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Don’t Forget Technical Editing: Workplace Editing Practices and Complex Information

Joanna Schreiber, Georgia Southern University

Carolyn Gubala, UC Davis

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Background – Levels of Editing

In the late 1970s and 1980s, scholarship on levels of edit identified a range of editing tasks and processes (Buehler, 1977, 1980 and 1981; Van Buren and Buehler, 1980).
Usability was added to the original levels of edit in 1985 (Soderston, 1985).
Some levels corresponded with particular editing roles, but more recent scholarship also suggests that editing roles and titles are changing (Kreth and Bowen, 2017).

Background – Complex Information

While there has been a range of studies examining how technical writing has evolved, relatively little scholarship is dedicated to technical editing (Flanagan and Albers, 2019; Kreth and Bowen, 2017) and even less is directly devoted to editing complex information (Albers, 2004).
Studies of complex content suggest a wide range of editorial roles (Willerton, 2008), but more work is needed to explore editing models and guidelines used for complex information.

Research Question

While there is scholarship devoted to writing and complex information, little scholarship is devoted to editing complex information.

RQ: How are editors approaching complex information in industry?

RQ: How are educators preparing students to edit complex information?

Methods

Results

Editor Responses – Types of Editing

What types of editing do you do? Please select all that apply.
Developmental editing	15
Copyediting	24
Indexing	1
Layout or design	13
Macro-editing	4
Micro-editing	5
Project management	8
Proofreading	25
Substantive/comprehensive editing	16
Technical editing	12
User experience	8
Other (list)	2

Editor Response – Subject Matter

What types of subject matter do you edit? Please select all that apply.
Medical	4
Technical	15
Scientific	8
Financial	12
Marketing	11
Literary	4
News	6
Other	13

Editor Response – Quality and Accuracy

How does your organization ensure content quality and accuracy? Please select all that apply.
Subject matter experts (SMEs) consult on content	23
Cross-functional teams	14
Peer review	17
Internal library or archive	5
Fact-checking process	3
Fact-checker (role)	4
Quality guidelines	6
International Organization for Standardization (Please enter numbers or series)	2
Other (Public/Stakeholder Comments)	1
None	2

Editor Response – Consistent Content

How does your organization ensure consistent content and information design? Please select all that apply.
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) (Please enter numbers or series)	2
House or corporate style guide	23
Branding guidelines (separate from house style guide)	15
Design guidelines (separate from house style guide)	10
Web guidelines (separate from house style guide)	5
Style sheets	8
Other	2
None	0

Findings

Overlap for technical and marketing content for editors in both subject matter and style
Project management seems low and an area to investigate
Not all who identified as editing technical subject matter responded that they did technical editing – area to investigate
Need questions/protocol tailored to freelance editing

Freelance Editing

Interviews with freelance editors:

Understudied area – freelancers developing their own guidance
Survey questions require revision to make freelancers feel more included
Crossover between marketing and technical means freelancers are more likely to be involved in developing and guiding and designing technical content

What might we learn from freelancers

What do freelancers edit?
How do they get jobs?
We may think about working with SMEs and engaging with complex subject matter as an expertise/relationship that develops over time – what does it look like for freelancers?

Future Research

Freelance editing space for further exploration – overlap between marketing and technical content makes this area particularly important to technical editing
Focus specifically on quality guidance
Peer review practices in industry