Chapter 3: Copyediting, the Basics

Chapter 3: Copyediting, the Basics

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Manuscript version of Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address.”

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“Miscellany: Lincoln's Gettysburg Address proofed with MS markings,” The Nellie Kenyon Scrapbooks, 1917-1967, Box 7: Programs, Invitations, Menus, and Miscellena. The University of Tennessee Special Collections Library.

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What a copy editor is and isn’t Copy editors verify that written material, before it is set into type, has no errors in grammar, spelling, usage, and style (i.e., adheres to the company’s or publication’s guidelines for consistency in how words, phrases, typographical elements, etc., are to be used—or not used) and that any content inconsistencies in factual errors are either corrected or brought to the writer’s attention for correction. Copy editors may at times proofread material but they are not proofreaders because copyeditors look for far more than simple typographical and mechanical errors on typeset copy. Copy editors work on manuscript copy before it goes for final typing or typesetting. In addition, a copy editor may write text for a document. That portion of a copy editor's job can vary from simply providing headings, subheadings, or captions to rewriting whole sections of a document to creating new copy for a document. As Bill Walsh of The Slot notes, “Copy editors are the last line of defense against bad writing, and writing can certainly be bad even when it's otherwise ‘clean.’” In other words, even when the document is relatively free of grammatical errors, copy editors revise awkward phrasing, restructure infelicitous sentences, reduce wordiness, smooth transitions, and reorganize incoherent material. They mark unclear content and review tables of contents, bibliographies, tables, graphs, indices, and other ancillary materials. Every change a copy editor crafts makes the writer look good and ensures that the document’s audience will not be confused or bored. A copy editor verifies the facts in a document not only so the writer and publisher avoid errors of fact but also to avoid lawsuits for libel.3 Not all copy editing assignments, however, include instructions to check for defamatory untruths. Magazine and book publishers usually consider such reviews essential tasks for either a copy editor or, if the company is a large on, a separate fact checker. Newspapers, particularly those published daily, usually depend on the writer to verify all facts; however, some newspapers such as The New York Times and The Washington Post have suffered from not verifying information. In May 2003 the Times announced that staff writer Jayson Blair admitted he plagiarized and faked reports for his articles. On 5 June 2003 the New York Times Executive Editor Howell Raines and Managing Editor Gerald M. Boyd resigned in disgrace; on 11 June 2003, the Times published corrections for the stories Blair wrote between 17 July 2000 and 22 March 2003. In 1981 Janet Cooke had to return a Pulitzer Prize she was been awarded for a bogus story about an eight-year old heroin addict that The Washington Post published. Good copy editors are skeptics and will check or query questionable facts as they do not have time to verify that every name is spelled correctly and every figure is accurate. Finally, advances in computer technology and word processing programs have made contemporary copy editors responsible for some typesetting chores. Newspaper copy editors have long understood these tasks, but as more texts come into publishing houses in programs such as MSWordTM or Word PerfectTM, copyeditors find themselves doing more than adding headings or standardizing type fonts. Coding for typesetting requires extreme accuracy and attention to detail on the copy editor's part. Copy editors are not just the police officers of publishing. They are, in many ways, the glue that holds the entire publishing process together. They bring together language, information, design, and organization together to create a document with credibility, style, and reader appeal. They understand the subtleties of human 3

A false publication, as in writing, print, signs, or pictures that damages a person's reputation.

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personalities because they work with (sometimes grumpy) authors and never present readers. They are fountains of information whose time and patience can be severely strained when they have to campaign for their point of view. They are detectives with more tenacity than Sherlock Holmes when searching for obscure facts or the right word for a sentence. And their best work is invisible: writers get the credit when a copy editor has made sure a sentence flows smoothly, information is clearly presented, or punctuation advances an idea. John McIntyre, president of the American Copy Editor’s Society,4 once wrote that copy editors combine “the mastery of Scrabble with the composition of haiku.”

