About Editing
Types of Editing
Content Editing (sometimes known as substantive or developmental editing): looks at the big picture and structure of the manuscript, points out things such as lack of supporting information to an argument, reliance on unreliable data, jumping from one concept to another, and in general deals with substantive revisions to strengthen the arguments made in the manuscript. Not to be confused with ghostwriting a book, in which an author hires someone else to produce the manuscript from scratch but takes credit for the work.
Line Editing: focuses not on content but on the prose itself, such as paragraph structure, sentence flow, and word choices. It points out things such as wordiness, repetitive words, repetitive sentences, and redundancies. Line editing most often makes use of MS Word's "track changes" to suggest rewrites.
Copy Editing: checks on grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Most editors combine line editing with copy editing. There may be some rewriting of a sentence for the sake of clarity but does not revise style or content. "Track changes" is standard for this kind of editing.
Proofreading: often confused with copy editing, but is not part of the editing process. Proofreaders compare the copyedited manuscript to the printer's proof to ensure that no errors were introduced during the publishing process. They look at formatting, end-of-line breaks, spacing, typographical errors, and will also point out spelling and punctuation mistakes.
Line Editing: focuses not on content but on the prose itself, such as paragraph structure, sentence flow, and word choices. It points out things such as wordiness, repetitive words, repetitive sentences, and redundancies. Line editing most often makes use of MS Word's "track changes" to suggest rewrites.
Copy Editing: checks on grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Most editors combine line editing with copy editing. There may be some rewriting of a sentence for the sake of clarity but does not revise style or content. "Track changes" is standard for this kind of editing.
Proofreading: often confused with copy editing, but is not part of the editing process. Proofreaders compare the copyedited manuscript to the printer's proof to ensure that no errors were introduced during the publishing process. They look at formatting, end-of-line breaks, spacing, typographical errors, and will also point out spelling and punctuation mistakes.
The Editing Process
For long articles and book-length projects, there are two stages to editing: 1) Content and context editing (also known as developmental or substantive editing); and 2) copyediting and proofing. During both stages of editing I use Microsoft Word's Review and Track Changes functions.
1) Content and context editing: In this first pass I do a careful reading of the whole manuscript for content and context. I am thus able to attain an eagle eye's view of the entire manuscript (the view of the forest instead of the individual tress) before diving into the particulars of copyediting (the ant's point of view). It is the creative or design phase of editing.
When you receive this first draft of content editing, your responses to the sideline questions and comments can in many cases lead to re-writes, so any time spent focusing on the mechanics of grammar and punctuation will be time spent unecessarily, and will lengthen the time it takes to bring the project to full completion.
2) In the second pass, copyediting/proofreading, I concentrate on:
In sum, what do you do with the first edited draft I send back to you?
These two phases of editing can be applied to a fully completed manuscript, or chapter by chapter when working closely with an editor throughout the writing process.
1) Content and context editing: In this first pass I do a careful reading of the whole manuscript for content and context. I am thus able to attain an eagle eye's view of the entire manuscript (the view of the forest instead of the individual tress) before diving into the particulars of copyediting (the ant's point of view). It is the creative or design phase of editing.
- What is the overall thesis or "story"?
- How do the ideas progress from sentence to sentence and paragraph to paragraph?
- Syntax. What's not clear?
- What needs to be shifted around to support the overall aim of the thesis or story?
- Does the opening chapter of the manuscript cohere with the final chapter?
- What needs re-writing?
- It is a process of asking question of the author and making suggestions, and a time when author and editor work closely together to resolve issues.
When you receive this first draft of content editing, your responses to the sideline questions and comments can in many cases lead to re-writes, so any time spent focusing on the mechanics of grammar and punctuation will be time spent unecessarily, and will lengthen the time it takes to bring the project to full completion.
2) In the second pass, copyediting/proofreading, I concentrate on:
- The mechanics of grammar, punctuation, spelling, more sentence construction as needed.
- This is a different level of careful reading, word by word, phrase by phrase, without having to worry whether ideas, themes, transitions, linkages actually cohere—a kind of mindless yet clearly photographic reading.
- This phase of editing is faster than the first phase, because the hard work of making sense of the whole manuscript has already been accomplished.
In sum, what do you do with the first edited draft I send back to you?
- Answer the questions and respond to the suggestions/comments.
- Make any textual changes as needed, either adding or deleting text, or typing over an existing section.
- Make note of things you want to discuss with me.
- You then send me back the draft and I incorporate your changes and we also meet as needed to clarify issues.
- I then do a second pass of the draft for the final detailed copyediting and proofing phase.
These two phases of editing can be applied to a fully completed manuscript, or chapter by chapter when working closely with an editor throughout the writing process.