Category: Processes

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Eye for Editing: The Editor as Teacher

Editor’s Note: A version of this article was originally published in the STC Notebook in 2014 as part of a series. To make it easier for you to find these articles again in the future, they are tagged with the Eye for Editing tag, and the titles prefaced with the same phrase.

Author's Note: This is the last article (that currently exists) in this Eye for Editing series. It has been fun to revisit my thoughts from the “first edition” in STC Notebook to find that most, if not all of it, still holds true to the editing experience. 
Do you have an idea for a follow-up article that you’d like to publish in Corrigo? Would you like to put together your answers to my questions for others to read? Submit your ideas and articles to the Corrigo editor at editor@stc-techedit.org.  And you are welcome to contact me any time to keep the conversation going

By Paula Robertson

How do you think of yourself in your editing role? Is each document, article, topic, or book by the same author or team of writers an isolated editing task? Does each task seem to start from scratch as if you’d not edited that author’s work before? Or does each subsequent edit you deliver build on your previous suggestions and comments? Do subsequent documents indicate that the writer “got it the first (or last) time”?

Continue reading “Eye for Editing: The Editor as Teacher”
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Of Interest: Editing with Macros?!

A wise person once said, “Automate what you can automate!”
But can we automate some of our editing processes? Should we?

On Wednesday 22 June 2022 at 10 AM EDT (for
your local time zone, go to https://bit.ly/3LjzOv2), join Jennifer Yankopolus and Paul Beverley who will address the benefits of using macros to automate some editing tasks in Microsoft Word, and demonstrate a variety of macros written by Paul that technical editing practitioners can use to make their editing processes more efficient and focused.

This is an STC Technical Editing SIG event, and is open to both members and non-members.

To register for this event, go to https://bit.ly/3PoINOK.

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Of Interest: Editing Blind

Can you edit a document that you can’t even see?

Most technical editing practitioners might be surprised to hear that there are visually-impaired people who work as editors. But how is this possible?

On Thursday 10 February 2022 at 10 AM MT (click here for
your local time zone), join Erin Nightingale, a blind editor (her preferred terminology) who will talk about the obstacles she’s overcome and the tools she uses. Erin recently published an article called “An Editing Process for Blind or Visually Impaired Editors” in IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication.

This is a joint STC Technical Editing SIG, STC Accessibility COI,  STC Santa Barbara, and STC Los Angeles event, and is open to members and non-members.

To register for this event, click here.

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Of Interest: Why Do We Need an Editor on the Team?

Are technical editors “must-haves” or “nice-to-haves”? Do you really need an editor as part of your documentation team? What are the benefits?

On Wednesday, 15 December 2021 at 4 PM PT (click here for
your local time zone), join a group of very talented and tenured editors (Edna Smith, Li-At Rathbun, Sherri Leah Henkin, Kelly Schrank, and Dr. George Hayhoe) in Green Room 42 to discuss what it takes to succeed as an editor and the impact the role has in enhancing and elevating the overall quality of the entire team.

For more information and to register, go to https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_iuhGVVz7SYu2m-DYCtfuyw.

Green Room 42 is the meeting place for active conversations about topics of interest for technical and professional communication practitioners. In this episode, we talk with practitioners about the impact that editors have in enhancing and elevating the overall quality of content strategy and how it works with corporate strategy.

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Of Interest: Definition of Quality (Editing) Panel at ConVEx 2021

Every documentation team strives to produce high-quality content. Unfortunately, the definition of what that means differs significantly, from company to company, from writer to writer, from user to user.

On 28 April 2021 at 0630 EDT at ConVEx 2021, a panel of top-class editors (Dana Aubin, Andrea Studzinski, and me too! :)) will talk about how to identify and prioritize the critical factors that influence the perception of quality, and discuss the best ways to achieve agreement on its definition.

To be a part of this fascinating discussion, as well as get more career-empowering knowledge, practices, networking, and practical solutions to improve your content strategy and technical documentation, register here: https://convex.infomanagementcenter.com