Developmental Editing

For my final project in Developmental Editing, I reviewed Jakob Nielsen’s useit.com Web site. This analysis applies to the site as it existed in October, 2002.

Assignment

“Select an article, white paper, chapter, or other document that you feel is in need of a developmental edit. The paper should be approximately eight to ten printed pages in length. This document can be from your work, but should not contain any proprietary or non-disclosure information. It is recommended that you select an article regarding a topic that interests you, or you are knowledgeable of.

“Read the article and create a project summary and document specification. Also create a pre-edit and post-edit outline, and write ten recommendations for content and organizational improvement.”

Final Project

The final project consists of five sections: the project summary, the document specification, an outline of the site as it existed, a recommended outline, and a set of recommendations for content and organizational improvement.

• Project Summary
  The project summary discusses these questions
• The thesis of the document
• The reason for selecting the document
• The status of development (new, revised, incomplete)
• Document Specification
  The document specification is based upon the first nine bullets on pg. 75 of Technical Editing, by Judith A. Tarutz (1992).
• Pre-Edit Outline
  • Existing Outline/Site Structure
  • Home Page Detailed Outline
• Post-Edit Outline
  • Suggested Outline/Site Structure
• Recommendations
  Each recommendation includes
  • Clear identification of the issue
  • Context example or cross-reference in the document
  • Specific recommendation for improvement