RE: More title questions

["John Rosberg" <jrosberg -at- interwoven -dot- com>]

I agree with Ms. Gelb -- editing are two related, but distinct jobs --
the skill sets appear identical from a distance, but all on this list
can see the difference (one would hope.

Further, in a smaller to mid-sized technical company, the term "Editor"
(here in the States, anyway), might be perceived as something akin to a
"language janitor" (which is entirely false and incorrect), and would
likely result in a lessening of respect for the position, rather than
the reverse.

While some standardization around job classifications and titles would
be nice, I do not see the need for it, as Mr. Machhan does -- our
colleagues generally do not share identical titles and classifications,
and it seems to hurt them little, if at all.

The conversation surrounding job titles, job classifications, and who
gets called to dinner first comes up recursively in the tech comm
community -- I view these things as of secondary interest and import,
well behind understanding how our profession can bring value to our
businesses in a real and measurable way.

Though, as always, your mileage may vary ;-}

rosberg

-----Original Message-----
From: Janice Gelb [mailto:Janice -dot- Gelb -at- Sun -dot- COM] 
Sent: Monday, November 26, 2007 3:27 PM
To: Techwr-l
Subject: Re: More title questions

Raj Machhan wrote:
> Editor as a designation has its moorings in the print media. It is
widely
> used to describe the pecking order in newspaper and magazines. So we
have
> sub-editors, deputy editors, assistant editors, associate editors and
so on,
> with the editor-in-chief as the top boss.  However, the job profile of
these
> editorial positions (excluding the overworked sub-editors, who lie at
the
> bottom of the pile) also involves a fair amount of writing.
> 
> I do not see any reason why we cannot apply the same structure, in a
limited
> way, to positions  in a Technical Communications set up. So instead of
> having designations such as "technical writer editor", or "technical
writer
> and editor" we could simply put it as "technical editor", "sr
technical
> editor" and so on. The designations need to be standardized to avoid
> confusion.
> 

My job is that of a technical editor and although
I have written some of our internal tools documentation
manuals, that is not my primary job function. I imagine
the writers on here will object as much as I do to a
job title that implies that their primary function is
to edit! Editing and writing are different jobs with
different responsibilities and although often people
must do both in their working environment, that doesn't
mean that the titles can or should be combined.

I don't think that writers who occasionally do peer
editing to catch overlooked obvious errors because their
company does not employ editors should append "editor"
to their titles. You only need to invent a hyphenated
or slashed title if your editing responsibilities are
equal to or on the same professional standing as your
writing responsibilities.

-- Janice

***********************************************************
Janice Gelb          | The only connection Sun has with
janice -dot- gelb -at- sun -dot- com  | this message is the return address

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