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Subject:RE: How is editing organized in your company? From:"Sean Brierley" <sbri -at- haestad -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 6 Jan 2003 09:42:42 -0500
We edit like this:
The SMEs (engineers and programmers) review their sections. A couple of
secretaries review the whole thing. The entire document is also pieced
out via a QA department to other SMEs for review. Questions and
suggestions are taken care of, or discussed. The press-ready PDF is
created and sent to the printer. At any point before the books are
bound, any manager can insist on any changes they prefer, including
changes to the bluelines.
-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Storer [mailto:tstorer_tw -at- yahoo -dot- com]
Until now we have never had any official editing. Peer
review is encouraged and doc managers review (with
varying degrees of diligence) the guides their teams
produce. We use an in-house Style and Usage Guide to
make this review easier.
The idea of "real" editing in the medium term is now
under consideration. By "real" editing I mean a more
centralized activity with clear processes and
definition of responsibilities. We'll soon be having a
brainstorming session to collect ideas and information
on how it's done in real life. We are thinking we
might have a full-time editor, or perhaps have two
people doing it half-time, working the rest of the
time on normal documentation duties.
The question: How *is* such an activity handled in
real life? If those of you who work in companies with
a well-defined editing activity could describe the way
it's organized, and perhaps give a few tips and warn
against pitfalls, I would be very grateful.
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