This sample involves a real world client with a document in need of editing and/or revision. Working with the client, I made a new document with changes and additions listed in the below proposal.
The Writing Center has two documents they use for tutors
hired by the college. One is the Tutor’s
Handbook, which has been around for some years and the Writing Associates
Handbook that is very new. The Director of the Writing and
Reading Center has approved my acting as this document’s editor for new
revisions.
Needed Changes
- The present handbook has an out of date logo on its cover.
- It lacks a table of contents
- It needs a section devoted to fully on-line classes and their support
- There is no section addressing the use of Skype based tutoring and screen sharing
- The present form is austere. There are few screen shots or illustrations to help users understand some of its instructions
- There is a Student profile as part of page 4, but there is no explanation of what it is for.
- Section 2 explaining the WA Program: A brief history of the writing Associate Program, seems out of place near the end of the document on page 9. In most corporate or business publications, this sort of information is offered at or near the beginning.
Final Changes Made
- The new cover logo and table of contents where added.
- Section 2, The WA Program: A brief history of the writing Associate Program, became Section 1 in order to act as an introduction to the document.
- A new Section 3 was added: Using Skype. This section is for the benefit of WAs who work with fully on-line classes and their support or need remote face-to-face meetings. This section addresses setting up an account, video calling and screen sharing.
- The original form of the document is somewhat austere. There are few illustrations, but, there were few needs. I added screen shots to explain Skype, but this did not add much to the document. To help usability, I created more indentions to break up and define sections and made headers in different sizes to separate sections more clearly. To add to the visual appeal of the document, I added a page border.
- I was not able to work with lead associate Jeanna Park in making the revisions. Ms. Scharold, however, offered guidance and some revisions after my first draft was completed. I had as free a hand toward comprehensively editing the document as expected.
- The final product formatting is slightly different than expected. Double spacing was not visually acceptable. That was changed to 1.5 spacing. For page flow purposes, however, I did have to leave the line spacing on page 3 at 1.15 spacing to allow Section 1 to end with the disclaimer and Section 2 to start on its own page. Otherwise, there would have been a large spacing problem.
- The original disclaimer was placed at the end of the first section from its original position on the back of the title page to integrate it into the document and fill a gap space.
