What Is Technical About Technical Editing?

Abstract

Background: This article reflects on the nature of technical editing alongside descriptive data from editors and editing instructors. Literature review: Technical editing is rarely the focus of scholarship in the field, and broader studies in emerging content trends and project management practices rarely address implications for technical editing. Studies that have touched on technical editing have also noted emerging roles, but the implications of these roles remain underexplored. Though editing has long been a prominent course in technical and professional communication (TPC) programs, little scholarship is devoted to developing pedagogies. Research questions: 1. What are the features of technical editing in industry and in the classroom? 2. What tasks, subject matter, topics, and roles are associated with technical editing in the classroom and in industry? Research methodology: I present survey data from editors and editing instructors from a larger study on trends in technical and professional editing. In this article, I focus on the types of content that editors take on, the types of editing that they do, the industries in which they work, and their job titles. Alongside these data, I present data from editing teachers, including the topics and roles that they include in their courses. Results and conclusions: The field has an important role to play in theorizing professional and technical editing, including attending to quality as a distinguishing characteristic, drawing from and shaping other TPC knowledge domains, and directly addressing accessibility. I conclude by identifying avenues for future research in technical editing and the ways in which we might think more critically about how we use and define technical editing in the classroom and the workplace.