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Newsletter of the East Bay Chapter of STC
May/June 2004

Ask Elaine: Quick and Dirty Copyediting
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Elaine Parrish
by Elaine Parrish
DMV Copyeditor

 



If you have an editing question you’d like to see addressed in a future column, please submit it to Ask Elaine.

 

Copyediting is a comprehensive process that encompasses many complex and interrelated elements. In ideal conditions, the editor reads through the entire manuscript first, to get a feeling of flow and style as well as substance, then begins the dual process of mechanical editing (dealing with such things as spelling, capitalization, and punctuation) and substantive editing (reorganizing and rewriting as needed). These activities often require the editor to mentally shift gears, so several passes through a piece of writing are usually needed in order to end up with as polished a final product as possible.

Getting the Most Value

Today’s business environment is seldom conducive to quality, highly polished prose. If time or budget constraints force your team to perform only a quick and dirty editing job on written materials, there are several ways to concentrate your editing efforts to get the most value.

A good copyeditor checks for dozens of different things in a single piece of writing. Here are some of the most important:

  • Run a spell check.
    You can’t depend on spell checkers to find every mistake, but, flawed as they are, they do catch some of the most obvious typos. (Forget about grammar checkers, though; most of them are all but useless.)
  • Look at all headers and footers.
    Make sure they are worded consistently, and that they alternate if they are supposed to (e.g., page numbers always appear at the outside margin in double-sided text). This is particularly important when you are working with sections in Word.
  • Check all bulleted and numbered lists.
    Look for parallel structure and consistent capitalization and ending punctuation. Also, check numbered lists to be sure they start with one and are consecutive—especially if working with Word.
  • Make sure page numbers are sequential.
    If you’re working with sections in Word, be especially careful in the use of the “same as previous” feature when using automatic page numbering.
  • Watch for inconsistencies in enumerated items.
    For example, when a sentence starts out, “Following are the five most important points…,” make sure that there are indeed five points following, not four.
  • Check for consistency of repeated elements.
    This is especially important with names. The same person’s name should not appear as Atkins in one place and Adkins in another.
  • NEVER COPYEDIT YOUR OWN WORK!
    You are almost sure to miss at least one glaring error—one that is certain to jump off the page at you, screaming and laughing, when you pick up the first of 500 copies you’ve just had printed and sent out to everyone in your organization.

Your Deceiving Eyes

This last point is by far the most important. You know what you’re trying to write, and when you read your own material, your eyes will convince you that that’s what you’ve actually written.

Even seasoned editors shudder at the thought of editing their own work. Foolishly, I tried it once years ago when I applied for a freelance copyediting position. After sending out my resume, I discovered I had misspelled the word “January” in my cover letter. I’ll leave you to guess whether I got the job. Top of page

 

 

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