Addressing Five Common Challenges in Technical Reviews

  • Tutorial
  • Software Documentation
  • 03. April
  • 15:00 - 16:00 PM (CEST)
  • 13:00 - 14:00 PM (UTC) | 09:00 - 10:00 AM (EDT)
  • Find your local time here: Time Converter
  • finished
  • Professor Saul Carliner

    Professor Saul Carliner

    • Concordia University

Contents

The MIA.

Mystery person.

The editor.

Family feud.

I-need-a-speedy-review-but-the-system-works-against-speed.

Despite their centrality to professional and technical communication, technical reviews pose ongoing challenges. Some reviewers never review. Even when they do review, some reviewers withhold information—perhaps accidentally but perhaps intentionally. Some are frustrated editors and rewrite everything. Some groups of reviewers contradict one another. And some review processes seem designed to slow things down when you need things to work at an accelerated pace. Taking a scenario-based approach, this session challenges participants to address these and similar challenges and offers practical solutions that have worked for others.

Takeaways

  • Describe at least three ways to make sure reviewers submit on-time, helpful reviews.
  • Describe ways to accelerate reviews when working with a tight schedule.
  • Describe two techniques for addressing contradictory reviews.

Prior knowledge

Technical communicators who have familiarity with the review process but face challenges in their work.

Speaker

Professor Saul Carliner

Professor Saul Carliner

  • Concordia University
Biography

Saul Carliner is a Professor of Educational Technology at Concordia University. Also an industry consultant, he conducts analyses, evaluations, and workshops for clients around the globe. His books include the recent Career Anxiety, the best-selling Training Design Basics, and the award-winning Informal Learning Basics. He is president of the Canadian Network for Innovation in Education and a Fellow and past president of the Society for Technical Communication. He holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon University, University of Minnesota, and Georgia State University.