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Eye For Editing: Do *Not* Edit…

Editor’s Note: A version of this article was originally published in the STC Notebook in 2014 as part of a series. Over the course of 2022, we hope to publish more of these articles. To make it easier for you to find these articles again in the future, they will be tagged with the Eye for Editing tag, and the titles prefaced with the same phrase.

By Paula Robertson

Just because you can. Please, do not mark something for the author to change just to prove your superior knowledge of seldom-used symbols.

You wouldn’t do something like this, would you? In the throes of final review to meet a draft document deadline, please don’t waste the author’s time—the author who is already stressed and has worked many overtime hours to meet the deadline—by demanding revisions that no one but you will notice. You will get your chance later, but at this stage, please resist the urge to point out every tiny flaw that presents itself.

Because it’s just not important. And does more harm than good. The readers of the draft won’t care; your writer will. Is it worth it?

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A Little Humor: Know a Good Editing Joke?

Technical editing is no joke! And there are so many funny examples of what happens when editors are left out altogether (or, gulp, when we fail to catch a mistake).

We want to hear your humorous personal editing stories or a good editing joke!

You can:

You just might win a prize later this year! 😉

#TechEditNoJoke
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Eye for Editing: Caught Between Two Edits

Editor’s Note: A version of this article was originally published in the STC Notebook in 2014 as part of a series. Over the course of 2022, we hope to publish more of these articles. To make it easier for you to find these articles again in the future, they will be tagged with the Eye for Editing tag, and the titles prefaced with the same phrase.

By Paula Robertson

Once upon a time, I found myself in an interesting position. I had a freelance client for which I did editing exclusively. I also had a full-time contract gig where my job descriptors were writer, editor, designer, trainer, developer, project manager… My deliverables were primarily original content as a writer, and editorial reviews of the original content of my writer peers, on a team of three.

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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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The STC Technical Editing SIG Is Here for You – but We Need You Too!

Technical editing, regardless of how the discipline is defined, is first and foremost reader advocacy—be it for documentation clarity, accuracy, relevance, or accessibility.

The goal of the STC Technical Editing SIG (TESIG) is to provide its members with high-quality information about editing processes and best practices, as well as resources that demonstrate the value of editing and editors in an organization.

Here are some of the benefits the TESIG provides its members:

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