Reviewing and Editing is an important part of the Technical writing process. No writing is complete without it being reviewed and/or edited.
As a novice Technical Writer, my first few tasks were to edit and review documents.My biggest challenge then, was to know the difference between editing and reviewing. You may ask, “is it not self-explanatory?” My thought exactly; that is, before I started off reviewing a document, over shot time by editing it, ended up missing my deadline and finally learnt two important lessons.
Lesson number 1: Know the scope of your work
Never start your work without knowing the exact limits of your work. By limits I mean:
- What you can do
- What you need not do but can do if time permits
- What you should not do
People crave for limits. limits are something that gives a logical conclusion to any task. Without limits and restriction no work will ever truly get done.
“What you need not do but can do if time permits?”, is the grey area in the editing and reviewing world. It shows your dedication and the extra bit you want to put in your work. But how far is too far? Trying to find that out is when I learnt my
Lesson number 2: Estimate your work
Define timelines for your work.It gets easier when you know the scope of your work. You will learn more about defining your scope of the work in the following section. When you define timelines it is easier for you to decide on the ‘must do’ factors and ‘can do’ factors. Your work will reflect consistency and quality when you follow the timelines based on your scope of work.
What is Reviewing and Editing?
Read More »The Beginners Guide to Reviewing and Editing