Reviewing

Reviewing is the process of providing feedback on material produced by another writer (or group of writers). Changes are not made in the material but can be provided in the form of:

A separate document or email that contains the feedback
Comments within the documents itself
A face-to-face discussion

What is included in a review?

Which issues are covered in a review, and which are fixed or pointed out during the editing process? That must be agreed upon by the parties who are involved. Most commonly, reviewers concentrate on the content, accuracy and structure of a document. Issues of spelling, grammar, stylesheet and styleguide compliance, indexing, etc. are left to the editors.

However, some writing teams prefer to cover all issues, including those normally included in the editing process, in the review process. This is usually a learning experience for the writer and can be particularly appropriate for novice technical writers. It can also be useful in that inadequacies in or misunderstandings concerning the stylesheets or styleguide can be discovered and eliminated.

It is important that some part of the review process (or editing process) includes:

Content (is it accurate? appropriate to the audience? too much information?)
Structure and layout
In help systems: Linking between topics, inclusion in the table of contents, inclusion in browse sequences (if any), appropriate indexing
In books or other large documents: Linking between sections, appropriate indexing

Benefits of the review process

Regardless of exactly what is included in the review process, there are many benefits, including:

Quality assurance: A reviewer sees things from a different perspective and can find ways to improve the content.
By following a checklist, the reviewer checks things that the writer might have neglected for one reason or another.
The review process ensures that writer(s) continue to learn and improve their skills.
As reviewers are often writers themselves, it is often a learning experience for them, as well.