Editing of Documents

[Sean Wheller]

On Wednesday 09 March 2005 16:49, Corey Burger wrote:
> I have just finished a discussion with Sean Wheller regarding editing
> other peoples text in the various documents we are collectively
> writing.
>
> Sean raised the point that he doesn't edit other peoples text that
> they have marked complete. I personally disagree with that point.
>
> For me, the point of working on a team such as this is that when you
> right some completely uninspired text, someone can come along and fix
> it later. Thus I have edited the entire quickguide regardless of the
> complete tags.
>
> If some people have a major objection to this, I would be happy to
> chat with them further.
>
> I think that if we move to a method that doesn't allow for big
> changes, regardless of tag, we limit ourselves quite a lot.

OK people seem to have locked onto the question of "Not" or "not." This was 
not the point of the discussion. Corey was correct to fix it.

The real point I am trying to make is that at some point a  person has to stop 
changing the text. I can see no point in changing text just for the sake of 
changing it. There can be any number of ways something can be explained. All 
of them will be right. If we all go around changing each others writing just 
because we think it sounds better this way of that, the overhead will be very 
high. The cycle of editing will never stop. At this late stage, I am now 
finding myself rereading the document and rereading it. It takes too much 
time when it should be taking less time.

I would like to propose a development cycle for developing documents:
1. Reseach
2. Outline
3. First draft
4. Second Draft
5. Final Review

During stages 1-3 text can be heavily rewritten .
During stage 4-5 textual changes should be limited to problems such as 
technical accuracy, spelling, grammar, punctuation.

In general, changes made during 4-5 are less intrusive than 1-3.

Quality is something that develops over time. We all do our best to what we 
can to get the best product out in the current release, but development does 
not stop there. After this release the document goes back to stage 1 and 
there is ample opportunity to discuss improvements and make changes.

One of the things I find lack at present is that people are not discussing. 
They are just making a unilateral decision and doing. While doing is good, 
there does come a time to change what is being done.

My proposal for work process provides balance and controlled development in an 
environment that is anything but.

Thoughts,

-- 
Sean Wheller
Technical Author
sean at inwords.co.za
http://www.inwords.co.za
Registered Linux User #375355

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