TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Kieran Sullivan wrote:
> My question then: where in the process would a
> grammar/punctuation/omit-useless-words check be most useful?
I see at least three times where editing could help, in three different
ways.
In general, it is difficult for reviewers who are aware of proper
spelling and grammar to review a document that is full of errors that
could have been corrected by light copy editing. They will tend to focus
on doing copy editing instead of verifying facts, assuring logical flow,
looking for unwarranted assumptions, discovering arguments that have
been overlooked, and so forth.
After the "final" version of the paper exists, supposedly ready for
publication, it is appropriate to apply additional copy editing. At this
stage you will be told that no editing is required because the MS Word
spelling checker has found no problems. You will do the editing anyway,
and discover that "unless" has been written as "useless" and at least a
half dozen other errors of that kind. It does not hurt to have a
mathematician (one from outside the project) proofread the mathematics, too.
In between, when the "final" version is beginning to take shape, you
could argue for a phase of stylistic editing. Some editors are better
than others at deep editing, and some of them merely ruin copy and cause
arguments. Some writers cannot take editing easily. Rostand's Bergerac
was one: "My blood boils to think of altering a single comma!" I had the
good fortune several years ago to work with an editor who could move my
paragraphs about and suggest omission of needless words with the kind of
skill normally associated with concert violinists or professional jugglers.
Create and publish documentation through multiple channels with Doc-To-Help.
Choose your authoring formats and get any output you may need. Try
Doc-To-Help, now with MS SharePoint integration, free for 30-days. http://www.doctohelp.com
LavaCon 2010 in San Diego Sept 29 - Oct 2 is now open for registration.
Use referral code TECHWR-L for $50 off conference tuition!
See program at: http://lavacon.org/
---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-
