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Re: Editors and writers; was: Re: job title nomenclature on biz cards
Subject:Re: Editors and writers; was: Re: job title nomenclature on biz cards From:"Bonnie Granat" <bgranat -at- granatedit -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 19 Aug 2004 16:35:50 -0400
David Neeley wrote:
> "I have often seen job ads for "Editor" or "Writer." STC
> notwithstanding, I
> have yet to see an ad for "Communicator."
>
> -- Dan Goldstein"
>
> In my experience, companies hire "technical editors" who are expected
> to check details--grammar, punctuation, page numbering, and the
> like--and little more. Thus, they are often considered less skilled
> than technical writers and are usually paid much less.
>
As a technical editor (and technical writer), this has not been my
experience. I have never seen a job description for a technical editor
that did not include the items you mention below.
> I believe this is somewhat wrong-headed. To me, it makes more sense
> to hire as an editor someone who is a very skilled technical writer
> and team leader, who can both handle the sorts of details necessary,
> but who can also serve to help educate the tech writers to follow the
> organizational style guides, to better organize their materials, and,
> in general, how to make their writing more effective and efficient.
> This would be much more the sort of "editor" that publishers employ.
>
Many software companies employ such a person.
> In many organizations, from what I have experienced, there is seldom
> enough of this kind of ongoing quality check.
>
This is quite true. But those organizations that *do* have a technical
editor position usually expect the broad range of quality control
services that you mentioned. In addition, technical editors check the
documentation's usability, which means installing the program, using the
program as a user would, and so on.
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