Re: Checking facts during editing

[Janice Gelb <janice -dot- gelb -at- sun -dot- com>]

Rowena Hart <rowena_hart -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote:
>
> 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?
>

I'm sure there's a lot of variation in this process
depending on the size of an organization and the size
of its publications staff.

I have been working as an editor in high tech for
a while and I have never been responsible for the
technical accuracy of a document. That is up to
the writer and the quality assurance people. If I
can run the software that's being documented I try
to, but often I don't have access to it so checking
accuracy is impossible.

Despite this, I have often caught technical inaccuracies
due to inconsistencies in the document, or a mismatch
between a screen shot and the text about that aspect
of the product. More often, I find spots where necessary
information is missing, which sometimes is a failure in
the product.

-- Janice


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