Levels of Edit

["Patricia Egan" <capdev -dot- communications -at- gmail -dot- com>]

Hi all,

In case you are interested, I am attaching two subsequent articles from STC
on levels of edit. One is by Donald Samson, who wrote *Editing Technical
Writing,* Oxford University Press. The other is by a superb group from Los
Alamos. They extend the work initiated by the publication of the JPL
approach.

FYI,
Pat


On 4/10/08, Blount, Patricia A <Patricia -dot- Blount -at- ca -dot- com> wrote:
>
> Hi, Tim,
>
> Glad you liked The Levels of Edit doc from Bonnie.
>
> My two cents? I've used that document in a former management role where
> no formal QA or editorial process existed.
>
> You've heard that old saying, "Fast, cheap or good, pick any two?"  That
> was how I applied the levels of editing concept here. In our
> environment, development was a team process so my "edit levels" had to
> align to each team member's responsibility, i.e., instructional
> designers, trainers, writers, artists, and computer programmers. I
> wanted to make sure I wasn't wasting the time of six people by having
> everyone checking for typos. We followed the JPL principles and began
> classifying who should be responsible for what. IDs were responsible for
> ensuring the instruction could be measured in terms of performance.
> Programmers were responsible for the accuracy and completeness of
> procedures. And writers were responsible for typos, grammar, brand
> identity and so on. (There was more, but this gives you an idea...)
>
> Next, we tried to classify our deliverables according to some sort of
> importance rating. Which ones truly needed to be reviewed by every team
> member? For example, a course description did not require a computer
> programmer's review, but did require an instructional designer's and
> writer's, while an instructor guide required everyone's review - which
> I'd consider to be equivalent to JPL's 'substantive' edit.
>
> We then built the reviews deemed required into the process.
>
> Now, you know what happens in the real world... inevitably, someone
> directs you to produce a full deliverable in a fraction of the time.
> Effort is effort - it cannot be squeezed to fit a schedule without
> sacrificing something else, i.e., budget or quality. With our levels of
> edit process, it was easy to push back and say "X is what we can give
> you...if you want Y, we need Z."
>
> Feel free to contact me off list if you want more details.
>
> Patty B.
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-- 
Patricia Egan
P. O. Box 194391
San Francisco, CA 94119-4391
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to Help file formats or 
printed documentation. Features include support for Windows Vista & 2007 
Microsoft Office, team authoring, plus more.
http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList

True single source, conditional content, PDF export, modular help.
Help & Manual is the most powerful authoring tool for technical
documentation. Boost your productivity! http://www.helpandmanual.com

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