1. Chapter 10 Editing, Revising, and Evaluating
Technical Communication: Strategies for College and the Workplace by Dan Jones & Karen Lane
Chapter 10 Editing, Revising, and Evaluating
Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman Publishers. All rights reserved.

2. Editing Methods

3. Page-By-Page Editing Work sequentially through the document
Make changes as you encounter each element
Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman Publishers. All rights reserved.

4. Bottom-up Editing Edit one sentence at a time
Then edit a paragraph at a time
Finally, edit a section at a time
Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman Publishers. All rights reserved.

5. Top-Down Editing Work on overall organization, design, and content
Move to problems within each section
Then work on individual paragraphs
Finally, polish sentences and words
Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman Publishers. All rights reserved.

6. The Four Phases of Editing

7. 1. Developmental Editing . . .
uncovers fundamental weaknesses in
arrangement
organization
premise
begins with planning
Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman Publishers. All rights reserved.

8. 2. Substantive Editing . . . checks content checks meaning
occurs after each successive draft of a document
Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman Publishers. All rights reserved.

9. 3. Copyediting . . . checks grammar and punctuation
occurs after developmental and substantive editing
Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman Publishers. All rights reserved.

10. 4. Proofreading . . .
verifies that text has been printed according to your requirements
occurs at the end of the publication process
Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman Publishers. All rights reserved.

11. Revising

12. Revision occurs when . . . stylistic changes are made
grammatical changes are made
any other changes are made to the document
Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman Publishers. All rights reserved.

13. Revising Your Work
After you finish the draft, leave it alone for a day or two
Revise on paper rather than online for early drafts of print documents
Be sure you have followed your outline or storyboard
— continued —
Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman Publishers. All rights reserved.

14. Revising Your Work
Ensure that you have included an appropriate level of detail
Ensure that paragraphs are organized logically
Review for completeness
— continued —
Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman Publishers. All rights reserved.

15. Revising Your Work Eliminate redundancy
Verify that illustrations are placed appropriately
Add non-text items to support your text
Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman Publishers. All rights reserved.

16. Revising to Improve Style

17. Check for . . . accuracy and precision appropriateness conciseness
concreteness
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18. Check for . . . consistency clarity sincerity sentence parallelism
— continued —
Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman Publishers. All rights reserved.

19. Eliminate . . . unnecessary words or phrases redundancies
circumlocutions
prepositional phrases longer than two words
negative constructions
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Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman Publishers. All rights reserved.

20. Eliminate . . . verb phrases noun phrases expletive constructions
Gobbledygook
Telegraphic writing
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Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman Publishers. All rights reserved.

21. Reviewing and Evaluating Drafts

22. Reviewing . . .
occurs when you submit your document to someone else for critique
Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman Publishers. All rights reserved.

23. Evaluation . . .
occurs when you or someone else tests the appropriateness or usability of what you have created
Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman Publishers. All rights reserved.

24. The Style Review . . .
checks for effective prose and conformity to “house style”
Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman Publishers. All rights reserved.

25. Peer Review . . .
is a review by at least one other person familiar with the assignment or subject
Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman Publishers. All rights reserved.

26. The Large Project Review . . .
may call for many phases of review by various departments within an organization
Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman Publishers. All rights reserved.

27. Usability Testing . . .
determines the quality of a product or service and leads to its improvement
Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman Publishers. All rights reserved.