A Business Analyst's Guide to Editing

            Not all businesses hire editors to check their documents. Sometimes the editing gets pushed off onto a random employee. For that employee, the task of editing all those documents is no joke. In my non-traditional route to editing, I started with a business degree and worked as a contractor in a government agency. Over time, my tasks as a business analyst became more like those of an editor. I was completing research, developmental editing, copy editing, and proofreading for the entire project team by the time my contract ended. If you happen to be that employee trying to act as the editor, the following tips are meant for you. I'll be sharing some editing lessons I learned as a BA and some things that I wish I had known back then.

            There is a difference between knowing something and explaining it. Sometimes an author can struggle to write down the ideas they have in mind. Or, the author may battle with wording that makes sense to the readers. In a government agency, documentation and transparency are of utmost importance. Project documents are vital to track the work being done and to explain it to others. Clarity, style, and grammar become key. Clarity should be a goal for every business. I found that documentation explained the processes, but still had problems. The trouble was that they would sometimes become too technical or assume too much about the audience. One needs to consider who might read the documentation and what they might use it for. These documents are not another objective to cross off one's list. They serve an actual purpose. When editing, think about who the audience is and try to approach the document from their point of view. If there is ambiguity, consider changing it. Vague meanings do no one any good.

            Style, when applied appropriately, works together with clarity. A style guide creates consistency. Before you get too deep into editing your company's documentation, find out if your company has a house style. If your company has a standard for writing, you don't want any documentation to stray from it. Variations ruin the voice and image your company is trying to create. Because I was a BA still figuring out the editing business, I didn’t know I needed to find a house style. I edited based on grammar rules I learned in school. I do not recommend this if you can avoid it. From a legal standpoint, the wording and punctuation placement could have created serious problems for the agency if I made a mistake. 

           If you have a house style, get a copy and edit according to that guide. If not, I suggest you either create your own with the approval of your manager or choose an existing style guide to follow. Industries often have a guide that they favor. Whether or not you create a guide, watch for trends in the documentation and keep a record to make sure everything stays consistent in grammar choices, spellings, and word usage. For instance, I worked on a public transit project. The buses were called coaches. I learned that there were several categories of coaches that each had a specific name. It is important to note these things because they have a meaning that is only known to a certain group that differs from the meaning that an average reader might attribute to it. These terms should either be used for the group they come from or have a proper explanation.

The third part to watch for when editing is grammar. I noticed that grammar was not a high priority for the IT employees who authored the documentation. There is nothing wrong with that, but the editor does need to be aware to catch the mistakes. The documents of a company are vital because they explain the processes of the company. They need to be accurate and part of that includes grammar. Tables and lists are common in project documents and mistakes congregate in them. Check them carefully for capitalization, parallelism, spelling, and labeling.

            Editing as a BA was a fun experience for me and probably the highlight of my career so far. Other folks may not be so quick to share my enthusiasm for editing. It doesn't have to be overwhelming though. Start with finding a style guide and build from there. It can make the process far less tedious when you know what to look for and how to correct it. As you edit, keep clarity and consistency in mind. It is your job to make sure that the documentation can effectively communicate to its audience without errors creating a barrier.