Eye for Editing: Levels of Edit

I’m stating the obvious when I say that there are many systems that define levels of edit. Some systems define up to nine levels or categories of edit, such as the well-known, pioneering effort to define levels of edit by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. But when I started in my current role as editor for a team of K–12 curriculum writers, I implemented a personally derived system of four levels, which are based on the book Technical Editing, The Practical Guide for Editors and Writers, by Judith A. Tarutz (1992). This is also the system I’ve used when proposing and scoping freelance editing projects. My system includes the following levels of edit: Developmental, Substantive, Literary, and Pre-release. Except for Developmental, these levels build on each other, starting with Pre-release at the lowest level.

STC International Summit Awards 2015 Call for Judges

Where can you get a professional development opportunity that is unlike any other and free of charge? From STC, of course! Volunteering your time and expertise to judge in the International Summit Awards gives you valuable experience that you just can’t get anywhere else. Past judges often comment on how rewarding the judging experience was for them, even as it stretched their abilities and introduced them to new ways of thinking about technical communication. But it’s not for everybody. If you think you have what it takes and are ready to take what it gives, I’m pleased to invite you to apply to be a judge.

Eye for Editing: The Editor as Teacher

How do you think of yourself in your editing role? Is each document, article, topic, or book by the same author or team of writers an isolated editing task? Does each task seem to start from scratch as if you’d not edited that author’s work before? Or is each subsequent edit you deliver informed by your previous suggestions and comments? Do subsequent documents indicate that the writer “got it the first (or last) time”?

Eye for Editing: Do Not Edit …

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.

Eye for Editing: Caught Between Two Edits

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.