Tools of Copy Editors Today copy editors at least have computers and more often have desktop or electronic publishing systems, scanners, and other electronic communications equipment. They also will have many of the same reference works proofreaders have (see page 45) and, depending on the area of text they work in, many more reference books and documents. Some of the specialized works copy editors have are The Editor's Toolbox: A Reference Guide for Beginners and Professionals, Communicating in Science: Writing a Scientific Paper and Speaking at Scientific. Meetings (2nd ed.), Pocket Pal: A Graphic Arts Production Handbook, Council of Biology Editors. Scientific Style and Format, Scientific English: A Guide for Scientists and Other Professionals, The Copyright Handbook: How to Protect and Use Written Works, 2nd ed., How To Report Statistics In Medicine: Annotated Guidelines For Authors, Editors, and Reviewers, Dictionary of Word Origins, Dictionary of Contemporary American Usage, Academic Press Dictionary of Science and Technology, The 7 Essentials of Graphic Design, The Non-Designer’s Design Book, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Envisioning Information, Digital Copyright: Protecting Intellectual Property on the Internet.5

Skills of Copy Editors At an obvious level, a good copy editor has professional-level language skills. This means the editor

4

The ACES is a professional journalism organization, founded in 1997, for copy editors. The Society provides solutions to copy desk problems, training sessions for copy editors, a newsletter, conferences, scholarships, and various contests. While there is no Southwest chapter of ACES, individuals can contact the society and find out the membership requirements at their web site http://www.copydesk.org/. 5

For a more complete list of references, including electronic sources, see Appendix B: Resources for Editors.

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• knows the rules of grammar, punctuation, and standard usage (both American and British); • is familiar with the language of accomplished prose stylists6; • can organize written information effectively; • knows how to find information, what sources are reliable, and where current information can be easily located; • knows several computer and word processing programs (such as Microsoft Word, Paint Shop, Framemaker, etc.); • understands the fundamentals of design and layout (including such items as point/pica system of measurement, line and column widths, differences among type groups; variations of type fonts; type disposition [e.g., italics, bold, condensed]; weight, structure, form, direction, and color for type; contrast, repetition, alignment, proximity); • understands the fundamentals of graphics and illustrations (i.e., knows differences between line art and halftones, tables and figures; knows methods to alter graphs, tables, diagrams, photographs, and other kinds of art; recognizes when a graphic is too small or large, crowded, poorly resolved;); • knows the basic elements of printing and the most commonly used printing technologies. Even more than these skills, editors need to be personable individuals who can get along with others, particularly cantankerous writers.7 They need to have tact, senses of humor and proportion, imagination, and a cool head because they work in stressful conditions, with tight deadlines, far too much work to do at one sitting, possibly unfamiliar subject matter, and a need for consistency within and among documents. Copy editors have keen, curious minds and are not neither easily intimidated nor narrowly focused. Much of their time is spent trying to understand what a writer wants to say and finding ways to help that message come across clearly and succinctly. Being able to work with writers also requires the ability to deal responsibly and creatively with the fact that a document was written by someone other than the editor. While it is tempting to rewrite a document into the editor’s style, a copy editor has to remember that the text is the writer’s work—not the editor’s.

Levels of Edit Literary and Technical Levels of Edit E. F. Boomhower8 divides copy editing into two, simple types, 'literary' and 'technical'. While the division implies different ways of partitioning editing tasks, the two categories the work, but agrees that all the items listed should be done. A literary editor generally focuses on the first seven types of edit detailed by Van Buren and Buehler; that is, a literary editor is primarily concerned with the language and mechanics of writing and producing a document. Because a technical editor covers all seven levels of edit, that editor needs to have a general familiarity with the subject matter and its specific terminology (i.e., the professional jargon of the discipline). 6

For a list of noteworthy prose stylists, see Appendix C. See Appendix H, particularly Jacques Barzun’s essay “Beyond the Blue Pencil” and the subsequent comments from editors, for more information about the relationships between writers and copy editors. 8 Producing good technical communications requires two types of editing.' Journal of Technical Writing & Communication 5(4) 1975: 277-281. 7

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Technical editors should judge a manuscript on the basis of whether it tells them, as representative readers, what they need to know—and only what they need to know— completely, concisely, clearly, and accurately.

