Customer Reviews

Editing Technical Writing

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Editing well is an art that, ironically enough, is hard to demystify in print. Adding insight on editing technical material requires a solid foundation in technical disciplines as well as respect for the written word and its consumers.

Samson's book provides a well-organized overview of the technical editing profession, inside and out. The "inside" portion of this book is generally excellent, as he reviews things as specific as proofreading marks and as nuanced as English grammar. Personally, I found his chapter on editing technical graphics extremely useful.

However, the "outside" portion of the book -- the part that deals with how editors fit into the workflow in industry and publishing -- is sadly out of date, which is not surprising given that the book was published nearly 15 years ago. Samson describes lengthy schedules, time for extensive re-edits, and large teams replete with semi-legendary staffers like dedicated typists. Perhaps my own software industry experience colors my perspective, which is that today's technical documentation is more likely to be written in a fast-paced, iterative environment and produced and published entirely online. In such a setting, editing, ANY editing, is a luxury.

This book contains useful exercises, and its general rigor and lucidity would make it a good supplemental text for a technical editing course. Just don't go into your first technical editing or writing job expecting anything like the work environment Samson outlines.

Unfortunately I could have written this book. It did not present any new thoughts for this technical editor.

I took a course with Donald Samson at Radford University, and this book was out textbook for the course. Every aspect of technical writing, from grammar to style. This book, however, is not merely a list of gramatical and stylistic rules; it describes in detail the duties and responsibilities of technical writers. In short, there is not a better guide for aspiring technical writers out there. Great for a textbook or for someone learning on his or her own.