What Is a Technical Editor, & Do You Need One?
- Melchior Antoine
- Apr 17
- 10 min read
Updated: Apr 18
Technical editing helps make documents easy to read for end users. It plays a vital role in industries where manuals and instructions are crucial to ensure that equipment and technical processes are operated properly.
Technical writing can vary in complexity. It includes complex user manuals designed for engineers and scientists operating sophisticated equipment and taking part in complex processes. It also includes manuals for cell phones, computers, or TVs, which typically do not require complicated instructions or techniques to use.
In this article, I discuss 1. What a technical editor does, 2. How they differ from academic editors, 3. What to look for in an academic editor, and 4. When to recognize you need one.
What is a technical editor?
A technical editor is someone who focuses on making sure that technical documents are reviewed and corrected to fit a style suitable for target readers. To properly understand what a technical editor does, we need to first understand what technical writing is. After all, technical editors work with technical documents.
Technical documents are typically associated with documents that focus on “utility.” What does that mean? It means that these documents serve a practical purpose. A good example of this are manuals that come with sophisticated equipment or tools.
However, the definition of technical writing can be much broader than that. It may include things like policy briefs or grant progress reports. The main idea, as I said earlier, is writing that has a practical purpose of explaining. Therefore, a grant progress report that explains what happened with the grant funds that went into a grant falls under that category.
Most technical writing documents fall under either manuals or reports. Here is a list of technical writing documents that fall under the category of technical writing for manuals:
Manuals for sophisticated lab equipment
Manuals for complicated engineering equipment
Manuals for B2B or business-to-business equipment
Manuals for DTC or direct-to-consumer equipment or tools
The following list is an example of reports that would fall under this category:
Grant proposals
Grant progress reports
Policy briefs
Reviews of government projects
Reviews of marketing projects
Therefore, we can say that technical writing and editing cover a range of industries. It can involve B2B industries, with manuals that explain how sophisticated business, factory, or engineering equipment work. This is knowledge that we expect engineers and workers in big companies to know.
Think of a manufacturer who manufactures sophisticated equipment to process grains into cereal. They would need manuals on how to operate and repair their machinery. Technical writing would fulfill that purpose.
It may also include DTC or direct to consumer industries. Think of buying a new cell phone, laptop computer, or monitor. All these come with manuals — often in multiple languages — that explain how to go about installing or using this equipment.
The second category of technical writing is report writing. There are all types of reports. They can include grant reports that explain how you plan to use the money given for a project. There are also grant progress reports that explain how much of the goals and aims of the grant project have been achieved as promised.
It doesn’t just stop there. Reports can be associated with state institutions, NGOs, and private for-profit organizations. Grant progress reports, for example, are typical of NGOs. Government institutions may want to provide the public with a report regarding a policy that they implemented or a problem that they investigated.
This could be in the form of an official report or a policy brief that is a contracted version of the original. Besides this, private institutions may write reports or white papers on new products, marketing policy, and so on. So, now that we know what technical writing is, let’s discuss what the job of the technical editor is in relation to that.
What a technical editor does
Technical editing is not the same as academic editing or manuscript editing. Of course, there is major overlap between the two. In both, you have to use accurate and technical jargon, and the writing typically has to be quite condensed.
The job of the technical editor is to make sure that the language used in any document is concise, easy-to-read, and appropriate for the end user. What does that look like? Well, it depends on the type of technical writing involved.
Earlier, we mentioned that technical writing included both manuals and reports. The editing requirements of a manual would defer from those of a report. In addition to this, even when considering the requirements within a category, we have to take into account the target audience.
A technical target audience of engineers and doctors is not the same as a target audience of everyday users with no technical experience. Let’s try to come up with a set of general tasks of a technical editor working with technical documents:
Making sure that documents are formatted correctly
Ensuring that appropriate language is used based on the target audience
Ensuring that the document is readable
Ensuring that the document is written according to a style guide
In particular, readability is essential. This is true for both technical reports and manuals. Now, readability means different things in different contexts. What is readable to an engineer is not readable to the end user of a cell phone.
This is why a technical editor needs to first and foremost take into account their target audience. Readability is also not just about the language being used. It also includes formatting. For example, an optimized manual would involve infographics and properly placed text written in a numbered format or lists.
Therefore, a technical editor should be able to tell:
When an infographic is required
When a bullet list is required
When a numbered stage/process is required
In the case of reports, there are other considerations. A report meant for the general public should be written in a language that the public finds easy to read or digest. It doesn’t matter how technical or scientific the subject matter is, the report should be written in a way that ensures that the general public can read and understand.
In such cases, your technical editor may have to start out as your technical writer. This brings us to our next question. How much of an expert in the subject matter does an editor have to be? This is answered later in the article.
Do you need a technical editor or technical writer?
Well, sometimes you need both. Other times you need your technical editor to become our technical writer. There are some foreign companies out there who believe that AI-powered translation software is enough to translate a technical document into a polished English document.
Typically, what they thought would be a good idea turns out to be a disaster. And it ends ups making more sense for the teschnical editor to start frm scratch. You should also not always trust technical experts or subject matter experts, which we mentioned earlier to be technical writers.
They might have the tecnical expertise and knowledge, but they typically lack the ability to write in the appropriate style. By style, I mean writing in a way that connects with the target audience. An engineer may not be able to to write a DTC user manual when they are used to speaking to and writing for an audience of other engineers.
