Services

MacDonald Editorial provides a range of services aimed at the technical writing and publishing communities. This page provides a quick breakdown of the kinds of editing you might be looking for:

Developmental Editing

A developmental editor considers the organization, clarity, pedagogy, and audience of your writing. In the case of technical writing, a developmental editor will help you polish your explanations and present the material in a way that’s optimized for reader understanding.

The developmental editor works closely with the author, and usually asks questions or makes suggestions rather than making wholesale changes. Some of the things a development editor might do include:

  • Suggest moving a section from one place in the manuscript to another, for better clarity and flow
  • Point out a logical error that’s not explained in the manuscript
  • Suggest alternative wording to make an introductory paragraph or transition work better
  • Ask whether the intended audience has sufficient background to understand a point the author is making, or whether elaboration is needed

Most of all, the developmental editor acts as a potential reader. They may not have exactly the same background as the desired audience, but they’re trained to put themselves in the audience’s place. If a developmental editor says “You lost me here,” there’s a good chance some of your readers may be lost too. The developmental editor will work with you to determine what’s missing and how to fix it.

Substantive Editing

This type of editing is sometimes called content editing or comprehensive editing, and has a lot of overlap with developmental editing. A substantive editor focuses more on the content and the ease of comprehension for the reader. Some of the things a substantive editor might do include:

  • Suggest adding an example to reduce cognitive load and improve comprehension
  • Noting that the code in a code block doesn’t match the text description of that code
  • Suggest changes to focus the document on outcomes for the reader, rather than description of the technology
  • Ask about an omission of an expected feature, or detail on a use case for the product

Copyediting

Copyediting (sometimes called line editing) focuses on sentence-level correctness. A copyeditor helps you find missed words, contradictions, and logical errors at a finer scale than a development editor. A copyeditor also looks at word choice, grammar, spelling, and punctuation, usually by adhering to a style guide. Unlike a developmental editor, a copyeditor will usually make changes directly to a manuscript when the need for a change is clear. If it isn’t clear, they’ll normally query the author. Some things a copyeditor might do include:

  • Correct spelling grammar, syntax, and punctuation, while preserving the author’s original voice and intent as closely as possible.
  • Identify awkward language or explanations at the sentence level and suggest fixes.
  • Ensure that a term is treated consistently throughout the document, as in: should vim be plain text or monospaced font? Should it always be lower-cased, even at the beginning of a sentence?
  • Create a style sheet to track those sorts of style decisions, so that future authors and maintainers can follow them.

Project Management

A project manager coordinates other aspects of the editorial or publication process. They might supervise the work of other editors in the workflow, as well as typesetting, illustrations, and indexing. In a formal publishing environment, a project manager may interface with the Production department to ensure a smooth progression through layout and printing, helping to resolve any issues particular to a publication.

What Kind of Editing Do You Need?

If you work in a traditional publishing environment, you’re likely familiar with these roles and which ones you need for a given project. However, we provide services to any kind of content creators, from self-publishers to newsletter creators, from companies with blogs to companies with extensive documentation sets and developer portals.

If you’re a technical company with a blog or learning center: We can provide development editing and copyediting services for tutorials and blog posts before you publish them. We’ll work with you to determine the goal for your content and the level of editing you’re looking for. If your developers are doing the writing, our constructive feedback can help them improve their writing skills so the task is easier and quicker in the future. If you’re buying content from a third-party provider, we can work with it to ensure it meets your goals for your audience and projects the voice you want for your company.

If you’re a technical company with a document base: We provide review and organization of your existing document library, with a focus on creating a coherent whole that’s easy for users to navigate and highlights the aspects of your product that you want to emphasize. We edit and rework existing documentation to meet editorial standards and improve usefulness to readers. We can also propose plans for maintenance and creation of new documentation.

If you’re a prospective book author: If you’re still at the idea stage, we provide feedback on your proposal, examining your positioning, your prospective market, your ideal reader, and the best way to make a pitch to publishers, if that’s the route you’d like to take. We can also help with creating an outline before you start writing. If you have a manuscript already, we offer development editing, substantive editing, copyediting, or project management.

No matter what type of editing you choose, if we determine the document has needs beyond the scope you defined, we’ll work with you to determine how to proceed. It’s common to have a document that seems to only need a copyedit, but that edit uncovers major structural or logical issues that require a developmental edit to fix. We’ll determine the scope of the project with you before any work begins.