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What does technical editing mean to me?
At this point editing means to read over documents looking for grammatical, spelling, and sentence structure problems. In order to be an editor you need a good command of the English written language and have an eye for detail.
What experience do I have with it?
Most of my editing experience comes from editing my book. Unfortunately, as my book has shown, I am not the best editor. I prefer to do the writing as well as I can, while constantly improving of course, and leave the final editing for someone else.
What would technical editing mean?
I would assume that technical editing would be more broad. Not only is the editor looking for the grammar, spelling, and sentence struture problems but they are also looking for layout. Are the graphics correctly positioned in regards to the text. Is the document structured in a way that flows well, and meets its purpose.
How will this be different from what I understand editing to be at this point?
It differs in the way I just explained in the previous question. I believe it would be a much broader area.
Make a list of areas that I have knowledge in
Martial Arts
RC Helicopters
Writing
HTML/CSS
Advanced Access database design
MS Office
Law Enforcement
Residential electrical systems
Residential plumbing
Carpentry
Drywall
Picture shows
Mathematics
Lawn Business
Computers
What is technical editing (after reading What is Technical Editing)
After reading the assigned text I did get a clearer picture of technical editing but nothing dramatically different than what I had already suspected. I found that when I read the part that contrasts a technical writer to a technical editor I was more on the writer side of things. That being said I do want to concentrate more on improving my grammar skills, which is why I find such value in this course. I really want to understand why something is done grammatically. Since I have taken on this role of becoming a writer I have concentrated more on my grammar, which has improved.
Back to the reading, I was surprised to see how different a technical editors job is from the writers. It seems as if the writer is more of creator of the document and the editor is more of someone who looks at the document in a broader sense. The editor looks at the document from an macro perspective while the writer sees it from a micro perspective. I realized that the technical editor and writer seem to work on a somewhat even platform, at least in theory, with a common goal to produce a well written document. Personally, I look forward to having an editor. When I wrote my book I wore all hats and that is a very difficult way to go. Today I just finish a 41 page manual explaining the functions of a database program I wrote. Here I was the programmer, technical writer, and editor. It would be nice to have someone else write the software and someone else to review my work. Though I think my manual is very good and will use it as part of my writing examples. But I am still wonder, is it what it could be? Did I miss anything? It would be nice to have a different set of eyes evaluate my work and give feedback. Something I hope to have in the future.
