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Subject:Re: Re[2]: his/her > A New A From:Len Olszewski <saslpo -at- UNX -dot- SAS -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 29 Mar 1993 12:42:32 -0500
> Eric asked:
> > In the same vein, how do people handle editing structures, words, or
> > constructions which they don't like?
[...deletions...]
[...Paul Goble responds...]
> Here are two ways I decide what to keep and what to change:
> 1. Ask the original author
[...deletions...]
> 2. Set a policy (i.e., creat a bureaucratic higher authority)
[...deletions...]
> Paul Goble
It's not clear to me how your editing cycle works. Around here, editors
see the piece while the first technical review occurs, and propose a
number of substantive global changes the author is responsible for
incorporating while making first revisions. The substantive edit
addresses structural changes and general approaches at the document
level.
*After* the second technical review/revision, editors perform a detailed
copy edit, making changes to individual sentences to meet the corporate
style sheet, and for purposes of enforcing parallelism, consistency
across chapters or sections, reducing wordiness, and so on. A style
sheet is a must, otherwise you run the risk of editing inconsistently -
not good since the editor should be *insuring* consistency.
By all means make your style sheet available to all of your authors. See
if you can charge for it 8-).
Even though I'm not an editor, the very good editors we have here
operate this way, and the results are, IMHO, quite good. They make it a
point to enter a project during planning, and spend a lot of face time
with writers, echoing Mr. Goble's first point.
<-------------------------------^------------------------------------->
|Len Olszewski, Technical Writer |"Don't use the imperative!" |
|saslpo -at- unx -dot- sas -dot- com|Cary, NC, USA| -Rhetorical contradiction |
|---------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Opinions this ludicrous are mine. Reasonable opinions will cost you.|
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