Category: Conversation Starter

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Call for Submissions to Corrigo!

Do you have something to say that you think technical editing practitioners will find interesting? Then consider submitting it for publication on Corrigo!

You don’t need to be a member of the STC Technical Editing SIG – regardless of your official job title, we welcome and encourage everyone to read and submit to Corrigo.

Corrigo has lots of different feature categories:

You can submit short (1000 words or less), original content about subjects you think technical editing practitioners might find interesting, for example:

  • Stories about how applying technical editing skills increases reader satisfaction
  • Information about tools you find helpful
  • Hacks that you use to make your job easier
  • Tips about how to balance quality and deadlines
  • Vignettes about a day in your life as a technical editing practitioner
  • Links to sites you find helpful in your job, with explanations about how they help you
  • Reviews of articles, books, or events you’ve read or been to that relate to technical editing

We’re also looking for longer, more detailed original articles about topics that pertain to technical editing, both its theory and its practice.

Send your submissions to the Corrigo editor, Yoel Strimling, at editor@stc-techedit.org.
We’ll try to get back to you within three weeks with our decision. If we think changes need to be made to the submission before it is accepted, we’ll make suggestions.

If you want to discuss possible ideas for submission to Corrigo, send an email to Yoel, and he’ll be happy to listen.

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Conversation Starter: The Joys of Teaching Engineers to Write

By Christa Bedwin

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in April 2016, so it is part of the Best of Corrigo series. However, based on the interest in a similar article, I decided to republish it as a Conversation Starter as well.
It has been updated for 2020.

After twenty years of editing science, research, education, and engineering documentation, some of my favorite people to edit for are engineers. This baffles some of my fellow editors, who find engineers confusing or complicated to work with, and so I began to teach courses on how to navigate editing with engineers, and with engineering content. (I also teach courses for engineers to learn to write better.)

I am always delighted to discuss this topic further – please feel free to write to me! I’m easy to find on the Internet.

Continue reading “Conversation Starter: The Joys of Teaching Engineers to Write”
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Coming Attractions: Let’s Talk about Teaching Engineers to Write

Communication with our clients is key, but many editors seem to find that engineers speak another language entirely! How can we adapt to work effectively with this delightful, and often lucrative, type of client?

As part of Corrigo’s series of Conversation Starter articles, I’ve asked Christa Bedwin to start a conversation on this topic based on her personal experiences of twenty years of editing science, research, education, and engineering documentation.
Her article will be published here on Corrigo on 13 August 2020.

To join in on what we hope will be a fascinating conversation, you can submit your own article on the subject to Corrigo (editor@stc-techedit.org), or you can write your thoughts the Comments section. If there are enough comments, we’ll collect them all and post them as an article as well.

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Conversation Starter: How Can We Better Determine an Editor’s Skill Before Hiring?

Editor’s Note: As part of our Conversation Starter feature, we present what we hope is the first part of an ongoing discussion about the best way to test an editor’s skills before hiring.
The author here presents a number of thoughts and ideas, and wants to hear what others think about them, to know if you’ve had similar or counter experiences, and to learn about what other innovative measures you might be taking to solve the issue.


Want to join the conversation? Email your thoughts to editor@stc-techedit.org, or write them in the Comments section at the end of this article. We’ll publish them in future issues.

By Odile Sullivan-Tarazi

We’ve got a problem in tech.

We require a lot of our editors, more so than is usual in other disciplines.

The editors who work in tech need to be clear and logical thinkers, but also nimble and creative. They often work in several content types, for various audiences. They may be thinking a brand-new project through from the beginning or evaluating one at an early milestone. They often participate in developing the very guidelines that they and the writers will be following. They may also develop templates, models, annotated samples, or other resources. When it comes to the editing itself, they may be called upon to restructure or rewrite, to tweak syntax or diction or tone, or simply to sort out the caps and sweep the commas into place. In short, tech editors are many types of editor in one. Nor are they told which role to play when, but most typically must themselves analyze the writing, judge what is needed, and determine how best to accomplish those tasks (insofar as is possible) in the given timeframe. Then, whatever the level of edit, as there will typically be no one else to do so, they’ll also be proofing their own work.

That’s some spectrum. How does one test for all of this beforehand?

Continue reading “Conversation Starter: How Can We Better Determine an Editor’s Skill Before Hiring?”
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Coming Attractions: Let’s Talk about How to Test an Editor’s Skills before Hiring

What’s the best way to vet appropriate candidates for technical editing positions? Technical editing practitioners want to ensure that their skill sets are properly understood, and documentation managers want to feel confident that they’ve hired the best person.

As part of Corrigo‘s series of Conversation Starter articles, I’ve asked Odile Sullivan-Tarazi to start a conversation on this topic based on her personal experiences, both as a tester and as a testee. Her article will be published here on Corrigo on 14 January 2020.

To join in on what we hope will be a fascinating conversation, you can submit your own article on the subject to Corrigo (editor@stc-techedit.org), or you can write your thoughts the Comments section. If there are enough comments, we’ll collect them all and post them as an article as well.