1 Technical & Business Writing (ENG-315) Muhammad Bilal Bashir UIIT, Rawalpindi

Outline 1. Editing and Fine Tuning 2. Guidelines for editing software documentation 1. Establish project guidelines 2. Understand types of editing 3. Summary 2

Editing and Fine Tuning Lecture: 21 3

Editing and Fine Tuning Editing, like reviewing and testing, challenges you to create an attitude conducive to productivity Like other elements affecting document design, editing requires you address the needs and knowledge of workers in a high-tech workplace The guidelines help you develop good editing attitude and adapt the type of edit to the needs of your project The symbols on next slide represent standard ones used throughout the industry 4

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Guidelines for Editing Software Documentation Guidelines include 1. Establish project guidelines 2. Understand types of editing 3. Plan your editing tasks 4. Develop the appropriate editing forms 6

1. Establish Project Guidelines Each manual or help project is going to differ from all others you have done because of the uniqueness of the user’s situations and the context (interface & terminology) associated with the program When you start a project, you should make sure you and your writer and editors understand your role and goals of editing process You might find yourself in one of three situations  Writer and Editors Role Combined  Writer Submitting to an Editor  Editor of the Work of another Writer 7

Establish Project Guidelines (Continue…) Editing goals you might want to set for your project  Consistency in how the user perceive and experiences the documents: styles of graphics, use of frames and panels to present information consistently, consistency of voice & tone  Consistency in the purpose of information in the documents: Making sure that documents teach, guide or support depending upon user’s needs  Application to multicultural or cross-cultural readers: Using standardized English or specialized vocabularies to ensure easy translation and readability by English speakers in foreign countries 8

Establish Project Guidelines (Continue…) Editing goals you might want to set for your project (Continue…)  Correspondence of task and activities in manual or help system: Making sure that the activities and actions described in the help system match the activities and actions in the users’ workplace  Smooth interaction among editor and writers, contents specialists, managers, and all involved. Editors play a key role here 9

2. Understand Types of Editing Editing requires lots of hard work, partly because the overall abstractness of the task You can make the tasks more manageable by understanding ahead of time, the basic kinds of editing that you will do in your project The types of edits or level of edits corresponds roughly to stages in the writing process 10

11 TypesGoalsExplanations ManagerialConsistency in document based on the consistency in the process of document creation Editing documentation plans, projects reports, product specifications, outlines SubstantiveConsistency in the overall information elements of a specific document Editing outlines, rough drafts, organization and structure of contents, appropriateness for specific readers CopyeditingConsistency in expression and presentation of information from the word sentence level up Editing sentence level style and organization, clarity of phrasing, mechanical consistency, format consistency and readability ProofreadingConsistency in production of copyedited text in final versions of documents Editing for consistency and correctness in all terminology, spelling and mechanical correctness, format consistency, consistency of document against copy editor’s marks

12 Summary Any Questions?