." I did that a few times. 

So anyway .. that's my context, but daily journalism is obviously different 
from technical writing, and I have no idea what the conventions are in this 
business, which is why I raised the question. So.. any input is appreciated.

thanks,
Irulan 

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