Technical documents provide information that readers need to make decisions or complete tasks. Technical editing ensures that this information is presented in a way that facilitates the reader's understanding. Technical editors offer suggestions for improvement in design of both content and layout and therefore work with the document in both early and late stages.
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Principles and practices of editing technical and scientific documents. Overview of the editing process; defining the editor's rules and responsibilities, revising at structural and sentence levels, and addressing stylistic conventions of technical fields. Application to technical and scientific documents such as reports, proposals, and user manuals. Students will learn to recognize and articulate specific problem areas in technical documents. Students will practice identifying and discussing differences between strong and weak technical documents. Students will revise technical documents at macro- and micro- levels of editing. Students will gain strategies for communicating effective and constructive criticism.
Grossenbacher, Laura. University of Wisconsin. Academic>Courses>Undergraduate>Technical Editing
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Technical Editing: Discussion and Application Materials
Assignments to complement Carolyn Rude's Technical Editing textbook. Instructors can load the materials onto a server or student disks so that the students can respond at the computer.
Rude, Carolyn D. Allyn and Bacon (1998). Academic>Course Materials>Technical Editing
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The Technical Editor and Document Databases: What the Future May Hold 
Technical editors ensure a document communicates with the reader. With XML, active server pages, and dynamic document creation, Web pages are no longer simple hand-crafted text objects, but dynamic groupings of text assembled moments before the reader views the page. With dynamic documents, high-level editing tasks will be, at best, vaguely defined during text creation. To maximize the information content, future technical editors require tighter control over information consistency and content.
Albers, Michael J. Technical Communication Quarterly (2000). Articles>Editing>Single Sourcing>Technical Editing
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Technical Editors: Are We Are Own Worst Enemies? Strategies For Working With Authors
The authors explore two studies of cognitive assessments, the Myers Briggs Type Indicator and Boundary Spanning of technical communicators, give readers an opportunity to score themselves, and then they argue that knowing the cognitive differences between technical communicators and the authors they edit can help them improve working relationships with authors. When copyediting, they suggest making suggestions rather than dictates; providing rationale for suggestions; basing suggested changes on style guides, standard references and communication research; and using a levels- of-edit approach.
Zimmerman, Donald E. and Charlotte Taylor. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Editing>Technical Editing
#22791
Technical Translation: Craft, Not Commodity
Describes the work of translators and suggests strategies buyers can use to find the best translator for their needs.
Cardillo, Louis M. Intercom (2004). Articles>Editing>Localization>Technical Writing
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Technical Writing's Big Secret
The big secret in technical writing is that most of the harder documents aren't written by the technical writers at all. In fact, many "technical writers" never do any writing at all. Instead, the drafts are written by engineers or marketers. The technical writers perform editorial functions and provide publications services -- copy-editing, layout, review management, and so on.
Plamondon, Robert. High-Tech Technical Writing (2008). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>Technical Editing
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Technikredaktor möchte die Idee weiterverfolgen, Informationen zum Umfeld der technischen Dokumentation zu sammeln und einem breiteren Publikum zur Verfügung zu stellen.
Technikredaktor. (German) Resources>Editing>Technical Editing>Switzerland
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Der Technische Redakteur erstellt und aktualisiert aussagefähige, umsetzbare, verständliche technische Dokumentationen aller Art.
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Ten More Errors in Technical Writing
So, well, here are 10 more errors. This time we will focus on grammar and punctuation. Most of these are simplistic and obvious. But then they are too common. As usual, I have slipped in some content for the advanced writers too. (This article is a follow-up to 'One Hundred Simple Tech Writing Errors .)
Kamath, Gurudutt R. IT People (2003). Articles>Editing>Grammar>Technical Writing
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The Art Of Editing: User's Guides Versus Technical Documents
While contemplating topic areas for a presentation at this year's conference, our biggest challenge was the fact that not all technical editors edit the same type of documents. Presentations at STC conferences are heavily concentrated toward user documentation and software instructional manuals. With that as our prime focus, we identified six common elements that we both consider as we edit a document. We then compared our methods of approaching these elements. One of us edits primarily user's guides and procedural manuals; the other edits scientific and technical documents.
