Category: Newbies’ Corner

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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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Newbies’ Corner: User or Rulebook, Guide or Grammarian?

Editor’s Note: This is the first article in the Newbies’ Corner series, which is intended to give a platform to new, fresh voices, especially from those who are studying the field or just starting out. If you are a student learning about technical editing or just starting out on your technical editing journey, and would like to submit an article, please send an email to editor@stc-techedit.org.

by Nathan Richardson

As technical communicators and editors, we know about the importance of user-centered processes. There’s a growing demand for user experience (UX) writers and UX designers, and for building UX into our organization’s (or personal) content strategy from the start.

We also have a foundational commitment to “the rules.” Our work builds on reviewing content and suggesting changes in media, style, grammar, voice, and tone, among other things. We question the accuracy and completeness of a given communication and its content. For example, when editing a set of instructions, we could follow the steps, seeking errors or missing information. As technical editors, we may also try to break those instructions and identify their limits—which provides our authors with insights they might have missed. We also look for consistency, ensuring that, for example, fractional measurements are plural and consistent (think 0.7 inch vs. 0.7 inches, and within the same document .8 inches becomes 0.8 inches). We ask: are all references to other publications, articles, or patent-related prior art accurate?

Continue reading “Newbies’ Corner: User or Rulebook, Guide or Grammarian?”
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New Feature: Newbies’ Corner!

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

But a lot of it is written by old fogies who have been in the business for many years.

Wouldn’t it be great to hear some new, fresh voices, especially from those who are studying the field or just starting out?

To provide a platform for new ideas and thoughts about our chosen profession, we are introducing a new feature – Newbies’ Corner!

This new feature will present articles written by technical editing students and aspiring, newly minted technical editing practitioners.

To make it easier for you to find these articles again in the future, they will be tagged with a Newbies’ Corner tag, and the titles prefaced with the same phrase.

If you are a student learning about technical editing or just starting out on your technical editing journey, and would like to submit an article, please send an email to editor@stc-techedit.org and let’s discuss it.