Plotnik’s Three Basic Levels of Edit Arthur Plotnik suggests in The Elements of Editing three basic levels of editing that individuals should follow. He follows classical writers such as Aristotle and Cicero when he sets out three-tiered system—although neither Aristotle nor Cicero would have used the catgories Plotnik suggests. In this system system the editing levels are generalized to light, moderate, and extensive and depend on how much time the editor has for a project and how much money the company has invested in the project and its outcome: Table 3.1: Plotnik's Edit Levels9

Light edit

Medium edit

Heavy edit

Correct capitalization, grammar, numbers, punctuation, and spelling. Also repair nonsensical or potentially libelous statements. Light edit plus correct capitalization, grammar, numbers, punctuation, and edit spelling. Also repair nonsensical or libelous statements. AND rework the prose to ensure the active and concrete statements, clearly structured paragraphs, and, in the main, accurate information. Light and medium edits plus rewrite some sections, eliminate material, include transitions, and verify the accuracy of information.

JPL Levels of Edit Plotnik’s levels are quite reasonable for most copy editing situations. When, however, one considers all the different types of editors who can work on a project, then a more sophisticated division of labor seems wise. Robert Van Burn and Mary Fran Buehler developed the concept of levels of edit in The Levels of Edit in 1976, specifically for documents produced at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of the California Institute of Technology. However, the concept and definitions serve as a basis for editing in other environments and documents. Van Buren and Buehler wanted to define and differentiate the various areas of editing that went on at the JPL. As Van Buren and Buehler comment, writers misunderstand what editors, particularly technical editors, do in document production. Most times these writers assume the editors either polish the manuscript—a cosmetic once-over to correct grammar—or distort the writers’ work by oversimplification, misinterpretation, or good but misguided intentions. Because editing is a wide-ranging process done to improve 9

Plotnik, Arthus. Elements of Editing. New York: Pearson Higher Education, 1996.

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the communication in a text, Van Buren and Buehler drew up the levels of edit to help organizations and editors know what an editor should be doing, how to tell that editor what the expected tasks are, what writers should expect, how much editing costs, and how much time editing should take. Table 3.2: Van Buren and Buehler's Nine Types of Technical Editing10

JPL Types of Editing No. 1

Type Coordination edit

2

Policy edit

3

Integrity edit

4

Screening edit

5

Copy clarification

6

Formal edit

7

Mechanical style

8

Language edit

9

Substantive edit

Explanation Planning, record keeping, scheduling. This administrative level edit ensure budgeting, explaining, interpreting, meeting, planning, and scheduling. Adherence to management requirements: copyrights, trademarks, format, style, etc. Not always a required activity because not all companies have standardized guidelines for what must appear in their publications. Check for appropriate disclaimers, policy statements (i.e., boilerplate), and legal use of confidential and/or classified information. Accuracy of references to figures, tables, and other sections. Check to make sure all the elements of the document are in place. For instance, editor check for appendices, equations, figures, footnotes, page numbers, references, tables, text sections, and titles (i.e., headings, sub-headings, etc.). Minimum language edit: spelling, subject-verb agreement, complete sentences. Check to make sure all the sentences are properly constructed, including spelling and various agreements, and ensuring graphics are appropriate. Edit instruction to printer or illustrator. Mark document with standard editing symbols for typist, typesetter, and graphics designer. Physical display of headings, type fonts, column width. Mark the document with standard copyediting symbols for typesetter telling about design and layout of pages. Consistency of format features: capitalization, abbreviations, acronyms, hyphenation, spelling, and use of compound words. Complete language edit: grammar, punctuation, usage, parallelism, syntax. Check for all text components, including reviewing grammar, punctuation, subject-verb agreement, syntax, and usage Organization and completeness of content. Check for unity of document, coherence, poor organization, discrepancy in meaning, needless redundancies, and superfluous information. Can also include working with the document’s writer(s) to determine the subject matter and organization (from overall organization to paragraph organization.

10

Van Buren, Robert and Mary Fran Buehler. The Levels of Edit. JPL Publication 80-1. 2nd ed. Arlington, VA: Society for Technical Communication, 1992.

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The nine types of editing are increasing time consuming and costly as illustrated by the way they group into five levels. Table 3.3: Types and Levels of Edit from Van Buren and Buehler

Type of Edit Coordination Policy Integrity Screening Copy Clarification Format Mechanical Style Language Substantive

