yourself commenting on technical details, specific procedures, norms within related industries, and neces - sary or missing information. • Editorial (E): Editorial comments affect how the content is presented. They identify typographical errors, misspellings, improper sentence structure, mislabeling, and similar problems. • Procedural (P): Procedural com - ments are about whether the organization followed its accredit - ed and/or published policies and procedures. When writing a comment, state clearly and rationally why you are making a specific suggestion or voting a certain way. Comments like “I don’t like this” or “this is too expensive” will likely get rejected for not being relevant and not containing alternative language. Do not be condescending or snarky. Tone can impact reception, i.e., a good point badly made may not be well received. Keep your comments professional in tone, focused on facts, and do not make the feedback personal. Always provide reasoning as to how or why the language or changes will affect standards users, and specifically why that is good, bad, unsafe, inaccurate, or otherwise. The content drafters need to be able to understand your perspec - tive in order to engage in a productive dialogue or amend the content and submit it back to you for additional consideration. “Suggested language” comments can help everyone gain consensus and move a standard forward. If you un - derstand the writers’ intent but feel the text can be clearer or improved, pro - viding suggested language is far more effective than simply criticizing the text. Suggested language comments could include deletions, insertions, minor edits, or completely new paragraphs or sections as needed.
comment period and address them pri- or to closing out the comment period. Procedural comments on how the stan - dard is being developed can be sub - mitted at any time, though. Both types of comments require consideration by the standards developer. More consid - eration will be given to comments that follow the SDO’s required steps. Regardless of the quality of your sub - mission, a formal resolution of your “negative” or “negative with comment” vote is typically required. Resolution includes noting whether the comment is persuasive (requiring a modifica - tion and re-balloting of the standard), non-persuasive, a simple editorial change, incomplete, or not relevant. ASTM. When voting negative on an ASTM ballot, a comment explaining your negative vote is mandatory. A representative who is involved with that ballot may contact you to discuss your negative vote. Depending on whether you’ve been deemed persuasive or not, you may be asked to consider alternate language, to remove your negative vote, to propose new language, or to delay your requests to a later stage, or you may even be informed that the ballot is being removed completely. The deci - sion on what to do in these situations is yours and should be thought about carefully. General. In any event, organizations have procedures dictating how they must respond to comments on a draft standard. You should understand these requirements so that you can adhere
to that process and ensure that the organization is, too. Remember, if you disagree with the way your vote or com- ment was handled, organizations also have procedures for appeal. Know them and use them if needed. Most critically, if you receive communi - cation about your comment, you must respond within the timeframe specified by that organization’s procedures. Fail - ure to respond in time can be interpret- ed as a closed matter. You might also get a notification (and the sense of satisfaction) that your com - ment was considered persuasive and the next publication or draft submittal of the standard will include your sug - gested changes. Don’t be discouraged from continuing to participate if this doesn’t happen, though. It’s meaningful that you took the time and submitted thoughtful comments to improve your industry standards. Lastly, don’t read standards alone. Read them together with coworkers or peers. When possible, get the key stake - holders of your organization involved. They will interact with, interpret, and think about the draft differently than you, providing a multi-faceted review. The dialogue generated will not only help each of you and your operations have a better understanding of the standard and how to implement it, but you might also identify significant potential impacts of standard revisions on your daily business operations or bottom line.
WHAT HAPPENS TO YOUR COMMENTS?
ANSI SDOs , regardless of their unique policies, are required to consider any technical comments received during the
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