Focusing on Developmental Editing

In the developer division, all technical editors are primarily "developmental editors." Our main responsibility is to be involved early in the writing cycle to help decide on what to cover and which topics to write, and to review early versions of topics so we can help fix organization problems. We have a broader view of the documentation than the writers, since we read all the topics from all the writers, so we also look for ways to connect topics together and to fill in any gaps.

Of course, I find it hard to resist fixing little things like typos and questionable grammar when I see it too; most of the other editors are the same way. We don't always know if we'll get another good look at every topic, schedules being what they are. Many topics are written late enough, or are part of a large enough group, that they get only one editorial pass. Sometimes we hire copyeditors on contract for a fast review at the end, sometimes we can't.

The main problem with paying too much attention to details during a developmental edit is that it's easy, and it makes me feel like I've accomplished something, even though I might have missed the hard edits—making sure everything is well organized and flows logically, making sure terms are explained that I've been reading for a year but that the ultimate readers might not be familiar with. Pulling my perspective back and looking at the whole document takes effort; so does forgetting everything I've learned during the product development cycle and reading the document as though it was all new and I was trying hard to figure out how to use the information. But when I change my focus that way, I can really help make the information easier to use, which provides a greater benefit than fixing punctuation does. Not that I would let those little things get by.