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For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Anthony Colello is <<... on the verge of securing a technical editing
contract. Although I've done editing throughout my writing career, this
will be the first time that I will do it exclusively in a structured
documentation group. Is there an accepted list of proofing marks that
should be used in such environments or can you free hand your style?>>
When I started out in the editing business lo these many years ago, I used
to use proofreader's marks religiously; you can find these in most good
editing references, including the Chicago Manual of Style. If you're editing
for an established publisher, it's well worth the time to learn these and
use them. If you don't know anything about the people whose work you're
editing, there's no guarantee that they'll understand these symbols. Send
them a sample sheet that explains what these symbols means just to be sure
that there are no misunderstandings. However, with most small firms--and
even with big firms without a long history of publishing--you'll almost
certainly find what I've found: that nobody knows what the symbols mean,
that you end up having to explain them, and that they have their own system
of symbols anyway that you'll never get them to unlearn. In most cases, I've
simply ended up using symbols similar to those that the in-house production
staff had learned, and these are rarely the same as the traditional symbols.
For example, when I edit on paper, I usually mark deletions simply by
scratching out the letter (rather than using the swash-d symbol) because
everyone understands this, and it's not usually worth trying to unlearn them
of their old habits. The key is to be consistent in your use of editing
symbols, and if you start with the traditional symbol set, it's far easier
to be consistent than if you just "wing it". But if you fight their learned
habits, you'll only annoy them.
All this being said, I've found that my editing is increasingly moving
online (in Word) rather than on paper, with the exception of proofreading
layouts of text that I've already edited in Word. If you're working to
become a freelance editor, it's well worth your while to learn online
editing. It's generally faster and more efficient for you (if you're a
reasonably skilled typist you can edit faster than you can write clearly
longhand), it's always easier to enforce stylistic consistency (search and
replace is a godsend), and it's faster and more efficient for the client to
implement your edits--particularly if, like me, your handwriting borders on
the hieroglyphic and they're never quite sure what you've written. <g>
--Geoff Hart, FERIC, Pointe-Claire, Quebec
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
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