The context dependent editorial process: toward a more complex understanding of the technical editor

Descriptions of the roles of editors in their organizations have been limited and traditional in the literature on technical editing. Based on a preliminary investigation at a Midwest publishing company, the author discovered that conventional notions of the editorial process do not sufficiently characterize the extent to which organizational context influenced the daily tasks, interactions, and document review processes carried out by the editor. This article addresses the need to expand our notions of the editorial process and gain a more complex understanding of the roles editors may carry out in their organizations.