Specializations

One of the most interesting things about the field of editing is the wide variety of documents you'll find yourself working on, particularly if you edit on a freelance basis. In this course, we'll go over some of the main types of documents you'll see and discuss some of their peculiarities and what issues you should be on the lookout for.

Technical Editing

A technical editor works on a wide variety of documents, including printed materials, electronic materials, and even marketing materials. Such editors work in a variety of fields—from engineering to computers to web development to science. A technical editor must have excellent analytical thinking skills, as well as good problem solving skills.

By the end of this lesson, you'll have a better idea of what technical editing entails. Before we get started, let's first discuss technical writing.

Defining Technical Writing

Technical writing is a form of technical communication. It explains technology and related topics to both technical and non-technical audiences. Technical writing provides deliverables such as user manuals, technical manuals, specifications, white papers, journal articles, and technical reports. Topics consist of soft and hard sciences and technology, including computers, software, and electronics.

Technical writing should be clear and concise. It should not be ambiguous, wordy, or full of unnecessary jargon. The content and style of a technical document depends heavily on its audience and its intended purpose. The purpose of technical writing is generally to communicate concepts, but it may also be to provide directions. The audience of technical writing can vary widely and is probably the most important factor in determining style; for example, more straightforward and common language should be used when writing for a non-technical or consumer audience.

Types of Technical Documents

Technical writing can fall into two distinct categories:

• Procedural technical writing: This type of writing translates complex technical ideas/concepts/steps into something simple and easy to follow.

• Persuasive technical writing: This type of writing attempts to sell products or services or to change behaviors by describing the benefits of such products or services.

There are several different types of technical documents within these two categories:

• Marketing materials: This includes documents such as advertisements, brochures, catalogs, and web copy.

• Traditional technical documentation: This includes documents such as journal articles, specifications, repair guides, and research papers.

• End-user guides: This includes manuals for users of products such as hardware, software, cellular phones, and electronics.

Responsibilities

Along with basic editing involving spelling and grammar, a technical editor's responsibility could include any combination of the following:

• Checking facts and references

• Ensuring consistency

• Verifying all graphics, figures, and tables

• Checking screen shots

• Ensuring that the work matches the audience

• Testing software or hardware

• Identifying any problems and mistakes

• Adding headings

• Defining terminology

• Identifying areas in which clarity is needed

Editing Considerations

There are several different considerations that you should remember when undertaking a technical document. The first, and most important, is the intended audience. Who is the document written for? Quite often, the document is written by someone with a technical background for an audience without one. Your job as a technical editor is to determine the suitability of the material for its intended audience. This might involve maintaining the specialized language or it may mean simplifying it. Also consider whether you must check the technical accuracy of the material. If you are working in-house at a company as a technical editor, it is quite likely that you will have to be able to do so.

Medical and Scientific Editing

In this part of the lesson, we are going to go over editing for the medical and scientific fields. We'll start by reviewing the most common form of medical and scientific writing that editors work with—journal articles—and then we'll go over the writing itself. By the end, you'll be familiar with medical and scientific journals, their publication process and the types of articles they contain, and some of the peculiarities of medical and scientific writing.

Medical and Scientific Journals

Medical and scientific journals are forms of academic publications. They serve as a medium for introducing new research findings and critiques of existing research. These journals are generally written by experts and advanced students, are peer reviewed before publication, and serve to distribute knowledge to other experts and students, as well as establish the reputation of those in a particular field. Unlike magazines and newspapers, medical and scientific journals are rarely read casually; they are read to gain knowledge, to stay abreast in one's field of study, and to find new areas of possible research. As such, the articles in these journals are often extremely detailed, technical, and specific; they should contain no fact or opinion that is not verified or cited.

Before we discuss the journal publication process and your role as an editor in it, let's take a minute to look at both scientific and medical journals individually to get a better idea of their purpose.

Medical journals

Medical journals are also sometimes called public health journals. As with scientific journals, medical journals encompass a wide range of topics and are often highly specialized. A few examples include the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology, the Annals of Human Biology, and the Journal of Orthopaedic Nursing. Medical journals are typically read by doctors, nurses, and health care professionals and students, rather than scientists. These articles are extremely important in the medical field; they influence the treatment patients receive and the way that diseases are managed. Their findings should be precise and replicable.

