Not a Style Guide: Creating a Quick Reference Grammar Guide for Writers  

When approached by a group of curriculum design specialists to develop a job aid that would help analysts and trainers solve some of their most common writing problems, the Multinational Customer and Service Education (MC&SE) editing group from Xerox Corporation went to work to produce The Write Stuff: When to Use a Comma and Other Writing Rules. This paper focuses on the Leadership Through Quality process the editors used to develop this reference tool. It also describes how The Write Stuff addresses some of the most common writing problems editors encounter in the course of a working day.

Cowan, Elisabeth J.S., Raymond J. Doughty Paul F. Ferguson, Ted Moss, and Karen Sliva. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Editing>Style Guides

Noteworthy Observations About Note-Taking by Professionals    

In this article we focus on professional readers who have to write recommendations in an online environment. We address the question whether taking notes on screen influences the reading process and the quality of the recommendations in terms of applicability, completeness, and persuasiveness. Seven participants each composed two pieces of advice on technical communication issues. They could use an electronic Notepad whenever they wished. Taking notes appeared to influence advice quality negatively, which may be caused by attention shifts from reading to taking notes on screen. Although we could not find a relationship between the contents of the notes and advice quality, we noted differences in note-taking approaches between the participants.

Melenhorst, Mark, Thea Van Der Geest And Micha√el Steehouder. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2005). Articles>Editing>Quality

Now That We've Written It, What Do We Do With It?  

Maintaining documents after they are published (making technical corrections and clarifications, adding mussing information) is a large and important task - a task that is often pushed aside or overlooked entirely by writing departments. Our writing department was frequently behind in this maintenance work and wanted 10 improve our maintenance service to our customers. We needed to find a new, efficient way to handle the work -- quite a challenge given a shrinking work force and growing workloads. This paper describes the solution we devised, its early successes and its obstacles.

Dettlaff, Judy L. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Content Management>Editing

Now That You've Got a Double Agent, What Do You Do With 'Em?  

Having demonstrated the importance of acquiring a double agent for writing projects, we now want to explain the best ways to successfully indoctrinate a double agent. This paper will help you prepare for, orient, train, and become a mentor for a double agent to help make him or her an effective member of your writing team.

Fisher, Judith R., Karen L. Mobley and Michelle M. Wright. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Writing>Technical Editing>Collaboration

One Hundred Simple Tech Writing Errors

Here are the 100 writing errors that the author has encountered in his experience. (Followed by the subsequent article 'Ten More Errors in Technical Writing.')

Kamath, Gurudutt R. IT People (2003). Articles>Editing>Grammar>Technical Writing

One Last Look: The Final Quality Control Review

Virtually everyone in the publications field has a story to tell about 'the one that slipped through' -- a horrible, glaring, embarrassing error that went undetected and made it into print. My personal worst was the time the company I was working for was sending a proposal to the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon, only our proposal cover said 'Joint Chefs....' There is always plenty of blame to go around when these errors occur, but usually it is the error-prevention system that is faulty.

Cormier, Robin A. Editorial Eye, The (1997). Articles>Editing

Online Editing, Mark-Up Models, and the Workplace Lives of Editors and Writers    

Despite the fact that most editing is still performed on paper, there are compelling reasons to begin marking copy on the computer.

Farkas, David K. and Steven E. Poltrock. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication (1995). Articles>Editing>Online

Online Editing: Minimizing Your Turnaround Time  

Outlines an editing process that minimizes turnaround time by making the most of word processor technology.

Petersen, Judy H. Intercom (2000). Articles>Editing>Online

Online Technical Writing: Abstracts

An abstract is a summary of a body of information. Sometimes, abstracts are in fact called summaries--sometimes, executive summaries or executive abstracts. There are different kinds of abstracts—your technical report uses two types: the descriptive abstract and the informative abstract.

Illuminati Online. Articles>Editing

Order from Chaos: Developmental Editing

The definition varies from publisher to publisher and from client to client, but basically a developmental editor helps an author develop ideas—or develop a manuscript if it already exists--into a coherent, readable work.

Jaffee, Cyrisse. Editorial Freelancers Association (1991). Articles>Editing

The Other Kind of Editing  

Bush offers suggestions for editing professional journals, rather than technical manuals and proposals.

Bush, Donald W. Intercom (2000). Articles>Editing

Overcoming Objections to Onscreen Editing  

Although onscreen editing has been available for many years, it remains underused in many workplaces. Editors offer many reasons for their reluctance to embrace this technology, and by understanding these reasons, it becomes possible to mitigate the problems and help editors begin using the technology. By doing so, managers can implement a process that is more efficient for both the editor and the authors being edited.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. STC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Editing>Online

The Physics of Reviewers

Subject-matter experts, managers, and other reviewers tenaciously resist our nagging to review documents properly, often delaying reviews until it's too late to do a good job. It's not that they inherently oppose quality control; rather, the problem's in the amount of work required to review something thoroughly, and 'work' is a physics concept. Conveniently, reviewers--like falling objects--follow the same laws of physics as the rest of the universe, and understanding those laws helps you predict reviewer behavior and take appropriate countermeasures.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Geoff-Hart.com (2001). Articles>Editing>Collaboration

Planning and Leading a Successful Review Meeting  

Experienced and novice technical communicators can plan and lead successful review meetings by following this 4-step process: l—Plan ahead. 2—Use an agenda as a road map. 3—Wrap up. 4—Follow up. Although a faceto- face meeting is often the easiest way to get formal feedback on an information product, there are situations in which you should not hold a meeting. If a meeting is appropriate, however, there are specific things you can do to prevent or handle typical problems. Leading a successful meeting involves making a series of conscious choices to make better use of everyone’s time.