1 X X X X X X X X X

Levels of Edit 2 3 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X

4 X X X X

5 X X

In a Level 5 edit (Coordination, Policy), the editor verifies that institutional policy hasn't been violated, routes the manuscript through production, and is the liaison between the writer(s) and publications personnel. The Level 4 edit (Integrity, Screening) ensures that the material meets the minimum editorial requirements of the publication. A Level 3 edit is concerned with Copy Clarification and Format. The Level 2 edit (Mechanical Style, Language) is used where a specific mechanical style is required by a publisher. The Level 1 edit (Substantive) includes the full range of editorial capabilities necessary to produce a first-class publication. The values of Van Buren and Buehler’s system include (a) clearly defining the duties within each type of editing that can take place with a document, (b) allowing the supervisor and the editor to know what tasks are expected, (c) clarifying for the writer what each editorial stage is, (d) suggesting that editing that requires more work will cost more money, and (e) allocating more editing resources to and scheduling more time for more important documents. The difficulty with the outline is that most editors work in companies with 10 or fewer employees—far smaller than the JPL.

LANL Three Levels of Edit Van Buren and Buehler’s work spawned several similar proposals. Writers and editors at Los Alamos National Laboratory, NM, devised a three-tiered system, more elaborate than Plotnik’s but less complicated than JPL editing process, to restructure Van Buren’s and Buehler’s levels around the audience’s needs and to demonstrate how writers and editors, working together, would add value to any document LANL published.11 Each level centers on the audience using the document with six possible readers: the writer, the SMEs, the non-tech peers, management, customers, and the general public. To determine which duties belonged at which level, the LANL staff surveyed lab employees for what errors these readers found glaring, affected clarity, or violated technical or grammatical conventions. All of the potential audiences found errors such as subject-verb disagreement or inconsistent headings/pagination glaring, 11

Prono, Judyth, Martha DeLanoy, Robert Deupree, Jeffrey Skiby, and Brian Thompson. Developing New Levels of Edit.

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and, as would be expected, both technical and non-technical audiences found that violations of technical and grammatical conventions and of writing formalities (e.g., faulty parallelism, wordiness, and poorly designed tables) impeded clear understanding. Incorporating these results into their standard editing practices, LANL’s writing staff devised three levels with obvious names and clear definitions: Table 3.4: LANL Levels of Edit

Level of Edit Proofreading Edit

Document type Archival reports, administrative reports, journal articles, technical manuals, preliminary research results, view graphs.

Audience Writer(s), SMEs.

Grammar Edit

Preliminary research reports, view graphs, administrative documents and correspondence, conference reports, poster sessions, progress reports. Preliminary research reports, view graphs, administrative documents and correspondence, conference reports, poster sessions, progress reports, manuals, white papers, operating procedures, brochures, flyers, etc..

Writer(s), SMEs, and non-tech peers.

Full Edit

Writer(s), SMEs, nontech peers, management, customers, general readers.

Activities expected Proofreading for glaring errors that could embarrass writer or LANL; verifying copyright and LANL policy; checking for sequencing errors among headings, subheadings, tables, figures, and references. Proofreading edit AND reviewing for technical and rhetorical clarity including basic grammar and punctuation, word usage, and sentence structure. Proofreading and Grammar edits AND rewriting where needed, improving sentence and paragraph structures, and revising overall organization.

A Proofreading Edit (level one) concerns the most basic two elements of proofreading/editing: consistency and correctness. A Proofreading Edit ensures that the document’s text meets the conventions and rules found in authoritative sources such as style sheets, style guides, handbooks, and company policy. A Grammar Edit Most Bang for the Buck

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(level two) changes the style of a document to reduce wordiness, enhance clarity, and improve cohesion (i.e., the obvious transitions between and among sentences, paragraphs, and ideas). A Full Edit (level three) ensures that a document achieves its objectives and provides full information for its audience. Hence, the overriding concern of a Full Edit is rhetorical, not technical or grammatical. Table 3.5: Checklist for Copy Editors

Combination of Approaches: Suggested Editor’s Checklist By combining the levels of edit and elements of edit into a checklist, you can have a ready guide to working with texts. Here’s one version:

LEVEL ONE: BASIC EDIT Numbering _____ Number all pages of the manuscript sequentially _____ Number all figures, tables, and appendices Policy Edit _____ Photocopy the manuscript. For all editing, mark the photocopy ONLY. Save the original for the final editing draft. _____ Become familiar with the author’s overall approach. _____ Note general questions that arise as you read. _____ Check for general conformance to company policy. Integrity Edit _____ Are all required parts present? _____ Does the Table of Contents correspond to headings in the text? _____ Are the elements of the document in their proper sequence? _____ Are all figures, tables, appendices, and references referred to in the text actually present in the text? Format Edit _____ Composition: Will document be typeset, offset printed from a typescript, or set and printed by computer processing? _____ Line spacing and length. _____ One, two, or more columns of text. _____ Illustrations integrated with text? Illustrations on separate page(s)? _____ Heading structure established? Style to use and level of every heading determined? _____ Position and type of page numbering established? _____ Running header or footer? _____ Begin a new page for each new section? Or run into the text? _____ Footnotes or endnotes? _____ Format for figure captions established? _____ Format for tables established? Mechanical Style Edit _____ Check for basic mechanics only. Check for typographical errors and obvious spelling, punctuation, capitalization, abbreviations, word Most Bang for the Buck

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compounding, and hyphenation errors. _____ Are subject/verb agreement, pronoun/referent agreement, and other syntactic constructions correct? _____ Are symbols and acronyms defined on first use? _____ Are numbers in written or numeral form consistent with company policy/style guidelines? _____ Are mathematical symbols and Greek characters identified for the compositor? _____ Is all copy especially editing marks and directions, clearly legible and unambiguous? _____ Clarify the copy for the typist or compositor.

LEVEL TWO: COPYEDIT Agreements of Parts _____ Check the discussions in the text to ensure that information in the figures, tables, legends, captions, references, and the text itself agrees with content/context of the document. _____ Check all cross-references, such as references from tables to other tables or figures or from one section of text to another, for agreement. _____ Check the abstract against the text. Language Edit _____ Check the sentence structure for clarity, concision, and effectiveness. Revise as necessary. _____ Check the sequence of tenses for clarity and appropriate use. _____ Check the use of active and passive voice. _____ Check for proper comparison, parallelism, predication. _____ Check for wordiness, deadwood, awkward sentence structure. _____ Check usage and diction. _____ Suggest revision of headings, chapter or section titles, even of the title of the manuscript/ document if necessary. Visuals Edit _____ Check tables and graphs against discussions in the text; redesign the tables, if necessary. _____ Check figures, illustrations, photos against discussion in the text. Indicate where to “crop” photos. Suggest revisions of figures and illustrations, if necessary. If your editing duties end at LEVEL TWO, clarify the copy for the typist or compositor as above with the LEVEL ONE edit.

LEVEL THREE: SUBSTANTIVE EDIT _____ Revise the development of the argument for logic, emphasis, coherence. Is the exposition clear and complete? _____ Supply missing information, rewrite existing passages, or write new text

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for author’s final approval. _____ Move discussions to or from appendices or footnotes. _____ Design or suggest additional visuals.

Style Sheets for Keeping Track By now it’s obvious that copy editors are part reference libraries, part managers, part computer nerds, part psychologists, part business executives, and part legal-eyed hunter. Keeping all this information straight for a manuscript when an editor is working on more than one manuscript at a time—the norm, not the exception!—means devising a notation system that lets the copy editor list or store the standards for a document. Some beginning copy editors believe they can hold all the necessary information in their minds while they edit; however, these editors find out quickly that writing something down is far better than relying on their memories. Every editor maintains some type of reference sheet for each manuscript to keep all necessary information readily at hand. With any document, an editor faces the practical problem remembering what was done so whatever needed standards are applied consistently to a document—a particularly difficult task if the editor is working on several documents at once. If a manuscript is hundreds of pages, a book, or a series, editors need to create lists—really, reminder sheets—of what they have done while editing so they can remind themselves as they go along working on a project or so they can direct another editor who may have to take over a project mid-way. Below are two such lists or guides, adapted from sources such as The Chicago Manual of Style, that work for editors.12 The first begins with noting the name of the project and the editor’s name so that individuals know who has worked on what project. The categories for the style sheet include the most common places an editor can face issues of consistency: grammar (including capitalization, spelling, italicized words; hyphenation of foreign language words and compound words), numbers and dates, abbreviations, punctuation, non-standard characters, tabular information, permissions, and other material. For the first section, the editor enters ALL items that may require verification at later stages of production: Which words are capitalized? On what page/paragraph/line does the first instance appear? Are they capitalized throughout the text? Are the spellings correct and consistent? Is the text American, British, or Canadian?13 What standard for italics is in use? That is, what words will be italicized and what words/phrases underlined? On what page/paragraph/line does the first instance of italics appear? Are the italics consistent throughout the document? What standard for hyphenation is used for foreign language words? For compound words? On what page/paragraph/line does the first instance of hyphenation appear?

