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Technical Editing and Writing

ENGL210J
Closed
University of Waterloo
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Clive Forrester
Clive Forrester
Lecturer
(2)
1
Timeline
  • February 1, 2019
    Experience start
  • March 7, 2019
    75% Check In
  • March 21, 2019
    Experience end
Experience
3/1 project matches
Dates set by experience
Preferred companies
Anywhere
Any
Manufacturing, Science, Legal, Arts, Consumer goods & services

Experience scope

Categories
Communications
Skills
editing technical writing research skills plain english formatting
Student goals and capabilities

Students enrolled in ENGL210J - Technical Editing are developing their skills in the fundamentals of editing a variety of technical documents with specific focus on:

1. Manufacturing documents (e.g. product manuals, tech. specs., operational guides)

2. Scientific documents (e.g. science abstracts, scientific explanations and labels)

3. General publishing - Fictional work (editing short fictional stories and novels)

4. Legal documents (e.g. tenant agreement, short legislation)

Students

Students
Undergraduate
Any level
30 students
Project
6 hours per student
Students self-assign
Teams of 4
Expected outcomes and deliverables

Depending on the specific requirements of the project, on completion a client can expect:

1. A summary of all the necessary steps required to edit the document/project

2. A document with tracked changes showing the relevant editing

3. The finished edited document

4. A brief statement about areas for improvement when creating similar documents (if required)

Project timeline
  • February 1, 2019
    Experience start
  • March 7, 2019
    75% Check In
  • March 21, 2019
    Experience end

Project Examples

Requirements

The course focuses on two main areas of technical editing; (a) editing the document to the specifications of the author/industry and (b) editing the document for conversion to plain language. Depending on the needs of the client, it is possible to do both (a) and (b), or just one of them - ultimately it comes down to what the author requires.

Here are some short examples of projects and in-class activities we have completed in the past:

1. Editing a product manual created by a Chinese manufacturer who was translating from Mandarin into English, but was using unusual idiomatic expressions.

2. Editing information from an epidemiology document explaining the spread of fentanyl for use in a neighbourhood meeting.

3. Designing a draft of the Charter of Rights for use by high school students in Canada.

4. Editing a short story by a writer who is a second language learner of English.

Additional company criteria

Companies must answer the following questions to submit a match request to this experience:

Be available for a quick phone call with the instructor to initiate your relationship and confirm your scope is an appropriate fit for the course.

If specific software is required for completion of project (e.g. Adobe technical communication suite) please let us know in advance.

Provide a dedicated contact who is available to answer periodic emails or phone calls over the duration of the project to address students' questions.