Hansen, Lauren Y. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Editing>Collaboration

The Power of Quiddity  

Morris demonstrates a method of editing that reveals the essence of a communication without distorting it.

Morris, M.D. Intercom (2001). Articles>Editing>Methods

Practical Tips for Language: The Ladder to the Top

We the Technical Editors are spared of one worry which our colleagues from journalism generally have: In our work we need not pay 'so much' attention to 'as much as possible' large number of editions. But the situation is different, if we--as is always the case--are to also look after the company's web presence. What is an edition in the context of printing is here the so-called 'page ranking' among the major search engines like Google and Yahoo. Many imagine that a listing in the hits lists depends on chance or, that it is mainly due to some technical means. That is all wrong: by employing some clever textual work the chances of web pages being found can be significantly increased. In reality, even elaborate techniques can lower the chances of hits: Frames, JavaScript and Flash Intros often derail the search engines. And the results may look all right, but regrettably the page will no longer be found.

Nickl, Markus. tekom (2006). Articles>Language>Editing>Business Communication

"Prescriptive" Audience Analysis: Moving Beyond the Purely Descriptive

Editing and writing both require an understanding of our audience, because without that knowledge, we can't shape our words to help them easily grasp difficult concepts. To understand our audience, we do what all writers and editors do, whether consciously or unconsciously: We create an image of our audience that guides our choice of words, images, and metaphors. This image is variously known as a 'stereotype' or a 'persona'. Keeping that image in mind as we work helps us satisfy the reader's needs, but if we're not careful, it can also cause us to waste valuable time collecting information that doesn't really help us communicate.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. TECHWR-L (2003). Articles>Writing>Editing>Rhetoric

Professional Editing Strategies Used by Six Editors    

Identifying the approach used by those revision experts par excellence--that is, professional editors--should enable researchers to better grasp the revision process. To further explore this hypothesis, the author conducted research among professional editors, six of whom she filmed as they engaged in their practice. An analysis of their work approach strategies showed their detection strategies to consist in anticipating errors and in comparing the author's text with the editor's knowledge, which appears in a range of states: certitude, uncertainty, and ignorance. Furthermore, the participating editors used problem-solving strategies to automatically solve more than half of the problems encountered in the text. Otherwise, they used immediate or postponed strategies. This description of professional editors in action opens a number of avenues for the further research and development of in-class instruction of self-revision and professional editing.

Bisaillon, Jocelyne. Written Communication (2007). Articles>Editing>Methods>Case Studies

The Professional Editors Network  

Bush reports on a meeting of the San Diego Professional Editors Network, at which several experienced editors discussed their relationships with authors, offered tips for finding jobs, and emphasized the importance of content editing.

Bush, Donald W. Intercom (2002). Articles>Editing

A Rapid "Debugging" Technique    

Provides an effective method for checking the content-accuracy, completeness, and logical order of a document. Notes that this technique is not a substitute for more careful review when time and the document's importance allow.

Hays, Robert. Technical Communication Online (2003). Articles>Editing>Assessment

Readers Background Characteristics and Their Feedback on Documents: The Influence of Gender and Educational Level on Evaluation Results    

What is the influence of demographic variables such as gender and educational level on the reader feedback collected under the plus-minus method? To answer this question, an analysis was made of the problems detected in four public information brochures. The average amount of feedback per participant did not vary among the four brochures, but the severity of the problems did. Male participants mentioned more problems than female participants, but the problems detected by female participants were on average more severe. Highly educated participants detected more problems than participants with a lower level of education. No differences in problem types mentioned were found between male and female participants, and only one difference was found between the two educational levels: Highly educated participants focused more strongly on the structuring of information. In general, brochure characteristics had more effect on the types of feedback collected than the two demographic participant characteristics.

de Jong, Menno D.T. and Peter Jan Schellens. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2001). Articles>Editing>Assessment>Gender

Reviewing a Peer's Work  

If we've been asked by a peer to review his or her work before it is sent out to be scrutinized by the world, our job is to neither edit nor rewrite the information. Our job is to give helpful, specific feedback about where the information communicates well and where it needs work. The more we understand about how to review a peer's work effectively, and how doing this is different from editing, the better feedback we can provide.

Gillihan, Dana L. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Collaboration>Editing>Writing

The Role of Indexing in Technical Communication

The success of a technical document depends heavily on the index. The task of indexing a technical document often cannot begin until insufficient time remains to do a good job. However, for many users of the document, a good index is mandatory to its usability.

Northrop, Mary Jane. Boston Broadside (1993). Articles>Editing>Indexing

The Role of the Editor in the Technical Writing Team

Editing today covers far more than printed materials. In this discussion, I am assuming a technical editor may be required to deal with: printed materials (for example, books, pamphlets, quick reference cards); electronic (for example, online documentation, online help, web pages); video scripts; computer-based training materials. I am also assuming that the audience for the material being edited is not comprised of other technical people; or if it is, the editor is not the person responsible for ensuring the technical accuracy of the material.

Hollis Weber, Jean. Technical Editors Eyrie (2002). Articles>Editing>Collaboration>Technical Writing