Communication During the Editing Process

While looking for articles along the lines of communication during the editing process, like some of you mentioned, I have been attempting to narrow my topic. The idea for my topic came from the work experience that I talked about in class the other day. Some of the articles that I chose are more about workplace teamwork and collaboration in general but dedicate some discussion to editing specifically. For example, one of the articles that I selected from the Business Communication Quarterly deals with a "process-oriented approach to teamwork". Although, this article is not written about editing per se, it does mention the use of track changes and the difficulties encountered when they are not used.

As with Jessi's and Lindsay's projects, I also plan on addressing how technology with the introduction of various editing software programs and tools, such as track changes, has affected collaboration in the editing process. One article, "Learned Correctors to Technical Editors" details the progression of the technical editing profession. I would like to include this article to show issues that editors have faced in the past and the solutions that were offered to correct them. Similarly, I plan to include a few articles that discuss different approaches used by editors and the varying levels of effectiveness with each. I realize now that it may sound like my topic is too broad, but I think where I am going with this is "Here are the problems editors have encountered in communicating during the editing process" and "Here are some possible solutions and pros and cons of different methods".

My overall theme is going to be communication and collaboration during the process of editing documents using a computer. The book that I borrowed from Scott titled "Electronic Literacies in the Workplace" includes a chapter ,"Online Editing, Mark-up Models, and the Workplace lives of Editors and Writers", which is directly related. Also, another article titled "A Model of Norm Development for Computer Mediated Teams" deals with teamwork in general. All of these articles includes lessons that when taken collectively would make for an effective editing process. While I realize that this topic is nothing groundbreaking, I am interested in this research so that I will know what to expect if I were to hold an editing position and so that I will be able to employ various editing approaches depending on my workplace's preferences. From this research, I will hopefully be in a position to make suggestions during the process. I think this research could also be extended to other professions that require group collaboration (as do most) and would be helpful for students entering into the workforce.