[Stctesig-l] Time Estimates for Editing

Thu Sep 4 02:50:38 MDT 2008

Hi,

My estimates jive with Mary Pat's. I've found that usually the writer,
rather than the content, is the main variable. Some writers' work takes
longer to edit than others'. I would never estimate 10 pages an hour,
but I would be happy to discover in retrospect that I had managed that
speed!

Interestingly, I edit material written by native speakers of English and
by nonnative speakers. In some cases, I end up having to correct just
grammar mistakes or the occasional awkward wording in deliverables by
nonnative speakers. On the other hand, I sometimes spend a lot of time
editing the work done by native English speakers who don't manage to
convey their content clearly and logically. 

Mary Ellen mentions queries. For some projects, I factor in another
25-35% for a second round of editing after I receive responses to my
queries.

Ricka

-----Original Message-----
From: stctesig-l-bounces+ricka.rak=kodak.com at mailman.stc.org
[mailto:stctesig-l-bounces+ricka.rak=kodak.com at mailman.stc.org] On
Behalf Of Mary Pat Hinton
Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2008 1:00 AM
To: stctesig-l at mailman.stc.org
Subject: Re: [Stctesig-l] Time Estimates for Editing

Although I realize that our projects may differ greatly, I can share
with you our edit-time estimates: if the content and writer are familiar
to our editing team, we estimate that we can edit 5 pages/hour (or 8-10
slides/per hour for slides decks); if the content and writer are
unfamiliar to our editing team, we estimate that we may slow to as
little as 2 pages/hour (or 5 slides/hour).  

I would have to agree with Donna that 10 pages/hour is a best-case
scenario (the writing is solid and the errors are few).  

-----Original Message-----
From: stctesig-l-bounces+mhinton=rim.com at mailman.stc.org
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Today's Topics:

   1. Time Estimates for Editing (Marie Highby)
   2. Re: Time Estimates for Editing (Donna McManus)

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Message: 1
Date: Tue, 2 Sep 2008 11:19:55 -0700
From: "Marie Highby" <marie at highby.com>
Subject: [Stctesig-l] Time Estimates for Editing
To: stctesig-l at mailman.stc.org
Message-ID:
	<a75b7a970809021119u56d01671q9ab42bf4859f57d3 at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

I'm developing some estimates for performing copyediting and would like
to learn more about other people's experience.

The materials being edited are highly technical: user guides for
software designers to show them how to use the company's software that
helps them design software chips. The edits are primarily change bar
where the editor might end up editing 100 pages scattered throughout a
900 page document. The editing is done non-electronically, marking up
hard copy, which is given to the writer. About 30 percent of the writers
are nonnative speakers and have some difficulties with English: missing
articles, occasional sentence structure or matching problems, and other
typical usage problems.

My questions are:

1. Would a 10 pages per hour be a realistic figure or should that figure
be adjusted upwards or downwards?

2. Assuming 10 pages per hour, would expecting 80 pages per day and 400
pages a week be realistic and sustainable on a regular basis?

Any comments anyone has on this subject--what's the maximum quantity a
full-time editor can reasonably be expected to deliver over a sustained
period of time--would be great to hear....

Thanks.

Marie Highby
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Message: 2
Date: Tue, 2 Sep 2008 14:30:15 -0400
From: "Donna McManus" <dmcmanus at dsci.com>
Subject: Re: [Stctesig-l] Time Estimates for Editing
To: <stctesig-l at mailman.stc.org>
Message-ID:
	<C3253A86E7C2944BAE83EC757AB6FD43D78B2A at dsci-exch01.dsci.com>
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Two thoughts come to mind. The first:

If you are an experienced editor, you will be able to identify common
problems throughout the document. If so, will you need to mark each and
every problem by hand OR are you able to make a list for your writers
and tell them to make the changes globally? (Some instances that come to
mind for me concerning non-native English speakers are often confusing
homonyms, structural problems such as missing commas, etc.) If you feel
you can do that, it might be less time on your estimate. 

And another but not quite oppositing thought...

10 pages an hour might be realistic for you to do. However, that's about
a page every six minutes. I think you perhaps would be undercutting
yourself in the situation. Once you get a good "feel" for the material
you are working with, it might be a good idea to factor in some "fudge"
time in order to work up an editing/final proofing worksheet for the
user guides. It sounds like you have a number of hands in one pie so to
speak and that would concern me in terms of quality. Working up a final
editing/proofreading worksheet or checklist that is the editing standard
might be a good cause to re-think lowering your estimate to perhaps 5 or
6 pages per hour. I don't get the "feel" that this is a final edit for
simple grammar, spelling, and quality assurance. It seems to me you are
getting a lot of material from a lot of different writers so you will
need to make voice, presentation, and style consistent throughout. 80
pages a day sounds a bit ambitious to me in a situation such as this.
But if you do know the writers and their output fairly well, it *might*
be doable.

I'm not sure if there is enough information here to really say if you
can "sustain" a specific rate of delivery here. For me, it's dependent
on who is producing the original material, whether any corporate editing
standards are in place, and the skill of both editor and writer. I''ve
had non-native English speakers write great prose and the only problems
encountered would be a few structural problems or matters of corporate
style. And then I've had native English speakers produce text for me
that while well-written, was not targeted to audience (written as if it
were a PhD dissertation instead of a user guide) so a lot of editing
needed to be done. 

Just my two cents...hope it helps :)

________________________________

From: stctesig-l-bounces+dmcmanus=dsci.com at mailman.stc.org
[mailto:stctesig-l-bounces+dmcmanus=dsci.com at mailman.stc.org] On Behalf
Of Marie Highby
Sent: Tuesday, September 02, 2008 2:20 PM
To: stctesig-l at mailman.stc.org
Subject: [Stctesig-l] Time Estimates for Editing

I'm developing some estimates for performing copyediting and would like
to learn more about other people's experience.

The materials being edited are highly technical: user guides for
software designers to show them how to use the company's software that
helps them design software chips. The edits are primarily change bar
where the editor might end up editing 100 pages scattered throughout a
900 page document. The editing is done non-electronically, marking up
hard copy, which is given to the writer. About 30 percent of the writers
are nonnative speakers and have some difficulties with English: missing
articles, occasional sentence structure or matching problems, and other
typical usage problems.

My questions are:

1. Would a 10 pages per hour be a realistic figure or should that figure
be adjusted upwards or downwards?

2. Assuming 10 pages per hour, would expecting 80 pages per day and 400
pages a week be realistic and sustainable on a regular basis?

Any comments anyone has on this subject--what's the maximum quantity a
full-time editor can reasonably be expected to deliver over a sustained
period of time--would be great to hear....

Thanks.

Marie Highby 

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