ATIS Editorial Webpage

Editorial Overview
Suggested Practices for Technical Editors
Downloads

Editorial Overview

Since November 2000, the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) has edited and published a number of American National Standards (ANSs), Joint Standards, ATIS Standards, Technical Reports (TRs), Technical Requirements (TRQs), and Work-Plans (WPs) using an in-house Chief Editor. ATIS Technical Editors (TEs) fulfill an invaluable role.

It is the intent of this webpage to provide ATIS TEs with suggestions and resources to aid their editorial work. ATIS’ goal is to provide clear and “clean” documents for use by ATIS Members and the public in a timely fashion. With the increasing amount of documents being produced across the organization, a few small measures taken early in document creation can smooth the editorial process, resulting in greater efficiency in the time-to-market for Committee output.

New documents should be created using the ATIS Style Guide and ATIS Document Skeleton to minimize the time required by the editorial process; the ATIS Style Example contains the information upon this page and a further discussion of the basic editorial process.

This process is in constant refinement; suggestions for improvement in process or result are always welcome.

Suggested Practices for Technical Editors

Here is a list of suggested practices that TEs should follow to speed the ATIS editorial process. As mentioned above, taking small measures at the outset of document creation pays great dividends in the speed of ATIS editing. For example, if a 120 page document requires that each and every paragraph, header, or element be reformatted to match standard ATIS Style, whole days can be added to the editorial period. Furthermore, many of the suggestions below are intended to aid in reducing the Technical Editor’s workload.

• Start with the ATIS Document Skeleton: Using the ATIS Document Skeleton as a base for document development provides all necessary styles and a rough guideline to follow.
• No Autonumbering Headings: In Microsoft Word, autonumbering of headings interacts disastrously with the revision tools. Please do not use autonumbering.
• No Intradocument Links: As with autonumbering of headings, intradocument links to other clauses, Figures, or Tables creates a hash of dropped links. Please do not use intradocument links. (URLs external to the document, however, are encouraged.)
• Subgroup Lists: The TE must provide these to ATIS, preferably in the text of the document, as ATIS staff doesn’t necessarily maintain participation lists. ATIS does maintain Committee and Forum membership lists, however.
• Tables of Contents, Figures, and Tables: The ATIS Chief Editor will re-run the ToCs; no need for TEs to spend a tremendous amount of time on them – go for functionality rather than beauty.
• References: The entire code number of a document -- e.g., ITU-T A.123, T1.123-2000 (R2004), ATIS-0x000x-2004, GR-63-CORE, etc. – is preferred when referring to a document in clause 2 or the main body of the document. Optionally, documents may be listed in clause 2 or a bibliographical annex/appendix as a number in square brackets -- [#] – though this is mildly discouraged unless the list of references is a page or more long. Footnotes are used in clause 2 and any bibliographical annex/appendix to indicate availability of a reference; online URLs are preferred.
  For example: "This document is available from the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions, 1200 G Street N.W., Suite 500, Washington, DC 20005. < http://www.atis.org >.”
• Acronyms & Abbreviations: TEs should make every attempt to include all acronyms and abbreviations used in the document in the A&A list, typically found in clause 3.
• Figure & Table Captions: Figure and Table captions should be generated by right-clicking on the Figure or Table and selecting Caption (alternatively, selecting the Figure or Table and using Insert | Caption).
• ATIS Usage:
  • Usage of "clause": Please use the word "clause" to refer to sections of documents, rather than "section." "Subclause" is acceptable, but "clause" is preferred in all cases.
  • Paragraphs: Please place a single hard return between the last paragraph of a clause and the next clause heading line.
  • Referring to URLs: The preferred manner of referring to an online URL is open angle bracket, space, URL, space, close angle bracket. This method shows distinction from parenthetical statements and permits punctuation without interference.
  • Figure Formats: Figures are best manipulated as Picture objects rather than Drawing objects. Insert | Pictures | From File… works well if the source file is a BMP, GIF, JPG, or TIFF.
  • Serial commas: As per the Chicago Manual of Style, 14th Edition, clauses 5.57 and 5.59: When a conjunction joins the last two elements in a series, a comma is used before the conjunction. When the elements of a series are long and complex or involve internal punctuation, they should be separated by semicolons. For example:
    • Please bring me X, Y, and Z.
    • The membership of the international commission was as follows: Fredonia, 4; Ruritania, 5; Scythia-Pannonia-Transbalkania, 3; Florin, 2; and Guilder, 2.
  • Quotation Marks & Punctuation: By convention, periods and commas should appear inside quotation marks or single quotes; semicolons and question marks appear outside quotation marks or single quotes. For example:
    • I like the "ABC123," "XYZ456," and the "AAZZ3."
    • I don’t like the "ABC123"; isn’t it the "flavor of the month"?

Downloads

Here are some handy downloads for ATIS TEs to use:

• ATIS Document Skeleton
• ATIS Style Guide
• Using the ATIS Style Guide: An Example

For additional information, please contact the ATIS Chief Editor, Chad Underkoffler.