Technical Communications Terms

[Wendy Phillips <wendy -at- SYNERGEX -dot- COM>]

Thanks for your input!  I appreciate everything that was sent.
        My goal was to try and determine the common--not definitive--usage of
these terms: review, copyedit, substantive edit, and proofread, in the
technical writing business.
        The reference material was very helpful as a standard, but since we all
know how people just plain _love_ to ignore standards when it's convenient,
 my goal is to try and understand what another writer may mean when, for
example, they say they're doing a copyedit.  I've found that  different
people do different levels of editing and still call it a "copyedit".
        Thanks again!
                                Wendy
P.S.  If anyone has more to send on this topic, please do!
        -----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
        Here's a summary of the information I received:
>   my understanding, FWIW (in the order that we do them):
>
> technical edit/review
> ------------------------
> Developers/QA/tech support/product management make sure info in doc is
> technically accurate. (Example: check syntax of code examples)
>
> substantive edit
> ------------------------
> Editor/peers check structure of information/quality of information.
> (Example: evaluate book organization and usability)
>
> copyedit/line edit/proofread
> ------------------------
> Editor checks for grammar/spelling/usage mistakes. (Example: correct its
> vs it's ;-)
>
> copyfit
> ------------------------
> Writer/production person preps files for printer. (Example: eliminate
> strange page breaks)
>
> proof
> ------------------------
> Writer/production person checks blue lines from printer. (Example: make
> sure no broken lines, smudges, PS problems)
>
> Each task is critical. In larger shops, a different person might be
> responsible for a task or part of a task. In smaller shops, one or two
> people might be responsible for several tasks. Plenty of room for
> flexibility.
        ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > What do you mean when you use the word "copyedit"?
>
> Our copyeditors check for grammar, spelling, style, and formatting
> errors.
>
> > Substantive Edit
>
> In my organization, the project manager does a substantive edit. This is
> not checking for technical accuracy or spelling/grammar errors (although
> they may be caught at this time), but more of a "is this going in the
> right direction" edit... does it cover everything it needs to cover, is
> it instructionally sound (which probably won't apply to your situation),
> and other things specific to our products.
>
> > Proofread
>
> Our proofreaders check the copyedited copy against the final formatted
> copy and make sure all marked corrections have been made.
>
        ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> The way we were taught the terms in school (93-95) was
>
> copyedit -- To make corrections (both grammatical and stylistic) to a
>             piece of writing
> substantive edit -- To _really_ edit a piece of writing, all the way
>             to the organizational level.  This takes a lot of time.
> proofread -- used to mean to compare the printer's proof with the
>             copy editor's markup to make sure the changes got in there,
>             but now mostly means to do a quick check of a piece of
writing
>             for spelling errors and missing words and such.  Where a copy
>             editor would suggest changes, a proofreader can only note
>             obvious mistakes like repeated words, missing words, and
typos.
> review -- to have someone, even the author, look over a piece with a
>           critical eye.  Can be for technical information, style,
grammar,
>           whatever.
>
        ------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the year and a half that I worked as a proofreader, we not only compared
the printed documents to the original manuscripts, we also performed all of
the functions often defined as copyediting (correcting spelling,
punctuation, and grammatical errors; looking for typos; checking for
consistency of format and usage; etc.).

Technically, copyediting involves much more than proofreading, which really
means to compare a printer's proof against the original manuscript.  But
because none of our stuff is typeset, and because until recently we simply
gave the printer a printed manuscript to photocopy, we often used the terms
interchangeably (perhaps incorrectly so, but that's the way it goes).  Now
that we *do* need to check the printer's proof, we may want to return to
the
real definition of proofread to differentiate between the two tasks.
        -------------------------------------------------------------------------
References
1. http://www.copyeditor.com
2.  Mary Fran Buehler wrote "The Levels of Edit", published
> by Jet Propulsion Labs, 1980 -- publication no 80-1. See also Buehler's
> article in Technical Communication Vol 28 No 4 (4Q81).

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