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>I examine these samples with an eye to spelling, grammar, obvious stuff like
>that; layout and design; choice of font and size; and general style.
I've never been asked for samples before an interview, but I always bring
them with to the interview. One of the reasons I'd be hesitant to send them
(although I suppose this could be dealt with in writing) is that some of
the items you're asking about require an explanation. For example, in some
companies I've worked for, the fonts, layout, and whitespace were company
style guides into which I had little no input.
>It makes me very happy to see a sample that had no mistakes in spelling,
>etc. --
>this does occasionally happen. I see a lot of mistakes in tense, hyphenation,
>and spacing. Those discourage me, but they aren't necessarily a deal-killer,
>because we can proof them.
Murphy's first law of publishing: No matter how many times you proof
something before you send it to the printer, when it comes back, the first
page you open it to will have a typo.
>I also love to see samples with wonderful design -- enough white space,
>judicious use of graphics, etc.
And then there was the company that gave us a directive to reduce the cost
of the manuals by 30%. So we reduced it by 50%. And the manuals looked like
it.
>Mostly I look for clear writing geared to an end user. That's the bottom line.
