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Of Interest: Soft Skills for Technical Editors

Traditionally, editors have had to fight the stereotype of being crotchety. After all, old newspaper movies always showed the copy editor as someone who could not get along with anyone else and had been banished to a dark corner of the office forever correcting others’ articles and never getting a chance to write any of his or her own. The reality is, though, that editors provide feedback on other people’s work product, and they will be so much more successful if they do so with kindness and empathy.

On 7 May 2024 at 1200 PM ET (click here for your local time), join Fatima Hyder to find out what soft skills editors need to be successful and make editing collaborative and not confrontational!

For tickets, go to https://www.eventbrite.com/e/soft-skills-for-technical-editors-tickets-695325175317.

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New Feature: Edit This!

As the official publication of the STC Technical Editing SIG, Corrigo is full of useful information for technical editing practitioners.

But one of the best ways to improve our editing skills is to actually edit a challenging piece of text, and then see how we did. Having our own work checked can be both beneficial and eye-opening.

Throughout 2024-2025, Corrigo will be running a monthly feature called Edit This!, in which we will post a link to the New York Times’s Copy Edit This! quiz, written by Philip B. Corbett. Corbett is the associate managing editor for standards at The New York Times, and oversees The Times’s style manual and handles questions about the language used in The Times.

To make it easier for you to find these quizzes again in the future, they will be tagged with an Edit This tag, and the titles prefaced with the same phrase.

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From Around the Web: GenAI and Editing

The question of how ChatGPT and other generative AI tools will the affect the field of technical editing is a hot topic. Will we be replaced? Can we use it to help us do our jobs better?

Iva Cheung, a certified professional editor based in Metro Vancouver, B.C, has drawn a cartoon about how we as technical editing practitioners might need to react to the coming of large language models and GenAI, but she also writes some serious stuff about it that’s worth thinking about.

Take a look (and laugh!) here:

https://ivacheung.com/2023/07/conspiracy/

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Introduction to Technical Editing Course

Meg Vezzu

Are you looking to learn more about technical editing and the skills needed to succeed in this area? Perhaps you have recently started a job in technical editing or are considering a career in the field. Or maybe your job involves editing technical documents for colleagues or clients and you would like to expand your knowledge or brush up on your skills. If any of this sounds like you, you may be interested in signing up for the course “Introduction to Technical Editing.” The next session of this six-week course will begin on April 8, 2024.

In this course, we will dive into a variety of topics related to technical editing and cover important skills that technical editors need to effectively advocate for the audience and help technical writers to produce content that is clear, organized, and useful.

The course will begin with an overview of technical editing, including the different types and levels of technical editing and important skills needed for this type of work. We will also go over tips for managing editing projects and establishing positive working relationships with writers. Next, we will learn about the different tools technical editors use to do their job, such as tools for electronic text markup (e.g., Microsoft Word track changes and Adobe Acrobat markup) and the style manuals used by different industries (e.g., APA, Chicago). In addition to an overview of grammar and mechanics that will focus on common errors, we will discuss strategies for editing for clarity, conciseness, and style, including reducing redundancy and wordiness, using active vs. passive voice, and editing according to plain language guidelines. We will also cover topics related to editing for visual design, such as use of fonts, color, graphics, figures, and tables, in addition to issues related to accessibility. Finally, we will talk about some special considerations in technical editing, including technical editing in a global context, bias-free language, and ethical issues.

The course is presented in an asynchronous format, with lesson videos posted at the beginning of each week. There will also be at least one optional live session scheduled where students can ask questions in real time. Additionally, there will be discussion forums in Moodle where students can ask questions or share information.

Students will have the opportunity to apply the skills learned in the class through weekly assignments. Some of these will involve editing content provided by the instructor, and other assignments will allow students to find content for editing (e.g., websites). The course culminates with a final assignment where students perform a comprehensive edit of a proposal.

This course is ideal for those who are just getting started in technical editing as well as those who may have some job-related experience but are looking for more formal instruction to hone their skills.

To find out more and to sign up for the course, visit https://www.stc.org/course/tech-editing-april-2024/.

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Of Interest: STC TechComm Unconference!

Calling all technical communicators: Join us for our first-ever Tech Comm Unconference!

The STC Chicago Chapter, in collaboration with the STC Rochester and STC Carolina Chapters and the STC Technical Editing SIG, will be hosting a collaborative space for technical communicators to come together and discuss relevant topics, including projects, questions, difficulties and more. You bring the topic and we provide the space for the discussion.

How It Works: Attendees can bring their own topics and lead discussions in our hosted breakout rooms, or they can join someone else’s topic that they find interesting. Just as at an in-person event, attendees can move freely between different breakout sessions.

Don’t miss this great opportunity to discuss new topics and ideas with colleagues in an open and inviting virtual environment!

To register, go to https://www.stc-chicago.com/tech-comm-unconference/.

When:

February 29, 2024 at 12:00-2:00 p.m. CST (for your local time, click here)

Cost:

STC members – FREE
Students – FREE
Non-members – $5