A Course in Content Editing  

Describes a college course on content editing--editing that focuses on clarifying content. Emphasizing career opportunity, the course touches on new technologies that have transformed editing, the editor-author relationship, and the editing of user manuals.

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

Courses for Technical Editors in Australia

I don't know of any tertiary-level courses in Australia specifically for technical editors, although there are several programs for general editors or journalists. I'll add information to this page as I find it.

Technical Editors Eyrie. Academic>Courses>Technical Editing>Australia

Creating an Editing Policy  

As an editor, you realize how important it is to edit information consistently. What you might not realize how important it is to let the writer know how you are going to edit, what you are going to edit, and what you expect from the writer. An editing policy lets you communicate these things to the writer. When you and the writer know what to expect from each other, you are able to work together as a team to produce a quality document.

Reed, Wendy L. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Editing>Collaboration

Creating Editing Metrics  

Using simple templates, you learn how to customize editing metrics to represent your department processes.

Avanzato, Chris. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Editing

Creating, Implementing, and Maintaining Corporate Style Guides in an Age of Technology    

This article details a step-by-step process for creating, implementing, and maintaining a corporate style guide to ensure consistency in organizational communication. Through literature research, analysis of sample style guides, and practitioner interviews, this article provides recommendations for gaining management support, building a process to develop a style guide, determining content, encouraging employee buy-in, and maintaining a corporate style guide.

Bright, Mark R. Technical Communication Online (2005). Articles>Editing>Style Guides>Collaboration

Creative Techniques for Modifying Images  

Images are an integral part of most page layouts. Documents such as brochures, newsletters or information flyers rely on images in many ways. Images can be manipulated to suit a particular design purpose. They can be used as backgrounds to anchor elements, frames to delineate regions or shapes to help balance the page. Images can also be used to add interest to a page by contributing shape, texture or color. To use images in a creative manner, it is necessary to realize that the image is not a static entity. Modifying images for a particular design purpose or to add interest to a page can result in a more creative design.

Birchman, Judith A. STC Proceedings (2001). Design>Graphic Design>Image Editing

CRT - in a New Look

Although CRT is small in numbers, it is already acquainted with the 'big' sister societies, such as tekom (Germany), ISTC (Great Britain) and other Technical Communicator groups in Europe. We were very pleased with the initial contacts made in Brussels early in 2001 aimed at establishing a new umbrella organization for technical communicators in Europe.

Flacke, Marie-Louise. TC-FORUM (2000). Articles>Editing>Regional>Europe

Customizing Clipart

Like many of you, I come from a training background. Like many of you, we’re experts in group facilitation, engaging our learners, and creating instructionally sound materials. Yet, many trainers are not graphic artists nor do we have a score of graphic artists helping us create our training presentations. As a result, our training presentations often may not adequately represent the professionalism and quality that we’ve built into our training.

Traut, Terence R. Presenters University (2003). Design>Graphic Design>Image Editing>Technical Illustration

Deciding What Needs to be Done

Before you begin editing a document, you need to analyse it and plan what needs to be done. The exception is when your job is strictly limited (by your supervisor or the client) to correcting only the glaring errors of spelling, punctuation and grammar (a 'light edit'). There is no point to attempting a more substantive edit if doing so will only get you into trouble (or if the client won't pay you for the time you spend).

Hollis Weber, Jean. Technical Editors Eyrie (2001). Articles>Editing>Project Management

Defining Editing and the Top Five Rules

Do no harm: this means no harm to the author's intended meaning, reputation, or legal liability; no harm to the reader, such as by omitting necessary safety information; and no ethical harm, such as by knowingly distorting the truth.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Geoff-Hart.com (1999). Articles>Editing

Defining Glossaries    

Glossaries are lists of specialized word definitions contained in technical documentation that can assist the nontechnical user to comprehend fully the technical topic at hand. In a joint project with SAS Institute, I sought to discover how glossaries were first developed, what guidelines are available for technical writers in the writing of glossaries, and what rhetorical technique might be of value for glossary writers. I found that glossaries are much more than simple word lists; they are, in fact, an opportunity for the technical writer to outline and protect the parameters of technical discourse between a company and its customers across multiple communications channels, and different languages. In an increasingly global technical environment, an explicit connection between the rhetorical technique of definition and the writing of glossary definitions should be made to aid technical writers in this task.

Tackabery, Michelle Kidd. Technical Communication Online (2005). Articles>Editing>Glossary

Degrees of Edit  

The levels of edit concept can be a valuable editorial tool, especially to clarify for staff what editors do with documents. However focusing on degrees of edit (light, medium, and heavy) can simplify decisions about editorial work on a document. Dividing heavy edits into macro edits and micro edits can clarify what editors do in editing a document thoroughly. This presentation simplifies the editorial process by examining the three different degrees of edit and establishing the aims and procedures for macro and micro editing.

Samson, Donald C., Jr. STC Proceedings (1993). Presentations>Writing>Editing

Designing a Table of Contents  

Describes how technical writers can design usable, helpful tables of contents for both printed documentation and help files.

