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The first Rangers guide emerges from new copy-edit program … worth it?

  • Artigo

The Version Control (ex Branching and Merging) Guide team has refreshed the v3.BETA - Visual Studio 2013 download as shown below, by replacing the Branching Strategies eBook with the copy-edited and FINAL version.

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loosely coupled copy-edit phase

Based on the proposed innovations to the v1.2 Ruck guidance‎ every team has an optional and variable length final quality-planning (QP) sprint to dot the i’s and cross the t’s. As shown below the optimal QP sprint would see us shipping during the first 3/4 of the sprint, or “on time” if we ship before the sprint comes to an end … BUT optimal is not always practical Smile

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The vsarVersionControl team spun two parallel activities, one focused on a technical review and the other on a copy edit  by Bill Heys, to align the three guides in terms of consistency, tone and style.

When the technical review was complete, the team was ready to ship, but the quality bar required the copy edit to be completed. With the copy-editing queue bottlenecking and estimated completion dates far exceeding the end of the QP-sprint, the team made a call to ask the Product Owner (PO) for a signoff and permission to ship a public BETA to avoid further delays of sharing the eBook with the community. The public BETA happened as outlined in Version Control guidance v3.BETA flight has landed.

Going forward, each eBook will be transferred to the public download channel as it emerged from the copy edit process, and the release state switched from BETA to RTM with the last eBook.

what is copy edit in our context?

Bill Heys aims to ensure that we produce “clear, correct, concise, comprehensible, and consistent“ (The five Cs)  guidance.

For example:

  • Correct spelling, punctuation, grammar, terminology, jargon, and semantic.
  • Clarify language, phrasing, style, and syntax.
  • Help finesse a writer’s prose so that it observes all the conventions of good writing.
  • Suggest some reorganizing, recommend changes to chapter titles and subheadings, and call out lapses in logic or sequential slip-ups
  • Ensure that the final copy is clean, accurate, and understandable
  • Ensure, within reason, that the text adheres to the publisher's style or an external style guide, such as: the Chicago Manual of Style or the Associated Press Stylebook.

worth it?

While we really like what is emerging from these latest innovations, we need your  feedback.

Is the copy-editing raising the quality bar, improving your user experience and perceived as valuable? PLEASE add your candid feedback as a comment to the blog or ping me direct.