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There's an interesting subject that's just come up in my department--whether
it's appropriate for a departmental editor to attempt to enforce a
"departmental voice" in edits.
Situation:
A department of 6 writers and 1 editor. Each writer creates manuals and help
files for individual modules of a primarily accounting application (each
module has one writer, each writer has many modules). In many cases, but not
all, the modules are aimed at the same basic audience (accounting clerks and
accountants). A few modules are aimed at other audiences such as executives
or the sales force.
The question:
Assuming that two modules are writing to the same general audience
(accounting clerks and accountants), is it appropriate for a departmental
editor to make edits to keep two separate manuals (say one for an Accounts
Receivable module and one for an Accounts Payable module) consistent in tone
and type of language?
We've two writers making the following arguments:
1 - Only the types of style as defined in the departmental style guide (i.e.
punctuation, limited passive voice, bulleted lists formats) should be
enforced. Anything else is "individual writing style" and should be allowed
because otherwise a) the writer is stripped of creativity, and b) there's a
negative impact on the writer-editor relationship.
2 - Manuals should be consistent in terminology, phrasing, and organization,
except where differences are required based on the audience. The editor
should edit manuals aimed at the same audience to sound as much as possible
as if they were written by the same person.
One writer (and I'm not saying who) supports her arguments by pointing to an
"industry standard practice" but without supporting evidence beyond her own
experience. I'm figuring if anyone can define "industry standard" it's going
to be this email list, so I'd love to hear what any of you might have to say
on this issue. Thanks for your time.
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