Technical Editing

Typical documents

• technical and scientific manuscripts
• technical and scientific papers
• academic theses
• technical manuals
• technical specifications
• user manuals
• work instructions
• policy and procedures manuals
• educational textbooks
• technical reports
• company annual reports
• grant applications

Credentials

Our editors have decades of experience preparing print and online texts for release or publication.

Each editor has been formally accredited by the Institute of Professional Editors, the body officially endorsed in Australia to accredit editors. Accreditation is by examination.

Although domain knowledge is not traditionally considered a prerequisite for a good editor, our academic background in mathematics, science and technology has proven useful in strengthening the documents we are typically asked to edit.

Offerings

Abelard Consulting offers the full range of common document preparation services, from simple proofreading through to copyediting and structural editing.

Our edits typically consider:

• typos
• unconventional or distracting grammar, punctuation and style
• sentences that are too long for immediate comprehension
• wrong, vague or potentially misleading word choice
• internal inconsistencies (of style, statement, tone and English variant)
• suitability for the intended readership
• poor structure (both in paragraphing and overall organisation)
• excessive nominalisation and noun-clustering
• mismatches between text and accompanying tables and graphics
• legal and sensitivity issues (copyright, exclusivity etc.)
• and many other issues that adversely affect readability and usability.

Value

Many think of editors as people who just correct typos, grammatical errors and unconventional punctuation, tasks that can easily be assigned to software plug-ins and AI bots. But professional editors do much more.

With their special skills editors can quickly turn a piece of convoluted, vague, ambiguous and tortuous text into simpler, clearer text that is effortless to read and immediately understood. This cuts both time-thievery – stealing readers’ time by expecting them to read for longer than they should have to – and reader alienation (where readers lose engagement with the document and may even abandon reading).

Alienation from documents that are to accompany consumer products (such as user manuals) can damage the brand … especially now that social media is endemic.