Testing of Technical Editors

[ssierack -at- ARINC -dot- COM]

          To those of you working for companies that are government
          contractors:  Have you found a legal way to test prospective
          hires? I'm specifically interested in testing technical
          editors (as opposed to writers) because I'll soon be looking
          for an editor. As we all know, it's difficult (impossible?)
          to judge someone's ability without seeing an actual
          markup--and as online editing is replacing the red pencil,
          samples of hardcopy markups are harder to come by.

          I need to have a good feel for both an applicant's ability
          to do a substantive edit--including reorganizing a document
          as needed, reworking conclusions if they don't support the
          body, and improving tables (or creating them to replace text
          where appropriate)--and mastery of the basics (grammar,
          punctuation, spelling, consistency, word usage, etc.).
          People can often talk a good talk in the interview and show
          samples of published work, but that doesn't give you a true
          understanding of their capability--and you don't know for
          certain what their contribution really was.

          For the record: As an applicant, I'm not a fan of tests.
          There's a lot to be said for the point of view that they
          lessen our status as professionals. (My company doesn't test
          the engineers, after all.) But as a hiring manager, I find
          them one of, if not *the*, most useful evaluation tools. It's
          not my intention to start a debate on testing versus not
          testing--or on certification, for that matter. I'd just like
          to find out who tests and how. Or if anyone knows of a
          government-accepted editing test, please point me to it.

          Thanks,

          Sheryl Sieracki
          ssierack -at- arinc -dot- com
          ARINC
          Annapolis, MD

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