Wright, Marcia G. Intercom (2002). Articles>Editing>Information Design

Designing an Effective Review Process  

Review processes can easily become frustrating and complicated. Hart shows how to create and revive a review process that can be tailored to the needs of your situation.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Intercom (2006). Articles>Publishing>Editing>Workflow

Developing a Company Style Guide  

Every company that produces external publications--whether brochures, research papers, or reference manuals-benefit from a company style guide. This paper discusses the advantages of a style guide, why a company-specific style guide is preferred, how to develop a style guide, and what a style guide should (and should not) include.

Gelb, Janice and Jefferey J. Gardiner. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Style Guides>Editing

Developing and Implementing Project Style Guides  

Style guides can be very effective tools for achieving uniformity in documentation. Their use can enhance the appearance, readability, and tone of a document. In this progression session, I would like to discuss why style guides are needed, what should be included in them, and how to create a style guide appropriate for your project. I invite participants to bring style guides with them for critique and discussion.

Marks, Sandra R. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Style Guides>Editing

Developing Evaluation Criteria

We encourage you to adapt criteria to your specific communication assignments. You might specify, for example, the technical or scientific content for which your students are responsible. You might also specify how students will address communication concerns such as audience, purpose, context, organization, support, design, and expression.

University of Minnesota. Articles>Editing>Writing

Developing New Levels of Edit  

In 1985, the writing and editing group at Los Alamos National Laboratory established four levels of edit for technical reports. When a survey in 1994 showed that both authors and editors felt the levels were not meeting author needs, we set about revising them. Our goals were to simplify the editing process, focus editing on improving technical clarity, and ensure that value was added in editing. This paper describes our revision process and product--—three author-based levels of edit.

Prono, Judyth, Martha DeLanoy, Robert Deupree, Jeffrey Skiby and Brian Thompson. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Editing>Standards

Developmental Edits: A Quick Reference  

Performing a developmental edit early in the writing process ensures that the larger issues of organization and usability will be addressed while there is still time to make changes. The writing manager, lead writer, or technical editor should do the developmental edit. This edit consists of reviewing an early (in many cases partial) draft of the document and (1) making sure it adheres to the document plan, (2) studying the table of contents to verify that the organization is effective, and (3) doing a copy edit spot check. Although many of the issues turned up in a developmental edit are similar to those found during a copy edit, finding them early on saves the writer time and effort as the rest of the book is written.

Arakelian, Caroline. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Editing

Did Somebody Say 'Duh'?

The year 2000 is a big duh for computers. But 2020 is when today's kids will rule the universe, as they already seem to rule the language. We'll have a State of the Union address consisting of 'duh!' with a rebuttal of 'DUH-uh' followed by the analysis, 'Excuse me?' I'm not sure whether this is a bad thing, given the present state of adult rhetoric and the occasional charms of juve-talk, or kid-lish. Concise and animated, the sardonic/ moronic idiom of school kids can slice through our stale officialese. Some of it -- the more cuddly terms, not the hard-edged hip-hop -- tickles that laugh-spot recently located in the brain. Yet, when millions of grown-ups, even those who communicate for a living, start aping little people in baggies, one has to fear for the range of human expression.

Plotnik, Arthur. Editorial Eye, The (2003). Articles>Language>Editing

Digital Imaging Tutorial

This tutorial offers base-level information on the use of digital imaging to convert and make accessible cultural heritage materials. It also introduces some concepts advocated by Cornell University Library, in particular the value of benchmarking requirements before undertaking a digital initiative. You will find here up-to-date technical information, formulas, and reality checks, designed to test your level of understanding.

Cornell University (2003). (Spanish) Design>Graphic Design>Image Editing

Double Take

When I peer-review a four-page document and insert the word the seventeen times, I wonder: Is this what my company is paying me to do? Am I truly adding value for my customers?

Wenger, Andrea. Carolina Communique (2006). Articles>Editing>Grammar

E-Editing for Global Audiences  

The role of the technical communicator, including that of the technical editor, has evolved to encompass a broad range of responsibilities and skills. The familiar editing processes can be streamlined into four levels of editing, thus providing a basis for a business model for highperformance, global teams. By combining the familiar levels of editing with the latest innovations of one-page business plans, a streamlined e-editing model can be used by high-performance teams to produce high-quality information in a timely and an efficient manner for global audiences.

Adler, Linda J. and Helen Lenane. STC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Editing>Online

Edit and Revision

If you’ve done any writing at all, you’ve experienced the dilemma of selecting the right “level” for the project. In academic and technical writing there tends to be less concern about this, though there should be. In my opinion, given two cents, the more natural my writing seems, meaning more as it would be spoken, the more comfortable it will be to the reader. It’s unclear to me whether it takes more time and effort to write at this level, but it serves readers well and that’s the key. Edit and revision is the key to excellence.

Tech-Writer. Articles>Editing>Workflow