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- Nord, Andreas, 1976-
(författare)
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Att förbättra en text tillsammans : En dialogorienterad språkgranskningsprocess vid en svensk myndighet
- 2015
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Improving a text in collaboration: A dialogue-oriented editing process at a Swedish government authority reports a case study of a text editing process in a Swedish government agency. The editing process was conducted by a freelance professional language consultant in cooperation with the main author of the text, an employee of the agency. The text in question is a kind of handbook. The language consultant was engaged to improve the text’s functionality both by giving feedback on an early draft of the text and by editing a nearly-finished version. This means that the language consultant can have an impact on the text at all levels, from disposition to punctuation. The participants consider the outcomes of the cooperation successful, and the author describes the process as ‘instructive.’An in-depth analysis was performed of the interaction between the writer and the language consultant during a meeting. In this meeting, the language consultant’s proposed revisions in the nearly-finished version of the text are discussed. This dialogue is shown to be characterized by mutual acknowledgement of the expertise of the other party, as well as explicitness about the mandates of both participants. These agreements serve as tools for the participants to handle threats to the work: the explicit division of labour eliminates the need for consensus. This also allows for explicitness about differences in views on the text. The discussion is, however, ultimately oriented towards a common goal: the audience design of the text.An analysis of the focus of the proposed revisions also indicates an ambition to improve the communicative function of the text, rather than just improving its linguistic surface.The results are compared to those of a previously-published case study, in which a less-dialogical and less-integrated work organization led to unsolved misunderstandings and disagreements between the language consultants and the client. It also led to a more restricted impact on the quality of the text in question, since e.g. all revisions affecting the ‘content’ of the text were avoided.
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