12

Another checklist that helps editors manage the many tasks swirling around a project comes from Cynthia Berman, a member of the [San Franciso] Bay Area Editor’s Forum and reproduced in Appendix D: Berman Tipsheet. 13 See Appendix E: American versus British/Canadian English

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Does the writer vary how parts of speech are used? Note first instance of any seemingly inconsistent use. Use an abbreviation system such as cross-reference (v) and cross reference (n). Numbering and dating vary not only with the grammar text an editor consults but also with a company’s policies. Numbering, for example, includes numbers in units of measurement and statistical data; the style of numbers in percentages, symbols, and equations; page numbers, headers, footers; numbering in tables, figures, illustrations, etc.,; and numbering within the document. Keeping the method of dating consistent is equally demanding. Will the dates be in federal government order (January 1, 2000) or military/European style (1 January 2000)? Will the dates include endings such as –nd, –rd, -st, -th? Have these choices been maintained throughout the document? On what page/ paragraph/line is the first instance of using a style? Abbreviations are also typically style questions. When working on documents published by the United States Government Printing Office, for instance, an editor needs to remember to avoid abbreviations in correspondence unless the abbreviation references honorifics (Mr., Mrs., Ms., Dr.), academic degrees (like M.D., Ph.D., or R.N.), or religious orders (S.J., for example). On the other hand, the federal government promotes abbreviations in scientific and technical documents when the abbreviation or acronym is commonly understood by the audience or for the names of states and other parts of addresses (e.g., street, heights, parkway).14 Creating acronyms usually means using all capital letters for acronyms of two to four letters, except for letters that represent prepositions or determiners (a, an, or the). For example, for the Museum of Modern Art, write MoMA. In general, editors use initial caps for acronyms five letters and longer (e.g., Nasdaq for the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations15). Most important for the audience is that the editor makes sure the full name of the organization, state, theory, or other entity comes before the first use of the abbreviation or acronym. Punctuation listed on a style sheet is not for the editor to remember the various rules of comma usage but for the editor to note how various marks of punctuation, particularly those used infrequently, are used in a document. Again, the goal is consistency in how punctuation is used. If the text is a British document, the final period for a sentence will be outside any quotation marks (or inverted commas as British editors will call these marks).16 A sharp-eyed editor will note when dashes are used as compared to parentheses: is the information within the dashes actually parenthetical and the information within the parentheses explanatory, or are the dashes and parentheses being used inconsistently?). Certain characters are not represented on the keyboard, in particular the accented letters, Greek characters (e.g., mu ( ) for micro and omega ( ) for ohms), orthographics, or mathematical symbols. An editor needs to note when such characters appear and keep them consistent. Likewise any tables within a manuscript have to be 14

The U. S. Postal Service has a complete list of abbreviations at www.usps.com/ncsc/lookups/ abbreviations.html#states 15 Of course, there is always an exception such as WYSIWYG: What you see is what you get. 16 For a listing of common differences between American and British English, see Appendix E: American versus British/Canadian English.

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consistently set up, labeled, and designed. Editors check whether the material in a table is single- or double-spaced, whether each has a title, and whether all abbreviations are defined in the table or in a footnote. Editors also measure the size of tables to try to set a standard in the document. Tracking what an editor has done with tabular materials means giving the page numbers of each table. Most editors find that if there are many, or long, tables, they should be separated from manuscript. Permissions information is a note to the editor to make sure no information is used without obtaining clear rights to reproduce it. If an editor has any suspicion that non-original material needs authorization, that editor will note the page number(s) for the material and double-check the permissions. Finally, every editor needs a miscellaneous category on a style sheet. Here that category, called “Other,” includes any idiosyncrasies of spelling, diction, or grammar that the writer uses. Again, noting the page number(s) where any unusual items occur helps an editor figure out if an instance is an error or the first of a series of special text the writer prefers.

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STYLE SHEET FOR: (book/report/article title)

__________EDITOR

TEXTUAL/GRAMMATICAL (n) noun (v) verb (s) singular (p) plural (a) adjective preceding noun (pa) predicate adjective (col) collective noun

NUMBERS AND DATES

ABBREVIATIONS:

PUNCTUATION:

NONSTANDARD CHARACTERS: (orthographics, accents, Greek letters, etc.)

