Client Project

For the Client Project, you will work as an editor with a writer from your group.  You will edit a technical document (instructions, policy manual, proposal, business plan, brochures, newsletters, etc).  This can be a document from a previous course.  You will be submitting a possible document (in Week 11) for me to approve.

When editing a document, you cannot edit for everything.  Instead, you will choose 2 or 3 ways of comprehensive editing.  You can choose among these.  Note: This will depend on the type of document it is.

  • Style;
  • Visual design;
  • Organization (information architecture);
  • Illustrations;
  • Copyediting
  • Content

After you review the document, you will need to:

  • analyze the document’s purpose and readers and its current strengths and needs;
  • determine the objectives in editing;
  • determine the deliverables;
  • create a schedule and milestones.

Each of these is discussed at length below.

  • Analysis and Evaluation: How well does the document achieve its goals in the current form?  Does it meet the needs or purposes of the readers?  For example, if it is an instructional manual, does it currently help or hinder the reader from performing the task?  Discuss the problems you propose to solve.
  • Objectives and Deliverables: The objectives of editing grow out of your analysis.  When you understand what the document needs are and its purpose, you can decide what your objective may be.  For instance, maybe you have noticed that the language is too harsh.  If so, you may decide that you will edit for style and content to remedy this.  The deliverables are the products you will offer the client.  You have to provide a digital copy, but will it be a copy that can be updated?  Will you also print pages that can be reproduced?
  • Schedule: What will you do to accomplish the objectives and when will you do it?  Categories of tasks include editing of the text.  For example, when/what days will you perform editing for style?  Or for content?  Or for illustrations?  You also need to schedule meetings with the client to keep them updated on your progress.  When will these take place? A preliminary meeting is useful to establish a shared understanding of what needs to be done.  A midpoint meeting can be included as a milestone.  And you must meet at the end of the editing to discuss the editing.  Make a schedule.

At the end of the semester, you will submit as ONE DOCUMENT:

  • Original document
  • Letter of transmittal: This is a letter or memo that accompanies any edited document.  In this letter, you begin by offering goodwill to the writer, remind them of the edited document and the editing you performed (organization?, style?).  Then you will list the major improvements to be made (phrase it positively) from the most to least important.  You can also give suggestions for next steps. Then close the letter.
  • The edited document WITH TRACK CHANGES
  • A style sheet (review the chapter on style sheet), but briefly, a style sheet helps you to remember what you decided so that you can make the same choice later in the document. It does not list every editorial choice but only those that may recur in the document.  It includes choices for which the editor had to consult a dictionary, handbook, style manual, or other source, as well as terms or spellings for which several options are available.  You can make choices about punctuation, abbreviations, spelling, capitalization, hyphenation, etc.

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