Re: Need Feedback from Technical Editors

[Ryan Haber <ryan -dot- haber -at- gmail -dot- com>]

It might be a subtle change; I think it is granular, even more than subtle.

If we think about what's involved in your example, proofreading, we see
that proofreading isn't actually one skill, but an grouping of skills and
even of particular motor activities. Your eyes must scan paper while you
hold criteria for correctness in mind. You must remember certain markings.
You must understand the author's intent. And so on.

My gut feeling is that some of these micro-activities are very deeply
embedded in our learning process, whereas others are less so. Consider
typing on a computer versus on a typewriter. Probably 95% of what you do is
looking at your written words and striking keys to make new words appear.
After a brief learning curve about how to delete words once they've been
keyed, you can really do the same tasks. The things that change between
typing and keyboarding are pretty incidental to either of them. By
contrast, proofreading on a screen, we don't make editorial marks. I keep a
list of such marks handy, and remember a few, but we will be seeing
generations of students who will never have used any of those marks.
They're a foreign language. Also, the difference between screen and paper
has been shown to be anything but incidental when it comes to close
reading, which is essential to proofreading in a way it is not to typing -
which is part of the reason that we need to proofread.

My $0.02. Maybe someone else has the other $0.98.

On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 1:45 PM <mbaker -at- analecta -dot- com> wrote:

> Some changes seem to be generational. I'm as pro digital as anyone, but I
> do
> still proof critical stuff on paper, after first proofing it on screen and
> then listening to it read by a screen reader. But in the writer's groups I
> belong to, I find, quite consistently, the people of my generation turn up
> with stacks of paper and younger people turn up with laptops and no paper
> at
> all.
>
> It is certainly interesting that there are some things we seem to adopt
> quickly, regardless of age (like cell phones), but for other things it
> seems
> that once a habit is ingrained it is very hard to break, even if people who
> do not have it engrained in them adopt the new tech without question. There
> has to be something subtle in the nature of the change that we are being
> asked to make that makes some transitions easy and others very difficult.
> It
> would be interesting to figure out what it is, because it could be a factor
> in all kinds of other changes we would like to encourage -- or to make
> ourselves.
>
> Mark
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: techwr-l-bounces+mbaker=analecta -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+mbaker=analecta -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf
> Of Dan Goldstein
> Sent: Thursday, February 4, 2016 1:29 PM
> To: TECHWR-L (techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com)
> Subject: RE: Need Feedback from Technical Editors
>
> Based on the many replies from Whirlers who require hard copy, I can only
> say: The Lorax weeps, but we can't deny the truth. See:
> http://techwhirl.com/three-roadblocks-to-utopian-paperless-office/
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Shelley Thomas
> Sent: Wednesday, February 03, 2016 3:47 PM
> To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject: Need Feedback from Technical Editors
>
> I have been teaching technical editing since 2005, and your response to the
> discussion about what editors in the workforce should know (see More than
> Grammar, (http://tinyurl.com/h43bapf) has helped me refine my teaching.
> That
> said, I would like to follow up on 2007 article about using e-editing VS
> hardcopy editing in the profession. My position, as an instructor, is that
> hardcopy editing has not gone away. So, I teach half of the semester using
> traditional copy editing marks for editing documents, and the second half
> teaching track changes (MS Word, Pages, as well as other tablet apps). So,
> I
> have the following questions:
>
> Do technical editors still use hard copy for edits? (Is this a personal
> preference or a department/company policy? For example, personally, I like
> to see a hardcopy to edit, and then I make my edits electronically.)
>
> When editing electronically, do you use track changes (such as MS Word)? Do
> you edit in Adobe products (such as Acrobat Pro)? Do you use iPad
> applications (such as IAnnotate, Cabinet, or QuickEdit)?
>
> How do tablets figure in to your editing?
>
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