So to answer the question posed in the introduction about what to look for in a technical editor: You should look for a technical editor with both writing and editing skills, as the two are often indistinguishable from each other. Here is a list of all the attributes to expect from a technical editor:
Excelllent technical editing skills
Good writing skills
Technical writing & editing sample
Willingness to cooperate with SMEs
You should probably get a technical editor if your end users complain that the user manual that comes with your services or product is too difficult to read. If you have produced documents besides manuals, such as policy briefs, reports, or white papers, you should get a technical editor to ensure that these documents meet the stylistic requirements set out for these papers.
A technical editor for these types of papers would also have to be concerned about tone of voice or ToV. Alwasy ear in mind your target audience and make sure that your ToV makes them feel that you are speaking directly to them.
The importance of a technical editor in writing grants
The importance of a technical editor is directly related to the importance of good technical writing. In fact, it could be a matter of life or death. Just think about the user manual that comes with life-saving health equipment. If it is not easy to read or understand the professional or patient using it may put their lives at risk.
I would like to focus on an example of technical report writing: namely, grant writing. With grants, you have to strike a balance between using the appropriate technical jargon and appealing to the right audience. Many of the people who give grants are not technical experts.
They are those who have the money, and they can best be described as intelligent individuals with intellectual curiosity in technical subjects. Therefore, when presenting a grant proposal, please bear that in mind. A technical editor will ensure that the language used can appeal to both subject matter experts and a non-expert audience.
How much does it cost to hire a technical editor?
The cost of a technical editor will vary depending on the tasks required. If only a light proofread or edit is needed, then you pay relatively less. For corrections that require more work, then , you would end up paying more for a technical editor.
However, we can rely on authorities such as the Editorial Freelancers Association or the EFA. They have various pricing per hour, per page, and per word for technical and other editors. We also compare this with academic and other forms of editing. Check out the table or price chart below:
Type of Editing | Price Per Word | Price Per Hour |
Technical | $0.04 - $0.06 | $50.00–60.00 |
Academic | $0.30- $0.05 | $40.00–50.00 |
Legal | $0.04–$0.14 | $50.00–65.00 |
Business | $0.30- $0.05 | $50.00–60.00 |
The price chart above shows that technical editing costs between $0.04 and $0.06 per word or between $50 and $60 per hour. This makes it slightly more expensive than other forms of editing such as academic, legal, and business editing. However, since the rates given are a range, there is some overlap. To see how these prices compare with our own here at EminentEdit, read on.
Should a technical editor be a subject matter expert?
A subject matter expert or SME is someone with direct experience or expertise on a given subject. Many people feel that it only makes sense that if an editor has to edit a project about healthcare, they should be a healthcare expert.
If they have to edit a project on engineering, they should be an engineering expert. On the surface, that makes logical sense. But it really doesn’t. Technical editing is a skill in and of itself. We can say that it is its own expertise.
The skills of a technical editor include doing research to verify information or jargon included in a report or manuals. Even when the technical language used in a manual or report is too technical or jargonistic, there are solutions to this.
There should be a close relationship between your technical experts and your technical editor. This relationship could involve a back-and-forth relationship where the editor collects information from experts in the form of interviews or queries or comments on reports that have already been written by the technical expert.
In some cases, the technical editor may have to pair as the technical writer, who begins to work only after collecting all necessary technical information from the experts. This makes sense, especially if the amount of editing on a paper written by in-house technical experts costs more money than hiring someone to write it.
The pitfalls of AI technical writing
AI writing is now more popular than ever, and it may be an attractive business decision to get AI to write a technical report or manual. However, it comes with a number of pitfalls:
Information is often inaccurate
It reads awkward and stilted like a robot
It lacks tone of voice
People don’t trust it
However, if you have already used AI to write content, a technical editor can help humanify or humanize it. Therefore, it would make sense to simply use AI in the beginning stages of your writing process. In fact, you could elect not to use it at all and hire a professional technical writer and editor from the start.
This would be a more effective approach if it cost more to edit AI-written content than to hire a human to write it.
Get in touch for help in editing your manual or report |
EminentEdit’s technical editing services
EminentEdit provides high-quality technical editing services to ensure that your technical document proves useful to the end user. This goes for both technical reports and manuals.
If you’re a product manager, your manuals can be published in the right tone and style to satisfy end users. We're a small group of professional editors with extensive experience.
EminentEdit is unique in that we are equally proficient in editing technical documents as we are in reviewing and correcting content for your company website. This includes editing for tone and style to maximize the chances that readers who visit your site will convert.
We also edit for SEO to maximize the likelihood of these visitors landing on your site to even begin with. In short, we aim to make sure you end up with content that both Google and readers love. And it's all done at a reasonable price.
See our price table below to see how we match low prices with high value. Our regular technical editing prices begin as low as $0.04/word:
Type of Editing | Description | Price Per Word ($) |
Regular technical editing | Line-by-line editing to improve tone and sentence structure. | $0.04 |
AI Editing | Editing to improve tone and fact-checking. | $0.05 |
AI Editing Without Fact-Checking | Editing to improve tone and to humanize | $0.02 |
Regular Proofreading | Editing to uncover and fix minor grammar, punctuation, and style errors. | $0.02 |
SEO Editing | Editing to improve search engine performance and keyword usage. | $0.1 |
Our technical editing includes help from the very beginning of your project. This includes editing and double-checking your project proposal before writing. Our editing services include:
Proofreading and editing for technical manuals
Reviewing and correcting lengthy white papers and reports
Reviewing and correcting short-form copy
Correcting reports written using AI
Get in touch with one of our representatives: CONTACT US AT EMINENT EDIT.
Cite this EminentEdit article |
Antoine, M. (2025, April 17). What Is a Technical Editor, & Do You Need One? EminentEdit. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/technical-editor |
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