You think I’m kidding? Good, because you wouldn’t do something like this, would you? In the throes of final review to meet a draft document deadline, please don’t waste the author’s time—the author who is already stressed and has worked many overtime hours to meet the deadline—by demanding revisions that no one but you will notice. Resist the urge to point out every tiny flaw that presents itself.
Technical writers always want their work to be recognized by the audience. Technical writing and editing skills are highly associated with each other. Effective editing will help make bad writing good and good writing becomes even better. Experienced editing will catch both factual and grammatical errors in copy before it is published, preventing embarrassment, additional costs, and possible legal action. To become an experienced editor, here are some steps to improve your editing skills.
The week after the Summit, I found myself in an interesting position. I have a freelance client for which I do editing exclusively. I also have a full-time contract gig where my job descriptors are writer, editor, designer, trainer, developer, project manager… But primarily, my deliverables are original content as a writer and editorial reviews of the original content of my writer-peers on a team of 2.5 persons.
Have you ever had the experience in daily life where someone provided you with instructions for a certain task, and upon trying to follow them, you found them to be incomplete and inaccurate? That’s not meant to be as rhetorical Read more
A different version of this blog post was published in the January 2013 issue of Corrigo, Newsletter of the Technical Editing SIG. I think editors are uniquely suited to be judges for the STC International Summit Awards (ISA). In many Read more
Skipping to what is one of the most important skills to have in editing, this month I want to talk about how we relate to the other person in the form of a review of their work. It may be Read more
Today we bring you the second post from our newest guest blogger, Paula Robertson. Paula’s blog will explore the topic of editing—technical editing, editing as a skill, practical tips, personal stories, and whatever tangent that might lead to. She hopes to Read more