Scientific journals

In general, scientific journals are highly specialized to specific fields, sub-fields, and topics. There are thousands of different scientific journals, including Nature, a general and multidisciplinary journal, and the more specialized Journal of Molecular Biology and Trends in Neurosciences. Articles in scientific journals must be extremely detailed; they should include sufficient detail so that the experiment or calculation can be replicated by another researcher. The work presented in these articles becomes part of the permanent scientific record and forms the basis for future study and advancement. Scientific journal articles are used both in research and in education.

The Review Process

All medical and scientific journal articles undergo a review process before they are published. After an author (or authors, as is the case with many articles) submits a manuscript to a journal, an editor from the journal first reviews the manuscript to determine whether it is suitable for that specific journal and if it meets the general standards of the journal. At this point, they may reject the article outright or they may accept the submission and move it along in the review process. If it is accepted, it gets sent for a peer review.

Let's stop here for a moment and discuss peer reviewing.

The Peer Review Process

Manuscripts accepted by a journal are almost always sent for peer review. This is because peer review is a crucial component in establishing a reliable body of knowledge and research; as we discussed above, these articles are used in education, for future research, and in current practice, so it's important that they be accurate.

Peer reviewing is also known as refereeing, and peer reviewers are often called referees. You might be wondering now who these referees are; they are experts in the particular field of the article. Peer review involves subjecting an author's work, ideas, or research to the scrutiny of these experts before said work can be published. What this does is ensure that irrelevant findings, unwarranted claims, incorrect information, and personal views are not spread to the field as fact.

An article up for publication is sent out to two or three referees. The referees are usually anonymous and independent volunteers and are often not told the identity of the author. They then read the article and return an evaluation to the journal editor, noting problems and suggestions, as well as offering recommendations. These recommendations are generally one of the following:

1. That the article be unconditionally accepted and published.

2. That the article be accepted after revisions have been made.

3. That the article be rejected but that the author be encouraged to resubmit it after revision.

4. That the article be rejected outright.

Review Process

When the journal editor receives the peer review evaluation, he or she then reviews it and makes a decision on whether to publish the article. The editor does not have to take the suggestions of the referees; instead, the editor uses them to make his or her final decision. After the editor makes a decision, the material, including the referee evaluations, is returned to the author. If the article has been accepted but requires revision, publication is held until the author returns the revised manuscript. Whether or not revisions are required, the article is subject to further editing, most often by the journal itself. This entire process is quite lengthy and can take months, or even longer, from submission to publication.

Medical and Scientific Journals: The Role of an Editor

So where do you fit in?

The answer is, it depends! If you are a freelance editor, your role may come in well before the manuscript is originally submitted. Many authors, especially those who do not speak English as a first language, seek out editing before submission because having clear, concise, and correct writing will obviously increase their chances of publication. Quite a few journals encourage authors to have their work professionally edited prior to submission.

Freelance editors commonly receive articles in the midst of the revision process. They often come along with the referees' comments (e.g., "On pg. 10, para. 1, what did you mean by 'XYZ?'"). These comments are generally addressed by the author as they are often content issues. However, they are sometimes basic grammar and language issues an editor can easily correct. If possible, ask your client for the journal's submission guidelines. At least try to get the name of the journal they are submitting the article to. You should be able to find a journal's guidelines on its website; look for a section called "For Authors," "Author Guidelines," "Submissions," or something similar. You might find the information you seek in the "About Us" section.

Some journals also outsource their editing or final draft proofreading, and you may find that this is where you come in. They will provide you with a style guide to follow and specific instructions on what they are looking for (i.e., an edit or a proofread).

Now let's go over the types of articles you may come across, as well as the general components of medical and scientific articles.

Types of Scientific and Medical Articles

There are a few different types of articles you will come across when editing medical and scientific journals.

1. Letters/Communications: These are short descriptions of important current findings. They are viewed as urgent and are often pushed through the revision/publication process quickly.

2. Research notes: These are similar to letters, but they are less urgent and are subject to the usual processing time.

3. Articles: Articles are usually five to twenty pages long, but they can be much longer. These are complete descriptions of current, original findings.

4. Review articles: Review articles do not present original research projects but summarize or use the results of many articles on a particular topic.

5. Case reports: A case report includes detailed information about an individual patient—the symptoms he or she was experiencing, his or her medical history, and the diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of the patient. A case report usually describes an unusual occurrence, unexpected outcome, or a unique treatment approach.

