Copyediting
Copyediting is different from sentence level revisions.
When you copy edit, you focus on three things
grammatical correctness: words spelled
correctly? verb/noun tenses correct? commas in the right place? semi-colons
used correctly? etc.
technical correctness: is all the info
correct? accurate quotations? accurate citations? accurate figures?
layout correctness: do all the headings
follow the same format? Do all the paragraphs start at the same place?
Do all the lists follow the correct format? (Roman numeral 1, period,
and then one space or are they Roman numeral 1 and no period, two
spaces? Margins are all the same? Headings use the same formatting
and punctuation? Verb tenses match nouns?)
Copy editing is about making your document look good--making
it look professional--making it easy to read. Above all, you are aiming
for accuracty and consistency.
I've yet to find a good explaination of how to copy edit--or
what to copy edit, for that matter--because no one really seems to know
to explain it. The best copy editors are anal-retentive, obsessive compulsive,
half-blind, grammar-obsessed people who are surrounded by stacks of
paper. Ha ha. No, seriously.
For those of us who have real lives, copy editing
is still doable. We just have to work a little more at it.
Here's what I learned from copyediting a book that had
11 chapters written by 11 different authors, none of whom paid attention
to our copyediting guidelines.
1. Print off your document.
2. Decide ONE thing that you need to check for.
Look for it. Note changes.
3. Decide ANOTHER thing that you need to check
for. Look for it. Note changes.
4. Decide ANOTHER thing that you need to check
for. Look for it. Note changes.
Making sure everything looks the same, is grammatically
correct, and includes all the correct info is easiest when you pick
one thing to look for and fix. Your brain can't remember all of that
stuff to look for. So don't look for a ton of things at the same time.
Decide what you're going to look for, say verb tenses,
and scan your document for ONLY verbs--check to make sure they are grammatically
correct. Then check for commas in your lists before the "and"
and scan only for that.
Note here that I've said scan--now is
not the time to read the document for context--you are looking for copy
editing issues.
Here's the Formatting/Copy editing Checklist I used with
the manuscripts for the book we edited. (See http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/193255923X/qid=1097025555/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/103-1521342-7901416?v=glance&s=books).
We had to turn unformatted, raw, inconsistent manuscripts into a 400
page manuscript that looked the same in terms of spelling, punctuation,
grammar, headings, layout, figure formatting, citations, notes, etc.
Formatting Checklist for ___________________________________
Apply to template
Insert page breaks between mss and acknowledgements; notes;
works cited page; appendices (place in that order)
Margins 1" around
Apply Normal .5"
Apply Blockquote 1"
block quote /citations; indent 3 spaces if beginning of a sentence
Apply H2 to headings: Check Punctuation and formatting
Apply H2: Acknowledgments, Notes, Works Cited, Appendix,
Put in Header/Footer
Format Epigraphs as blockquotes
Bulleted lists: indent .5 bullet tab of .25/ line up first line
and add'l lines
Superscript text notes number
Move Notes into separate page; format as Normal
Replace all to change 2 spaces to 1
Replace all to change 2 hyphens to an “em” dash
Check "em" dashes so they don't have spaces around
them
Review ellipses period space period space period OR brackets.
Check date format
Check for Shirley Rose = Shirley K Rose (Find/Replace)
"Rhetoric in the Modern University" = "Rhetoric"
"Writing the History"= "Writing"
Textual Carnivals= Textual Carnival
Check for capital WPA (as nouns/persons)
Check citations for amount of words: 40 or more =blockquote
Find with "
Start / End quotations
Placement of periods
Placement of numbers
Format of citation numbers (123-24; 399-401; 27-8) Check hyphens
Check Caption format (use Styles to format)
Check Table format (Use Styles to format)
Check Figure format (Use styles to format)
MLA format: one space between punc and text
Check for [ed/eds]
Check for italicized titles
University Press--UP
National Council of Teachers of English-NCTE
University of Southern Illinois Press --U of Southern Illinois
P
Shirley Rose = Shirley K. Rose
WPA: Writing Program Administration is the title of the WPA
Commas between complete sentences
Permission on file
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Sample Copyediting Checklist
In no particular order, here are things to look as you
copy edit: