Editing: The Big Picture

Abstract

The way that a document is drafted and edited varies greatly not only from institution to institution, but also from document to document within the same institution. For short documents, the drafting is often done by a single writer who has expertise on the subject. After that writer drafts the document, the document proceeds through an editing chain, which may be in series or in parallel. Many institutions, for example, have a simple sign-off chain: author to first-level manager to second-level manager and so on. In such a series chain, the author usually makes all the changes at one level before the document proceeds to the next. Once all have signed the document, the document is published.

How upset [Max Planck] was whenever he inadvertently gave out the wrong information, whether in scientific publication or casual conversation, since despite all efforts, he knew that at least some untruth would persist

Lise Meitner