General Organization of Articles

Most journal articles follow the same format. These, of course, vary, depending on the journal and type of article, but the following are the sections you will most often come across:

1. Title: While many journals have limits on the length of titles, journal article titles are nonetheless much longer than those in newspapers or magazines. They should be as clear and informative as possible—they must be straightforward and descriptive. If it is at all possible, the title should start with the main keyword of the article. When writing or editing a journal article title, it is also important to consider whether the title is searchable; such articles most often are entered into databases for future reference by scholars and researchers. So along with being specific, acronyms are best avoided in titles and scientific names should be written out.

2. Abstract: An abstract is usually fairly short. Most journals have a word limit for abstracts and require a specific format. Most often, an abstract is a single paragraph without any subheadings, but sometimes subheadings are included. An abstract is a summary of the entire article and should contain shortened versions of the purpose, methodology, results, and conclusion of the study.

3. Table of Contents: This is a list giving the page location of specific information.

4. Keywords: Most journal articles include a list of keywords. These are words that characterize the article's topic. The number of keywords included differs from journal to journal.

5. Introduction: The introduction describes the current state of the field of study, as well as what led to the question/hypothesis of the research. This question/hypothesis must be explicitly stated in the introduction. Introductions often include a literature review of the topic.

6. Materials and Methods: The materials and methods section presents the research design, details the materials and methods used in the study, and describes how the study was analyzed. This section should include sufficient information for the replication of the study.

7. Results: The results section presents the findings of the research. The findings should not be interpreted in this section.

8. Discussion: The discussion summarizes, interprets, and (like the name suggests) discusses the findings, and it offers some conclusions and direction for future research.

9. References: The references section may list all the sources used in the course of the research but is typically limited to those cited in the article.

Medical and Scientific Writing

You will find that there are quite a few peculiarities/specificities in medical and scientific writing that you don't see outside the field. Let's go over some of these aspects and also some issues that you'll need to look out for.

Singular and Plural Forms

While most words have obvious singular and plural forms, many Latin- and Greek-derived nouns do not. In colloquial language, the plural form of such nouns is often used as the singular as well, or the plural form is Anglicized. This is not done in scientific and medical writing. So watch out for words such as data (data is plural; the singular form is datum) and medium (the plural of which is media, not mediums).

Below is a list of Latin- and Greek-derived words you may come across when editing medical and scientific documents.

Wordiness and Other Common Issues

Scientific and medical writing should be clear and concise. Its function is to convey information to others in the field, so it should be authoritative and should never speak down to the reader, but there is no need to be verbose. Do not be afraid to remove wordiness or change elaborate phrases to simpler words. For example, "due to the fact that" can become "because" and "it is often the case that" can simply be "often."

Along with being concise, medical and scientific writing should be precise. If the subjects of a study are patients, call them patients rather than subjects. Be sure to avoid colloquialisms and metaphors. As well as being precise, hyperbolic modifiers should be avoided; words such as very and extremely are not often necessary and can be removed without changing the meaning of a sentence.

Long strings of modifiers and long compound terms can muddle the meaning of a sentence, making it unclear whether the adjective or noun is being modified. Unfortunately, these are common in medical and scientific documents. Try removing unnecessary terms or rephrasing the sentence for clarity. Consider the following sentences:

• Original: A new type reading ability high-school student performance test was designed.

• Revised: The researchers designed a new test to measure the reading ability of high-school students.

The second sentence is clear, straightforward, and easy to read and understand.

Bias

Medical and scientific writing should be as free from bias as possible. This means using inclusive language, treating all humans with respect and dignity, and avoiding words and phrases that are stereotypical, prejudiced, offensive, or demeaning.

Medical and scientific writing should always be free of gender bias and should be gender neutral whenever possible. If the subjects of a paper are all men, then of course they should be referred to with masculine nouns and pronouns, but if the subjects are men and women, they must be referred to as both. When gender is ambiguous, it's best to use neutral language; it is no longer acceptable to use masculine nouns and pronouns in this situation. Whenever possible and appropriate, use gender-neutral terminology (e.g., firefighter instead of fireman). It is also important to note the difference between gender and sex; gender encompasses social, cultural, economic, and historical factors, but sex is a biological feature. This distinction is recent but increasingly common. Sexual orientation should only be included in a study if it is scientifically relevant, and the term "sexual preference" should not be used at all. Do not use "gay" as a noun, although you can use heterosexual and homosexual as adjectives.

Another form of bias can occur when describing disabilities or diseases. Individuals should never be depersonalized by referring to them as their disease or disability. For example, you should not refer to someone as "an epileptic." To maintain bias-free language, you could say, "a person with epilepsy." A person is not disabled: he or she is a person with a disability. The difference in wording is subtle, but the difference in meaning is great. As well, be sure to avoid describing humans as "suffering from" a disease or disability in order to avoid victimizing them and avoid terms that imply helplessness. Last, the term "handicap" should not be used to describe a person; a handicap describes a physical or environmental impediment. One is not a handicap but is simply a person with a handicap.

