Two Writers Describe their Work

Roger V. Carlson writes,

"Along with a couple dozen other writer-editors in my section, I help produce all kinds of documents from 'internal' operator manuals and equipment specifications to 'external' conference papers, brochures, newsletters, and books. Our customers are scientists and engineers at JPL [Jet Propulsion Laboratory] with a need for documentation and a valid charge number. My official title is technical writer, and I enjoy learning enough about some project or piece of equipment to write its story. More often, thanks to personal computers, a customer brings in a nearly complete draft. After editing and confirming my edits with the customer, I do the work or coordinate the work of others to make a finished document, and print and distribute it. The customers are a varied lot. Some could write professionally. However, most publish infrequently, so they may be unfamiliar with some or all aspects of documentation. The documentation may involve esoteric topics, such as probes to outer planets or fuel synthesis on Mars." (44).

Thomas Leibrandt writes

"I'm the editor in the department of surgery of a teaching hospital. You may be asking yourself the same question I did when I applied for the job: Why would surgeons need an editor? Several institutions have publications departments to assist their physicians in reporting results of their research. The publications department at the Mayo Clinic, for example, has a staff of over twenty-five people, including editors and proofreaders. But the reason the department of surgery where I now work wanted an editor is rooted in the accreditation process of general surgery residency programs" (9).

"Before answering an advertisement from the American Medical Writers Association, I had spent five years in a publishing company editing scientific manuscripts for textbooks and journals" (10).

"Editors' contributions to surgeons have been presented at meetings of the Association for Surgical Education and the Association of Program Directors in Surgery and have been published in the Current Surgery and Focus on Surgical Education. An editor is only one component in producing scholarly publications within any specialty. In this area of medical specialization, an environment that fosters academic inquiry results from the synergistic relationship between the teaching staff, the surgical residents, and the editor" (Leibrandt 11).