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.
Subject:RE: Need Feedback from Technical Editors From:<mbaker -at- analecta -dot- com> To:"'TECHWR-L'" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Thu, 4 Feb 2016 14:23:31 -0500
That makes a lot of sense to me. Leaning different motions is one thing. Learning a different language is something else altogether. Proofreaderâs marks are an adaptation to the fact that paper is so hard to edit, so they are orthogonal to editing online where it is easy to change the source text (and yet track what has been changed). But that language does become ingrained in us and we naturally reach for it as we are editing â and are frustrated when there is no way to enter it.
I would be interesting to think about how often language learning/forgetting is involved in tech changes, and what the impact of that is on how easily we make the change.
Mark
From: Ryan Haber [mailto:ryan -dot- haber -at- gmail -dot- com]
Sent: Thursday, February 4, 2016 2:08 PM
To: mbaker -at- analecta -dot- com; TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: Need Feedback from Technical Editors
It might be a subtle change; I think it is granular, even more than subtle.
If we think about what's involved in your example, proofreading, we see that proofreading isn't actually one skill, but an grouping of skills and even of particular motor activities. Your eyes must scan paper while you hold criteria for correctness in mind. You must remember certain markings. You must understand the author's intent. And so on.
My gut feeling is that some of these micro-activities are very deeply embedded in our learning process, whereas others are less so. Consider typing on a computer versus on a typewriter. Probably 95% of what you do is looking at your written words and striking keys to make new words appear. After a brief learning curve about how to delete words once they've been keyed, you can really do the same tasks. The things that change between typing and keyboarding are pretty incidental to either of them. By contrast, proofreading on a screen, we don't make editorial marks. I keep a list of such marks handy, and remember a few, but we will be seeing generations of students who will never have used any of those marks. They're a foreign language. Also, the difference between screen and paper has been shown to be anything but incidental when it comes to close reading, which is essential to proofreading in a way it is not to typing - which is part of the reason that we need to proofread.
My $0.02. Maybe someone else has the other $0.98.
On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 1:45 PM <mbaker -at- analecta -dot- com> wrote:
Some changes seem to be generational. I'm as pro digital as anyone, but I do
still proof critical stuff on paper, after first proofing it on screen and
then listening to it read by a screen reader. But in the writer's groups I
belong to, I find, quite consistently, the people of my generation turn up
with stacks of paper and younger people turn up with laptops and no paper at
all.
It is certainly interesting that there are some things we seem to adopt
quickly, regardless of age (like cell phones), but for other things it seems
that once a habit is ingrained it is very hard to break, even if people who
do not have it engrained in them adopt the new tech without question. There
has to be something subtle in the nature of the change that we are being
asked to make that makes some transitions easy and others very difficult. It
would be interesting to figure out what it is, because it could be a factor
in all kinds of other changes we would like to encourage -- or to make
ourselves.
Mark
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+mbaker=analecta -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+mbaker <mailto:techwr-l-bounces%2Bmbaker> =analecta -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf
Of Dan Goldstein
Sent: Thursday, February 4, 2016 1:29 PM
To: TECHWR-L (techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com)
Subject: RE: Need Feedback from Technical Editors
-----Original Message-----
From: Shelley Thomas
Sent: Wednesday, February 03, 2016 3:47 PM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Need Feedback from Technical Editors
I have been teaching technical editing since 2005, and your response to the
discussion about what editors in the workforce should know (see More than
Grammar, (http://tinyurl.com/h43bapf) has helped me refine my teaching. That
said, I would like to follow up on 2007 article about using e-editing VS
hardcopy editing in the profession. My position, as an instructor, is that
hardcopy editing has not gone away. So, I teach half of the semester using
traditional copy editing marks for editing documents, and the second half
teaching track changes (MS Word, Pages, as well as other tablet apps). So, I
have the following questions:
Do technical editors still use hard copy for edits? (Is this a personal
preference or a department/company policy? For example, personally, I like
to see a hardcopy to edit, and then I make my edits electronically.)
When editing electronically, do you use track changes (such as MS Word)? Do
you edit in Adobe products (such as Acrobat Pro)? Do you use iPad
applications (such as IAnnotate, Cabinet, or QuickEdit)?
How do tablets figure in to your editing?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Visit TechWhirl for the latest on content technology, content strategy and
content development | http://techwhirl.com
Looking for articles on Technical Communications? Head over to our online
magazine at http://techwhirl.com
Looking for the archived Techwr-l email discussions? Search our public
email archives @ http://techwr-l.com/archives
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Visit TechWhirl for the latest on content technology, content strategy and content development | http://techwhirl.com
Looking for articles on Technical Communications? Head over to our online magazine at http://techwhirl.com
Looking for the archived Techwr-l email discussions? Search our public email archives @ http://techwr-l.com/archives
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Visit TechWhirl for the latest on content technology, content strategy and content development | http://techwhirl.com