TABULAR MATERIAL: within manuscript Give page number of each table. If there are many, or long, tables, they should be separated from manuscript.

PERMISSIONS: Note page numbers containing non-original material for which permission may be required.

OTHER: Include idiosyncrasies of spelling or usage.

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Obviously, an editor makes multiple copies of a blank style sheet for a long document. Yet even with several copies, the editor doesn’t have space to note peculiarities in spelling or diction on the suggested form. The Chicago Manual of Style, as well as many other texts for editors, suggests a form that simply divides the alphabet into sections and lets the editor put any questionable words or phrases—and the page number(s) where they appear!—on a list. That list makes reviewing the work to keep it consistent easier for the editor. One such version follows:

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STYLE SHEET FOR: (book/report/article title)

__________EDITOR

A, B, C, D

E, F, G, H,

I, J, K, L,

M, N, O, P, Q, R,

S, T, U , V

W, X, Y, Z

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Additional Copyediting Marks Copy editors comment on text as well as mark missing or corrupted typographical information. Most of the time the copy editor will either correct the problem (e.g., correct a missing bibliographic error, “Kaufman and Hart’s play You Can’t Take it With You), direct a proofreader to note corrections (e.g., ACES is American Copy Editors’ Society), suggest a change to the author (e.g., Editors appreciate sharp pencils, running out for coffee breaks, and word processors.), or query the author (e.g., Q1: Can’t follow the sequence on bits and twos. Please explain.). Additionally, copy editors checking technical materials—such as dictionaries, formulae, directories, foreign publications—stay alert for the diacritic marks that such works require. Therefore copy editors have additional marks that they use in the margins of a manuscript to refer to circled or otherwise highlighted items in the manuscript. Here are a few of those marks.17 Copy edit abbreviation for margin   [ab] [bib]

Definition of abbreviation  

Example of copy edit mark  

Faulty abbreviation Bibliographic error

Proofreaders belong to the ACES. Shakespeare=s play You Can=t Take it With You. Me wanted to be an editor. I spent the Fall semester editing this manuscript. Editing technical information such as LANL documents (1999) requires a security clearance. Bits are used because binary cannot represent negative numbers. Two’s complement can represent signed integers, and two’s complement additions can be calculated with a binary adder. The binary adder is good because representing bits requires only two voltage levels.18 Seldom had the editor perused a document so verbose, so ostentatious in phrasing, so burdened with too many words. Dracula is an incompetent editor. He wears red scarves to work. For Christmas, the proofreader wanted an eye examination.

[ca] [cap]

Case form error Capitalization error

[cit]

Missing citation or error in citation

[coh]

Lacks coherence

[con] OR [w]

Lacks conciseness Wordy

[log]

Faulty logic

[noP] OR [no&]

No indentation; run back

17 I’ve used brackets around the notation instead of trying to draw circles for each one. Example from O’Donnell, John. “Introduction to Technical Writing for Computer Science: MSc Professional Skills Seminar, November 2004.” http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~jtod/writing/2004-11-17techwritingarticle.pdf. Accessed 13 February 2005. 18

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Faulty parallelism

]

[

[rep] OR [redun] [spell out] [spec] [stet]

Repetitious, redundant Spell out rather than abbreviate Specificity needed Let text stand

[trans ?]

Missing transition

[ww]

wrong word

Editors appreciate sharp pencils, running out for coffee, and word processors. The manuscript was typed on an IBM Selectric typewriter. The proofreader, BTW, wanted more time. Proofreading is a challenge. The proofreader uses this Latin term to indicate that proofreading marks calling for a change should be ignored and the text as originally written should be "let stand. The editor has always hated slugs. She is terrified of the slimy little things. What affect did another day of writing have on the text?

These additional proofreading copy editing symbols are ones used in texts such as technical documents, dictionaries, directories. Mark

Name

´ `

Acute Grave

ˆ ˜

Circumflex (or doghouse) Tilde (or snake)

¯

Macron

¨

Umlaut (German for diaeresis) Breve

˘ ¸

Cedilla

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Use To indicate that the final e in a word is sounded

Example á é, cloisonné

Indicates a certain tonal quality in vowel sounds. In English, grave appear over the e of final -ed to show that it forms a separate syllable. Indicates long vowel or broad quality of a sound. In English words of Spanish origin, indicates a pronunciation of n as ny or ni. Shows long vowel pronunciation.

