The quality assurance processes at kothes
To enable users to quickly grasp and easily understand information, they need it in the form of texts of high editorial quality. Technical Editors from a wide variety of specialist areas are often part of a Technical Editorial team, but the results of their work should be as homogeneous as possible.
That is why we have developed a sophisticated quality assurance system, which we apply continuously in our service projects and within the framework of business process outsourcing. We are pursuing two main objectives: On the one hand, we ensure that our customers only receive information products that meet our quality standards and meet the requirements agreed to with the customer. On the other hand, we give the Technical Editors regular feedback on their work, which enables them to learn from mistakes and permanently improve their own performance.
The quality assurance levels
At the beginning of a customer relationship – or for more complex projects – we define the project goals and framework conditions in kick-off and determine which information is required. The Technical Editorial department then creates a structure draft that shows which contents are included in which structure in the information product.
This draft represents the basis for all further steps. For this reason, an initial technical examination of the design takes place at this early project phase, first by our quality inspectors and then by our customer's specialist department.
After the research, the actual editing of the content takes place. Once this has been completed, a two-stage inspection is carried out. First, the Quality Inspector carries out an editorial analysis. He or she pays attention to structure, comprehensibility, didactics, consistency, compliance with customer requirements and much more. After the Technical Editor has worked in the comments, the editing starts. Our Proofreaders then pay attention to spelling, grammar, punctuation, terminology and consistency in the language.
The quality-assured and optimised information product is then given to our customer's specialist department, which now only has to check whether the contents are technically correct. After any changes have been incorporated by the Technical Editors, the final proofreading takes place before the final released information product can be published.
Qualification of Quality Inspectors
Our Quality Inspectors are not part of the Technical Editorial department, but belong to the Quality Management department. In this way, we ensure that the audit is independent and impartial. The Quality Inspectors are also trained Technical Editors, even though they now deal exclusively with inspection tasks and no longer carry out editorial projects. At kothes, you can only become a Quality Inspector if you have exceptionally broad technical editorial experience.
Qualification of Proofreaders
Our Proofreaders are also assigned to the Quality Management department. They have a degree in Linguistics and have proven in extensive tests that they can find even the most elusive errors in texts.