Getting more than nits from reviews? (take II)

[Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>]

Susan Hogarth noted: <<Here's the thing: I'm lazy.>>

So am I, but one should never admit this in a public forum. Um...  
D'oh! <g> In any event, "lazy" is never an excuse for anything. One  
thing I've learned over the years is that if you do the job right the  
first time, you don't have much work to redo later. That soothes my  
inner laze quite nicely. <g>

<<I should copyedit something that they are going to be rewriting?>>

Only if you expect to get good reviews. If not... well, it seems the  
current process works does a great job of generating amateur  
copyediting... <g> Oh... wasn't that the problem you were trying to  
solve? <g>

Seriously? Yes, you should copyedit. Never submit anything other than  
your best work. Reviewers won't respect you if you send them junk,  
and if you make their life harder than necessary, you'll get lousy  
reviews. Think of this as a law of nature, like the fact that gravity  
points downward most days <g>, and you'll find it easier to accept.

If you've done your homework (i.e., you have interviewed the SMEs to  
learn the details of the process you're documenting and have  
carefully checked these details against the actual interface), they  
shouldn't be rewriting _anything_. The ideal review comment is  
"Perfect... no changes!" In the real world, that never happens, but  
that's the direction you should be aiming.

Note that there's a difference between a summary of points of  
discussion and actual documentation. If all you're doing is  
summarizing a conversation or interview before you start writing  
(always a good idea), then clearly you don't need to edit it quite so  
rigorously. But such a review should occur at the end of your  
conversation or interview, when you know you have the SME available,  
not days later, when the person may no longer have time to talk to you.


----------------------------------------------------
-- Geoff Hart
ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca / geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com
www.geoff-hart.com
--------------------------------------------------
Coming soon:  _Effective onscreen editing_ (http://www.geoff-hart.com/ 
home/onscreen-book.htm)

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