Re: What to look for in a technical editor

["Michael West" <mbwest -at- bigpond -dot- net -dot- au>]

> You didn't say it would lead to *frustration* for 
> writers; you said it would lead to frustrating 
> *working conditions*   for writers.

> How does the *expectation* of both capabilities in a single 
> person lead to frustrating *working conditions* for writers?

If I work as a writer in an organization that
assigns unqualified people to perform style and
copy-editing of my work, because management 
expects it of them, then are the following
not both true? -- 

a) I will probably experience frustration as a result 
of this arrangement.

b) This frustration arises as a result of the
conditions under which I work.

And if the frustration arises as a result of the
condition under which I work, am I not within
reason to refer to my working conditions as
"frustrating" --  at least in this regard?

> By the way, I don't think Andrew was calling the 
> SME ignorant who doesn't know 
> where to place a comma.

It seems to me to be just as unfair to accuse
the technical expert who lacks specialist-level
communication skills of "ignorance" as it is to
accuse the communications expert who lacks 
specialist-level technical skills of "ignorance". 

There are very intelligent and well-educated people
whose mastery of punctuation is incomplete. There
are others whose mastery of  technical subject matter
is likewise incomplete.

In both cases I would agree that there exist
opportunities for improvement, but throwing
around words like "ignorant" is not likely to
produce the desired result.

If the point you or Andrew Plato wish to make is that a 
technical editor who has no knowledge whatsoever -- 
zero, zilch, nada -- of the technical field in which he or 
she is working is not likely to be achieving maximum 
effectiveness -- I'm sure that's fair to say. I would add,
though, that the ability to come to terms with a new
technical field rapidly and methodically is one of the
traits that sets good technical editors apart  from
other types of good editors.
--
MW




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