When the Basics Aren't Enough: Finding a Comprehensive Editor

While mechanical editing is good and necessary, but to produce quality documents, much more comprehensive editing is called. This chapter describes how to find technical editors who can make documents more than just good, editors who can think about the content of the message, not just its presentation. It lists six steps involved in comprehensive editing. They are reading the document through quickly; studying the outline or structure of the document; thinking about the document; reading the document carefully, checking whether the discussion is complete, for technical discrepancies and definition of terms; writing comments on the document; and meeting with the technical author. The chapter then illustrates, with charts, the difference between "mechanical" and comprehensive editing. It also discusses the attributes of a comprehensive editor, and concludes with the interesting question of how to identify job applicants who might have the characteristics to become good comprehensive editors.