Finally, medical and scientific writing should also be free of bias with regard to ethnicity and race. The Council of Science Editors (CSE) recommends, "Whenever possible, descriptions of human populations or large social groups should draw on sharply definable criteria such as country of birth or habitation or self-description." When religion, race, nationality, or ethnicity are used as criteria in a study, the study must justifiably explain why this was done and how such factors were measured. The CSE also cautions that race is a cultural construct and is not precisely defined in biological terms and that its definition can vary depending on the person or group defining it.

Tense

Medical and scientific writing has a way of using tenses that might seem confusing and inconsistent to those unfamiliar with the field. Luckily, while the tense use is a little different, it's actually quite simple!

Here are the basic rules: Use past tense to report results, but use present tense to discuss them. Past tense is also used to describe what was done in an experiment as well as the results of others. Present tense is used to describe established facts and general truths and is the tense that should be used in the "Discussion" section.

Active versus Passive Voice

Another aspect unique to medical and scientific writing is the preference for passive voice. As writers and editors, we are often told to avoid passive constructions, and for good reason. Passive voice makes writing sound weak and clunky, and even worse, a recent study found that those without a high school education have a hard time finding the meaning of passive sentences. But passive voice has its time and place, particularly in scientific writing.

Let's quickly go over passive and active voice before we get into why passive is favored in scientific writing.

In the active voice, the subject is the one doing the action; the sentence tells the reader who is doing what.

• The girl threw the ball.

The passive voice tells the reader what was done, and sometimes the "doer" of the action is not even mentioned.

• The ball was thrown by the girl.

• The ball was thrown.

One reason to use passive voice is that it draws attention to the thing being acted on, rather than the subject doing the acting. This is the reason it is used in medical and scientific writing; the actor is not important, the action is.

Consider these two sentences:

• Next, I poured 50 ml of water into the beaker.

• Next, 50 ml of water were poured into the beaker.

Removing the actor from the first sentence makes the step clearer; remember, when writing about a study or experiment, it's important to ensure that it will be replicable by those reading it. Thus, it is the steps of the experiment that are important, not the one performing them.

Do note, however, that the active voice should be used elsewhere in medical and scientific writing whenever possible. For example, "It was reported by Smith (1999) that…" should be changed to "Smith (1999) reported that…"

Numbers

Numbers are something you will come across frequently in medical and scientific writing, probably more than in any other field. Let's go over some basic rules regarding numbers. Remember, different style guides often have different instructions for writing numbers and the symbols and terminology that come with numbers. Still, we can set some ground rules.

The tilde (~) can mean "approximately equal to."

• Be aware that some ESL speakers will use the tilde to indicate a range; change this to an en dash.

En dashes are used in ranges to mean "to."

• Never use an en dash when the word "from" precedes the number and never with the word "between."

Units of measurement should conform to the International System of Units.

• Put a space between numbers and units; the exception to this is the percent sign.

Units are the same for both plural and singular measurements.

• 7 g not 7 gs

Units of measurement do not use periods unless the unit falls at the end of a sentence.

• 8 hrs not 8 hrs.

Numbers at the beginning of a sentence should be written out or the sentence should be rearranged.

• If a sentence begins with a number, the unit of measurement should also be written out.

• Seventy-five seconds . . . not Seventy-five s . . . or 75 s . . .

Instructions for spelling out numbers vary from guide to guide, but numbers one through ten are generally spelled out. Always verify instructions for spelling out numbers in the appropriate style guide.

Terminology

Medical and scientific writing is filled with particular and peculiar terminology that, unless it is a field that you have previously studied, you may not be familiar with. Don't panic, though! You can still be an excellent editor without being an expert in horse anesthesiology or whatever the specific topic may be. Let's go over some basic considerations when it comes to editing medical and scientific writing, and then we'll discuss the various resources available to you.

First, keep in mind that many medical and scientific words use Latin or Greek prefixes and suffixes. While it is not incorrect to do so, these are generally not mixed (i.e., Latin goes with Latin, Greek goes with Greek). The preference for compound words using prefixes/suffixes is to close them up rather than to use hyphens. For example, prediabetes rather than pre-diabetes.

