 Book Review by Garret Romaine
In the preface of their book, Bush and Campbell introduce the term "Nintendo editing"-the practice of using style-checking software to "zap errors," usually practiced by low-paid editors following rigid style manuals and paying little attention to technical accuracy. (p. vii)
The authors believe such practices "denigrate" the noble profession of editing, and they seek to introduce a change. "This book seeks to upgrade technical editing from today's automatic wrist-slapping to a thoughtful process that applies brains and common sense. Editors need to learn to trim copy to get authors to the point quicker, and to develop continuity, paragraph coherence, and overall organization." (p. vii)
The authors speak from broad experience. Donald W. Bush is a fellow of the Society for Technical Communication who lectures at San Diego State University. He worked as a technical editor for McDonnell Douglas for 25 years. His background includes journalism, public relations, and technical editing.
Charles P. Campbell, Ph.D., is associate professor of English in the Humanities Department of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. Campbell has taught English at several universities and colleges, and spent 10 years as a technical editor. He has written articles, reviews, and papers.
As would be expected from such accomplished writers and editors, the book is well organized. There are 13 chapters with such titles as "Editing for Content" and "Cutting Copy." The final two chapters, "Triage: Dealing with Typescripts under Deadline" and "Getting Along with Authors" are especially well done.
For example, this passage toward the end of the book: "You're smart if not all of your editing marks are negative. Be sure to praise good writing highly … Editors may never have any power. Their marks may be doomed to be suggestions only; authors can take them or not. (They may actually take only about 90 percent, which is fine.) Editors should not argue unless the author's decision affects technical accuracy. The few barbarisms they leave salt the proposal with engineering flavor and help cover up any taste of public relations slickness." (p. 142)
The authors list nine points in their Advice In Dealing With Authors:
Unfortunately, that often means that bad writers can slip through the cracks. "If you ask an author if he wants a thorough edit or just a bindery check, he will opt for the latter, especially if he is a poor writer. Thus, the worst writers get the least editing." (p. 121)
The meat of the book is reserved for hard-core editing practices, and includes enough grammar rules and punctuation guidelines to satisfy all comers. You'll read up on the Fox Index and Readability Principles, understand how to battle redundant modifiers and smothered verbs, and more.
In this way, the authors handle the tools and skills required to mark up another person's copy, then they cover the Zen of editing technical documents, with the lengthy list of advice for handling authors. This makes the book a complete package. It may be getting a little long in the tooth-it was printed in 1995, which is a long time ago in Web years. The book could stand an update to accommodate the quirky world of web pages that look like ransom notes and marketing speak invading the technical realm. Still, it's a great addition to the lonely world of The Order of the Red Pen.
Garret Romaine is a technical publications lead at Pixelworks, Inc. in Tualatin, OR. He is a past president of the Willamette Valley Chapter and can be reached at garretr@pixelworks.com.
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