è cortè, père, armèd as in armED

Indicates in German words a change in vowel sound. Used to show short vowel pronunciation. Literally “making the sound soft.” Placed under

ê ô fête (fate), rôle (roll), mêlée (ml) cañon (canyon), señoe (snyora), señora (snyora) as in recde or pronunciation of mêlée Über die älteste irische Dichtung ft, mt, sch Façade, façon, maçon

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c when followed by a and o to prevent a k-sound

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Top Ten Reasons Why Editing Is COOL!19 10. 9.

8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1.

It's like solving a puzzle. You find a whole world of other people who go crazy over the "10 items or less" sign in the grocery store. (Or, as one new editor put it, "I can constructively satisfy my obsessive- compulsive anal-retentive tendencies and get paid for it.") Your job changes constantly; you're never bored. You become a more interesting person. You can talk about Arafat, Albright, Agassi or Aguilera and sound like you know what you're talking about—because you do! You have responsibility and power. You decide how readers will perceive the news, how they'll perceive the world. Catching a dumb mistake before readers see it is a rush. Helping someone make a story better is the best drug there is. (Or, as one person wrote, "It's a close as an English major can come to being a doctor, or God.") Newspapers never ask writers to edit, but they love it if editors write. You could be the world's best quiz show contestant because you're a dictionary of useless information. You can move anywhere and find a job. You never have to wear decent clothes.

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http://www.copydesk.org/words/cool.htm. Compiled by Jane Harrigan, University of New Hampshire. October 28, 2003.

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Cynthia Berman’s Tipsheet from 18 November 2003 Bay Area Editors’ Forum: “Managing a Multi-Volume Indexing Project: Style Sheet Starter-Set for Technical Indexing” Style Sheet Starter-Set for Technical Indexing Administrative: What are the deliverables and what is the final delivery format? Is deliverable camera-ready copy or will it be typeset? When are the deliverables due? How should the deliverables be returned (email, FedEx, ftp) and to whom? Name: Address: Phone: Email: FTP: Is the person receiving the deliverable the same person to whom I send my invoice? If not, to whom do I send my invoice? Name: Address: Phone: Email: FTP: (If you haven't signed a non-disclosure agreement, ask about it.) Who is my contact person for content and format questions? Audience:

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Who is the audience for the document? How will they access the content: webbased access, PDF file on CD-ROM or intranet, printed book, knowledge base, or a combination of access methods? Are there other documents in the same document set that the audience will be using? If the answer is yes, ask if a controlled vocabulary already exists. Style sheet: Does a style sheet exist for the project? Are there other books in the document set whose conventions need to be followed? Which style manuals are followed here: CMS, MS, Sun, in-house, other? Source files: What were the source files created with? Are index entries to be embedded in the source files? How will the source files be delivered to me? How will version control be handled so that only one person is in the files at a time? Verify the working environment; for example zipped FrameMaker 7.0 source files (Windows environment) downloaded from an ftp site.

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Is anything special required, like special fonts? (This is important in FrameMaker because it needs the fonts to open the doc.) Format of the index: Is there a page limit? Number of columns? Font family and size? Type of sorting used (word-by-word or letter-by-letter)? Use of bold and italics? Placement of See and See also references? Number of levels for an entry: 1, 2, or 3? Use of page ranges? Capitalization and punctuation; for example, should all subentries that are not proper nouns or abbreviations be lowercase? Should See and See also references have initial caps? Follow convention for use of plural for things that can be counted? Content: Is there a special way you want me to handle acronyms, numbers, symbols, formulas, or foreign words? (Be prepared to describe how you handle them normally.)

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Is there a special way you want me to handle flowcharts, graphics, and other illustrations? (Be prepared to describe how you handle them normally.) Is there anything else about the content you'd like to tell me for example, is it reused elsewhere? FrameMaker considerations: Does a template (including Reference pages) already exist? Is conditional text in the content and if so, how many conditions are there and how many different documents need to be generated and delivered? (Note: This can impact delivery date and budget.) Is it okay to use IXgen? Are there preferences about the number of index entries in a marker box and the location of index markers? Do I need any special fonts or the art directories? June 2003

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©2004, Cynthia Berman.

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