By Iva Cheung
Conversation Starter: In Response to the Claim That Technical Editors Need Not Be “Grammarians”
(Editor’s Note: Michelle Corbin’s article, “Technical Editors Do Not Need To Be Grammarians,” started a very interesting conversation about technical editing and grammar.
The following lengthy comment was posted to the original article; to make it easier to continue this fascinating discussion, I’ve turned it into a standalone post.
Please feel free to continue discussing this – send your comments to editor@stc-techedit.org.
Perhaps it comes down to what you mean by “grammar.”
Continue reading “Conversation Starter: In Response to the Claim That Technical Editors Need Not Be “Grammarians””New on the Shelf: Dreyer’s English
A style guide for writing correctly on the New York Times’ bestseller list? An editor interviewed on NPR?
Be still my beating heart!
Benjamin Dreyer, copy chief of Random House, has just published “Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style”, and it is making a huge impression on many people. Who would’ve thought that there was such a thirst for clear and and concise guidelines about how to write better English?
To order this amazing book (and to read glowing reviews of it), click here.
If you order this book and want to write a review of it for Corrigo, please contact me at editor@stc-techedit.org.
The Best of Corrigo: Setting Up an Editorial Review Process
By Sarah Barczyk
(originally published in 2009; updated with permission by Corrigo staff in 2018)
So you want to be a technical editor. You’re well-versed in grammar, style, punctuation, and the mechanics of the English language. You know what it takes to produce a clear, concise, readable paragraph and a coherent technical document.
Subject-matter experts within your company recognize that you’re an asset and routinely seek you out for writing help, and perhaps enlist your aid in editing large documents. But you know that so much more can be done. All you need is a process. It sounds so simple.
Continue reading “The Best of Corrigo: Setting Up an Editorial Review Process”
Of Interest: What’s the Worst That Could Happen? The Hidden Costs of Typos
Everyone makes typos, right? It’s part of being a technical communicator. We do our best to spot them before our content is released, and award mugs to those who spot them for us after the fact.
No one’s perfect though. Sometimes a mistake will slip through. What’s the worst that can happen? A radioactive bomb? Well, actually…
Continue reading “Of Interest: What’s the Worst That Could Happen? The Hidden Costs of Typos”