Editing Philosophy
This page outlines the main principles that editors at DocuWright Technical Services follow.
First, we believe that the editor is NOT the author. You are the author of your document, and your finished document should sound like your writing rather than like our writing. Our editors will correct errors and smooth off the rough edges of your work, but we normally think that you should be able to recognize the finished document as being your writing, rather than ours.
Second, one of our goals is for everything we do to be done "on purpose," rather than being an accident or the result of our own whim or personal preference. When we return your finished document to you, we will also send a short explanation of significant changes. For example, if we have reorganized the main points in your journal article, we will explain why we believe that the new sequence of points creates a more powerful impact than the original sequence did. If we have moved the introduction of your research paper into the body, or have moved your conclusion to the introduction, we will explain why we felt that the material was more effective in that location.
Third, at DocuWright Technical Services, we believe that clear, persuasive, effective communication is a more important goal than blind adherence to pedantic "rules" of grammar or usage. We follow "the rules" whenever we can and when it makes sense to do so, but if we can create a more persuasive sentence by splitting an infinitive or ending the sentence with a preposition, we will do so without hesitation. We don't think your sales brochure should sound as if it was written by your third-grade English teacher. The purpose of a sales brochure is to sell your product. If a document does not accomplish its primary purpose, then it has failed – no matter how correct, elegant, witty, or amusing the final language might be.
We believe that for most non-fiction writing, simple, direct language is more effective than flowery, ornate, or pompous language. In The Elements of Style, Will Strunk said, "Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts." We believe that advice and try to follow it whenever it makes sense to do so. When we see a phrase such as "prior to commencing the initiation of work activities," we will normally condense it down to "before starting work," unless you have a reason for retaining the more verbose language.
The Chicago Manual of Style is the style manual we follow most often, but we have access to many other style manuals, including APA, MLA, and GPO. If your document is required to follow a particular style manual, please let us know. We follow standard American usage for spelling, grammar, and punctuation (but we are familiar with British style), and we prefer to use the "serial comma" before conjunctions if your style requirements allow it.
We believe that DocuWright Technical Services will make a valuable contribution to your document. Since you won't need to get bogged down in the technical details of how to format and present your ideas, you will be left free to create those ideas. Your vision combined with our presentation skills will make the perfect team for your next documentation project.