Some words derived from a foreign language can have multiple spellings in English. The general rule is to use the spelling that is phonetically unambiguous. Also, any backformations not found in a dictionary should be changed to more standard language.

The most common issue you'll likely encounter in medical and scientific writing is the use of jargon and casual language. This issue is easily missed because jargon and casual language are so commonly used as to seem legitimate.

• Short forms should not be used in formal writing.

Example: Laboratory not Lab

• Common, but ultimately casual, wording should be avoided.

Example: Medical record not Chart

• References to anatomic regions should be specific and correct.

Example: Right side of the heart not Right heart

• Euphemisms should not be used to "soften" reality.

Example: The mice were killed not The mice were sacrificed

• Nouns should not be used in ways other than their proper/formal meaning.

Example: No abnormalities were found not No pathology was found

• When providing laboratory data, a value must be given.

Example: Pulse rate was not Pulse was

Even with these basic rules in mind, editing medical and scientific work still requires a bit of research to ensure correctness. As an editor, it is your job to ensure that all terms and phrases are correct in spelling and use. Since there is no way that you can know it all, let's go over some of the resources you can use in your editing.

Resources

Editing scientific and medical documents can be difficult due to the vast amount of information they contain and the wide range of topics they can cover. Thankfully, there is a wealth of resources available to help you edit such documents.

Google Scholar: This is one of the simplest tools at your disposal; it's free, available to everyone, and easy to use. One way to verify a term or phrase is to search for it using Google Scholar. Remember that putting something in quotation marks will show you only that exact phrase. This is helpful in comparing how many times one phrase/term is used compared to a similar phrase/term when trying to discern which is correct (or which is most correct), if an article is necessary, etc.

Wikipedia: While one would never cite Wikipedia in their research, it's perfect for editors working on something with which they aren't completely familiar. It has become increasingly legitimate and strives for complete accuracy and correctness.

Dictionary: An obvious choice for editing anything, keep a dictionary (or a dictionary's website) handy at all times. Many medical and scientific words won't be included, but a regular dictionary is always necessary when editing.

Medical dictionary: Another obvious choice, a medical dictionary, will be helpful when making judgment calls or verifying terminology.

AMA Manual of Style: The American Medical Association (AMA) Manual of Style specifies the writing style and citation system used for many scholarly medical publications. You will find it incredibly useful when editing medical documents, even if the author is following a different style guide.

CSE Manual: The Council of Science Editors (CSE)'s Scientific Style and Format manual contains a huge amount of information for science editors on topics ranging from grammar to measurements to citations and it is used both academically and for publications.

Encyclopedia of Scientific Units: The scientific community has a standard of measurement that must be used in medical and scientific writing, called the System of International (SI) units. As there is a large number of measurements, this book will be an invaluable resource.

Abbreviations and Acronyms

Watch out for unnecessary and excessive abbreviation. Medical and scientific writers love to abbreviate, but an abundance of abbreviation is tedious for readers at best and confusing at worst. If an abbreviation/acronym is introduced and used only once or twice (or, even worse, not at all), remove it and simply spell the word or phrase out. If you, as an editor, find the abbreviations in a document confusing, it's likely that the reader will as well, and you may want to make a note about this issue for the author.

Acronyms and abbreviations should be defined upon first use, unless they are extremely common (e.g., DNA). If you come across an undefined acronym, you may very well find it defined several pages later. If this happens, simply move the introduction. If it remains undefined, see if a simple search brings up the definition; otherwise, flag the issue for the author. Some publications have lists of common abbreviations that do not need defining, so be sure to check any style guide you are following.

A final note about abbreviation: an abbreviation/acronym introduced in the abstract should be introduced upon first use in the body of the text as well.

Summary

If you are a freelance editor, you're probably most familiar with technical, medical, and scientific writing. While each of these types of writing makes use of many of the same elements, technical writing tends to be the most straightforward and methodical. Technical writing includes scholarly writing, but it also includes the text of technical manuals, user manuals, specifications, and technical reports. Medical and scientific essays are more often than not subject to the peer review process.

It's the editor's role to shape a document according to the writer's wishes and the publisher's specifications. Paying special attention to things such as wordiness, bias, incorrect source citations, and improper use of active and passive voice will help you produce a quality document. Medical articles and documentation make use of a lot of terminology that very few people are exposed to on a daily basis, and the number of acronyms, abbreviations, initialisms, and the like is absolutely intimidating. The best thing to do is methodically and patiently check every single usage of every single important term and make sure that the document delivers its conclusion with confidence.

Last Updated: 09/29/2022