Checking facts during editing

[Rowena Hart <rowena_hart -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

Hi everyone,

I learned to write in a journalism environment, where
part of the final editing process involved checking
facts as well as checking spelling, punctuation, etc.

Since I started technical writing, fact checking has
always been taken care of by quality assurance
testers.

We're embarking on a new project at work, which
involves some radical changes to concepts and
functions. In essence, we will not be able to rely on
our past understanding of how things work to
spot-check the facts in our topics. Requirements
exist, but will probably be left untouched in a dusty
network folder once the project really gets underway.

I'm wondering: How many of you actually work with
editors who check facts as well as writing? At what
point in the development cycle does the editor start
checking facts? How long does it take them, compared
to checking writing? And how well does it work? For
example, how much additional fact checking is required
before the documents go out the door?

Thanks for your feedback!

Rowena

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