Learning from Editors

I've had the opportunity to work with some of the best editors in the technical writing business. Barbara Roll, for example, taught me more about writing with her incisive, perfect edits than any college education could have. She showed me where I wasn't being clear, where I was off-track, and how something could be better said.

Just as importantly, she reinforced when the writing was on the mark.

Barb was one member on the Aldus documentation team that was one of the most amazing groups I had ever worked with. Everyone was so incredibly talented that daily I wondered when they would realize that I was struggling to meet their impossibly high standards. I found out later that each member felt pushed to their limits to produce the best written, illustrated, and designed manuals in existance.