Re: How is editing organized in your company?
The idea of "real" editing in the medium term is now
under consideration. By "real" editing I mean a more
centralized activity with clear processes and
definition of responsibilities. ...
The question: How *is* such an activity handled in
real life?
When I worked at IBM, we had a process in which all documentation deliverables were reviewed at least twice by subject-matter experts. Either just before each SME review (the preferred way), or concurrent with the review, an editor reviewed the document as well. Whenever possible the editor would also be involved earlier in the documentation development process (for substantive editing, particularly of sample topics and particularly for writers new to the group) and/or at the very end (for production editing). The scope of the editor's responsibilities at each review stage was specified in the process. Sometimes the different editing stages (substantive, copy-editing, production editing) were done by different people. Sometimes the editor did more than the minimum specified, if it appeared that the writer needed more help or if the writer were suddenly unavailable at a critical time in the project. The editor signed off on the reviews, just as the SMEs signed off on them.
Normally we tried to have the same person doing the editing of all deliverables for any one product, to improve consistency across the deliverables. Any one editor typically edited for more than one product or project, unless the project was very big and kept one person busy editing all the time. Editors would occasionally work as writers if the amount of editing work didn't keep them fully occupied, but that was on an ad hoc basis. Some editors worked part-time or were called in only as needed.
Editing was mostly done on paper early in my time at IBM (1989-on) but was moving to online when they made the transition from BookMaster to Lotus WordPro and Lotus Notes and/or Microsoft Word for some clients.
I have since worked briefly for other large companies, who used a similar workflow. Editing was well defined, built into the process, and done by professional editors. It's very important to get editors who are experienced and good at what they do *and* are good at working with writers to foster a cooperative environment. Writers need to feel that editors are adding value to their work, not "correcting" it as if it were a school essay. Good editors focus on the usability of the document instead of obsessing about grammatical trivia.
Regards, Jean
Jean Hollis Weber
jean -at- jeanweber -dot- com
The Technical Editors' Eyrie http://www.jeanweber.com/
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