Reviews ofReviews ofExcerpts of review by Tom Hoyt, Senior Technical Editor, QUALCOMM, Inc.
"Bush and Campbell's insightful How to Edit Technical Documents is essential reading for all technical communicators. The authors seek 'to upgrade technical editing from today's automatic wrist-slapping to a thoughtful process that applies brains and common sense.' It is the message of applying 'brains and common sense' that we should listen to in this book. How to Edit Technical Documents is as much about the philosophy of editing as it is about the mechanics of editing. . . .
"Bush and Campbell focus most strongly on the importance of using clear and concise words and sentences placed in well-organized paragraphs and sections. In addition, they describe how to edit graphics, mark manuscripts, and meet deadlines, and in particular, how technical editors can become more involved with their projects and become stronger, more respected members of the technical team. . . . This section will stimulate debate about the most effective ways to deal with the real-world issues of technical editing . . .
"I found the accompanying workbook stimulating. To understand what the authors are trying to accomplish, especially in their discussions on transformational grammar, you need to do the exercises in the workbook. It is the direct application of the book's principles that make Bush and Campbell's ideas powerful.
"How to Edit Technical Documents is an excellent textbook for advanced technical communication students. It also works as a discussion stimulator, refresher course, and research tool for experienced editors and writers. Practicing professionals may be interested in this book for no other reason than to read up on the skills and attitudes the next generation of students will bring to the workplace. More importantly, you should read this book because it will push you to think about some of the core values of our profession."
Excerpts of review by Jerry M. Parsons, University of Nebraska
Bush and Campbell . . . make a most convincing case for a new editing paradigm, and these texts make a valuable addition to an emerging body of knowledge that they regard as essential to the the construction of a more fully respected profession."
"Bush and Campbell demonstrate a clear competence to speak about technical editing. This competency is based upon a real familiarity with workplace practices and competency is based upon a real familiarity with workplace practices and expectations and an updated and comprehensive knowledge of current research in the domains of rhetoric, linguistics, and cognitive psychology."
"[A]nyone who presumes to write with authority about matters of editing or proofing texts invites criticism in ways not familiar to most of us in the language business. . . . Bush and Campbell meet this challenge easily and effectively; their text--actually two, a main text of theory and principles and a companion workbook--makes a signal contribution to the field of technical editing. . . . Now, with this text, we have yet another valuable addition to the growing list of books on technical editing that have appeared in the past few years. . . .
"Their essential approach is to teach how one acquires 'editing judgment' and how to transcend a rule-driven mind-set to what they call a sense of 'editing wisdom'. . . They concentrate on the major issues of faulty technical copy: word proliferation and weak sentence and paragraph structures. . . .
"One pleasantly noticeable feature of these companion texts is their narrative voice. I find it comfortably readable and simultaneously authoritative without sounding overly dogmatic. The writing is vivid, opinionated, and yet not at all pretentious . . . .
"Similarly, they do not denigrate the controversial work of earlier authorities, like Hayakawa and Flesch; rather, Bush and Campbell suggest that the study of general semantics can indeed be useful in combating the misleading notions of the 'one word, one meaning' (ix) school so frequently held by subject experts. Moreover, they defend readability formulas as having some usefulness and needing to be understood in the context of editing history. . . .
"Bush and Campbell demonstrate a clear competence to speak about technical editing. . . . [T]heir bibliography section should prove a quite useful resource tool for additional inquiry for those seeking more supplemental readings. . . .
"Most impressive to me is the accompanying workbook. Mostly, the exercises are from actual technical reports, and specific exercises are cross-referenced to the appropriate discussion in the main text. . . . The approach is essentially developmental, moving from basic editing issues into more difficult and complex editing problems and situations. In the later exercises, the authors offer solutions that are not necessarily right but that, they hope, are better. In terms of practice time and practical application of theory and principle, this workbook offers extensive opportunities and would be very useful to anyone wishing to work independently or even as members of a classroom group."
Excerpts of review by David Nadziejka, Argonne National Laboratories
"In terms of content, the best feature of How to Edit Technical Documents is that it makes you think about neglected aspects of the editor's work. . . . Their concept of the editor's job goes beyond the copyediting level to something that can reasonably be called technical editing rather than simply the copyediting of technical documents. . . .
"Perhaps the best chapter is on triage (i.e., editing manuscripts under deadline pressure), where the first task is 'to read the copy and see if it makes sense,' rather than to first attack issues like consistency of capitalization. . . . As someone who came to editing from the science/engineering (rather than the language) side of the desk, I heartily agree with this approach. The authors also provide in this chapter a useful real-world example of a triage edit, which focuses on the organization of the document to make it at least understandable (if not well-edited in the traditional sense)."
"[A] practical guide for editing both the substance and structure of
technical documents . While primarily designed for editors, this . . .
guide and accompanying workbook will also help educators and students
improve
technical writing skills."
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