Networking Essentials Exam Guide Editing Process
Several readers have written to me curious to learn about the editing process that
occurred on this book. Sometimes the messages have been in the form of "What kind
of idiots are you that you missed something like this?" Other messages have just
been more polite inquiries into how the process took place. To satisfy the curiosity of
those who care, here's how the process occurred:
I wrote each chapter, including all sample exam questions and all
illustrations. I would re-read and edit each chapter until I was satisfied. Sometimes I
sent small parts of chapters to some of my PPI colleagues and friends for technical
advice. My friend Mark Sangillo helped out with a number of hardware/IRQ-type issues.
My wife Lori would then take the printout of each chapter and often
brutally rip it apart. Lori had the strength of not being in the computer
industry (and, in fact, wanting nothing to do with it!) so she approached each chapter as
a complete novice. She was quick to point out when I became too technical too quickly. She
also helped clarify some of my text at times. Lori also read through all the questions for
each chapter and answered most of them... assisting with making sure they were correct.
(And learned far more than she ever cared too about computer networking!)
After I incorporated changes from Lori's editing, the text was
"frozen" and submitted to QUE electronically as a Microsoft Word file. The
questions were stripped off and assembled separately. (They were handled at the end of the
authoring process as one unit, Appendix J.) Each chapter (and accompanying illustrations)
was then routed through a number of people, each of whom added their comments as
color-coded separate lines of text within the Word file.
Each chapter was first sent to Kurt Hudson from PPI in Texas. He went
through and commented on the text, checked the technical accuracy of my information and
occasionally suggested better ways to present some information. Kurt is also a technical
instructor, an MCSE and has also authored some material for QUE himself. In addition to
reading the text, Kurt examined all the graphics for technical accuracy, answered
the questions and tried out the lab exercises.
Next Carolyn Kiefer at QUE read through each chapter and checked both
how the text read and also how well it conformed to QUE conventions for this series of
books. With some technical background herself, she provided many comments and suggestions
throughout the chapters.
After Carolyn, a QUE editor (one of several) read through each chapter
looking for grammatical or typographical issues. The editor also re-checked to ensure that
everything fit in with QUE standards.
Next, each chapter was sent to a QUE technical editor (primarily Bob
Reinsch and Brad Lindaas) who went over all the technical aspects of the chapter again,
tried out everything I said would work, and offered comments/suggestions about different
ways of presenting information.
Ultimately, I received back a Word file with many comments
inside as part of the "Author Review" part of the process. I had to go through
each chapter, reading and responding to each comment made by each of the many editors. If
they suggested changes, I had to decide whether or not to make any changes and then make
the changes to the actual text. If they found errors, I had to research and resolve the
errors and then change the text appropriately. I also usually had my own list of changes
that I wanted to make to chapters based on material that was added or removed from later
chapters.
The final stage was to submit the text to Rebecca Mounts, the
"Production Editor". She took the text and integrated it with the illustrations
into PageMaker for the final assembly of each page. Occasionally, Rebecca would have some
comments and suggestions of her own and would contact me.
In the end, I think we produced a book that, while not perfect, certainly
goes farther than many of the other available texts in preparing readers for the
Networking Essentials exam. As shown above, many individuals were involved with the
editing process, but in the end, I was responsible for integrating their comments with the
text and I bear full responsibility for any errors and omissions in the text.
My thanks are definitely due to all the people mentioned above. The exam
guide you hold is a far better book because of their assistance!
Page Last Modified: Wednesday, October 01, 2008
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