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C O P Y    E D I T I N G

Copy editing is a most important and time-consuming task. It requires the editor’s close attention to a document’s every detail, a thorough knowledge of what to look for and of the style to be followed, and the ability to make quick, logical, and defensible decisions.

To begin with, editors are thoroughly familiar with and comfortable applying the universally accepted editorial and typographic marks and symbols—as described in the Chicago Manual of Style and summarized under proofreader’s marks in Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary—that are commonly understood by compositors working in English.

The editorial function comprises two processes: mechanical editing and substantive editing. Mechanical editing involves  a close reading with an eye on consistency of capitalization, spelling, and hyphenation; agreement of verbs and  subjects; scores of other matters of syntax; punctuation; beginning and ending quotation marks and parentheses; number of ellipsis points; numbers given either as figures or as words; and hundreds of other, similar details of grammatical and typographic style.

In addition to regularizing those details of style, the copy editor is expected to catch infelicities of expression that mar an  author’s prose. Such matters include but are by no means limited to dangling participles, misplaced modifiers, mixed  metaphors, unclear antecedents, unintentional redundancies, faulty attempts at parallel construction, mistaken junction, overuse of an author’s pet word or phrase, unintentional repetition of words, race or gender or geographic bias, and hyphenating in the predicate, unless the hyphenated term is an entry in the dictionary and therefore permanently  hyphenated.

The second, nonmechanical, process—substantive editing—involves rewriting, reorganizing, or suggesting more-effective ways to present material.

o Editors identify by instinct and learn from experience how much of this kind of editing

to do on

a particular document.

o Experienced editors recognize, and do not tamper with, an author’s unusual figures of

speech or

idiomatic usage.

o They preserve the author’s voice.

o They know when to make an editorial change or to simply suggest it.

o They know when to delete a repetition or to merely point it out to the author.

o They respect an author’s right to expect conscientious, intelligent editorial help.

o They never make queries that sound stupid, naive, or pedantic or that seem to reflect

upon an author’s scholarly ability or powers of interpretation.

o And they handle untold and unsung other matters of mechanics, substance, and style.