Re: how long does "fixing" a document take

[Ned Bedinger <doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com>]

Carrie Baker wrote:
>
> All in all, I am fixing the English, adding formatting, (headings,
> numbers whatever is required), and making sure the whole thing makes
> sense and works.
>
> This seems to be taking me a long time. How long do you think
> something like this should take??
>   

Fixing a document _can_ be a horrible problem. I can't explain this very 
well, but some document authors seem to have a knack for conveying what 
they mean without writing very well. If I try to rewrite their work, it 
loses the context (something like the author's voice or point of view, 
something beyond grammar and syntax) that seems to carry or be integral 
to their intended message/meaning/sense/. ... To make a long story 
short, it can become a case of analysis paralysis--the original author 
has managed to be the context of the information, and fixing the 
document becomes, at a certain point, the task of creating a new 
context, which might involve unexpected problems like a need to research 
and add explanations, find a pace for the information you have to work 
with, reorganizing and moving things around, all the while it is haunted 
by original author's context...

So, I'm curious: Why do you think it is taking longer than it should? I 
mean, what is it that is taking so long? I can easily imagine a tech 
writer having differences with the author about how the doc should be 
organized/worded, and deciding to rewrite or even start from scratch. It 
is a little harder to imagine a tech writer actively working to preserve 
the author's voice and 'presence' in the presentation. Is the problem 
you're having anywhere along these lines? Can you sit with the author 
and go over the document, to get the full sense of it?

Ned Bedinger
doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com


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