Cluff, Susan C. and Sandra R. Marks. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Documentation>Editing>Technical Editing
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Kontinuierlich Nachrichten, Hintergrundberichte und Interviews rund um die technische Dokumentation und Redaktion, sowie die technische Übersetzung. In der Nachfolge der doculine news.
Transline. (German) Resources>Documentation>Technical Editing>Blogs
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Editors need to know some basic techniques for dealing with files if they are going to be editing them electronically. These techniques apply to files in any format, but exactly what you do depends on which word-processor, desktop publishing program, help authoring system, or other software you are using.
Hollis Weber, Jean. Technical Editors Eyrie (2001). Articles>Editing>Technical Editing>Online
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Technical editors are constantly required to edit and revise pieces that they don’t fully understand - or even have much information about. That’s part of the game.
Schwarcz, Mati. Art of Technical Communication, The (2008). Articles>Editing>Technical Editing
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Perspective—it’s one of the first things you learn about in any art class. The basic idea is that it’s the way your eye actually sees something, represented on a flat surface such as paper or a monitor. A simple example is drawing a group of objects: You represent an object in the distance by making it smaller, while making objects close to the viewer larger—make sense? In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to create perspective shadows in Adobe Photoshop CS3. The result is dynamic, but the technique is a breeze!
Gray, Lawrence. Event DV (2008). Articles>Graphic Design>Image Editing>Technical Illustration
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More Than Grammar: Expectations of Technical Editing New Hires
Thomas asked the Technical Editing SIG listserve what they would expect from a technical editing new hire. Their answers show that expectations extend well beyond proper grammar knowledge and good spelling skills.
Thomas, Shelley. Intercom (2009). Careers>Editing>Technical Editing
#34793
Why the Focus on Review Practices?
improving document review practices is of great concern to many in the biopharmaceutical industry. The reason for this interest can be explained by the following observations which provide some insight as to why review is, or needs to be, a central focus for improving knowledge propagation and dissemination.
Mahajan, Jessica. Brainery.net (2009). Articles>Scientific Communication>Technical Editing>Biomedical
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Creating an Anthology on Editing
Pulling together New Perspectives on Technical Editing, an anthology on editing, was a complex, yet exhilarating experience. The process fell into four stages.
Murphy, Avon J. Corrigo (2009). Articles>Editing>Technical Editing>Case Studies
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Paper, Screen, or Scissors? Editing on Hard Copy or Soft Copy
The question posted in our discussion list: Should editors edit on hard copy or soft copy? The answer: Yes. Or, it depends. Essentially it is not a matter of should; it is a matter of personal preference and what works best in different situations.
Slager, Tim. Corrigo (2007). Articles>Editing>Technical Editing
#35639
Understanding the Value of a Technical Editor 
Not all companies understand why it's important for them to have technical editor(s). In fact, many technical editors must justify their existence on a regular basis.
STC Technical Editing SIG (2009). Articles>Editing>Technical Editing
#35640
Demonstrating the Value of Editing
Like all other technical communicators, we editors must sometimes struggle to prove our worth to employers. We know our value, and the more clueful of our authors understand, but sometimes it takes a bit more work to convince senior managers that we serve a useful purpose. Managers generally require specific examples, usually supported by hard numbers. In this article, I’ve provided a few random facts and figures that I’ve accumulated over the years that you can share with management.
Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Corrigo (2007). Articles>Editing>Technical Editing
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Writing Great Documentation: You Need an Editor
All good writers have a dirty little secret: they’re not really that good at writing. Their editors just make it seem that way. It doesn’t matter how well you’ve mastered the language; nobody, even grammar geeks, gets this stuff right on the first pass. If you really want to produce great documentation, it needs to be edited.
Kaplan-Moss, Jacob. Jacobian (2009). Articles>Documentation>Technical Writing>Technical Editing
