[ATTW-L] [External] Editing textbook

Joseph Robertshaw jwr0015 at uah.edu
Sat Jan 18 19:40:14 UTC 2025


Hello,
Of the Rude & Eaton Fifth Ed. I have not yet found an equal. The Rude &
Eaton TE book is to Tech Editing what The Riverside is to Shakespearean
Studies or even what Bizzell and Herzberg has been to Rhetoric.  The
Internet Archive has a copy available for registered members:
https://archive.org/details/technicalediting0000rude_m1w0
and  There is this one Digital copy in Ann Arbor--
https://search.worldcat.org/title/1036874921

Here are the ones I have been looking at at replacements:

   -
   https://oercommons.org/authoring/54645-professional-and-technical-writing/view
   <https://oercommons.org/authoring/54645-professional-and-technical-writing/view>
   -
   https://www.amazon.com/Technical-Editing-Practical-Editors-Hewlett-Packard/dp/0201563568?ref_=ast_author_mpb&asin=0201563568&revisionId=&format=4&depth=1
   <https://www.amazon.com/Technical-Editing-Practical-Editors-Hewlett-Packard/dp/0201563568?ref_=ast_author_mpb&asin=0201563568&revisionId=&format=4&depth=1>
   -
   https://www.amazon.com/Technical-Editing-Introduction-Workplace/dp/0190872675?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&psc=1&smid=A1KIF2Y9A1PQYE&gQT=1
   <https://www.amazon.com/Technical-Editing-Introduction-Workplace/dp/0190872675?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&psc=1&smid=A1KIF2Y9A1PQYE&gQT=1>

The major problems I am running into are probably the same as everyone else
who is searching for a replacement.

   - No other text is as high value in content quality
   - The cost is ridiculous
   - Publishers are still trying to control the market to extract profits
   with increasingly scammy digital and rental solutions
   - Gen AI -- many people in the world seem to hold a false position that
   editing is no longer viable as a career due to advances in AI. This seems
   to have caused the forward momentum of new books in the topic to stall even
   though we desperately need updated texts that take a realistic (perhaps
   even pragmatic) stance on editing that includes the new tools available.

I am starting to think that I may have to start teaching from a *course
pack *as I develop my own OER textbook.
Sorry if this is more ranty than helpful. It is frustrating when pressure
to cut textbook costs comes from above and there are no good options. Our
students are NOT just consumers in some econ equation and should not be
forced to absorb costs like this.



*Joseph W. Robertshaw, Ph.D. (he/him)*
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