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Re: Technical editing vs. technical writing

Subject: Re: Technical editing vs. technical writing
From: Janice Gelb <janice -dot- gelb -at- sun -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 13 Aug 2002 13:23:48 -0700


"Doug Grossman" <Doug -dot- Grossman -at- sas -dot- com> wrote:


In my company, we have a separate "Technical Editing" department,
> separate from both "Publications" (who document our core software
> products in a static way for external folks) and from the technical
> writers in "Client Services" (who document customized solutions in a
dynamic sort of way for external customers). I happen to be in this last group. My guess would be that the technical editors fondle
> fonts the most, "pubs" probably hardly at all, and my group is
> somewhere in the middle.


I believe there is some semantic difference necessary here.
Editors who spend most of their time "fondling fonts" are
not technical editors. They are production editors.

Technical editors edit technical content to help make the
content and structure as clear and well organized as possible.
While they may also enforce an organization's documentation look-and-feel, that should not be their primary responsibility.

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