RE: Documentation Review Strategies?

[michelle -dot- black -at- sickkids -dot- ca]

Greetings, Megan.

I have adopted the practice of adding a Log Sheet to drafts, where I explain
changes, signal changes on specific sections, or enquire on issues I'm concerned
about. This is set up as a dialogue with the client, who I ask to look at and
respond to my questions/comments. I find that it helps overcome a lot of the
resistance to having an editor rewrite your stuff, since I often position my
explanations of changes in the context of research findings and my experience
with what might better help the users of the information.

I also like your idea of breaking up the document into content-specific chunks,
so the reviewer doesn't have such a daunting task on his or her hands. In this
spirit, I also try to ensure that my log sheets don't run more than 1-2 pages.
And, I take out the questions or comments that have been attended to before
doing the next draft--that allows me to add comments recommendations to it that
are more relevant at the later stages: suggestions for design and format,
potential field testing scenarios, and so on.

HTH,
Michelle Black



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