Professional English Copy Editing

Lighter than a line edit but much deeper than a proofread, in a copy edit, I get into the meat of each sentence to make sure there are no errors. For a copy edit we are not looking at what role the subject of the sentence plays in the bigger picture — only the sentence matters at this level. Think of me as your editor with blinders. With them on, I won’t be touching the plot, or changing characters, writing style, or pacing.

A copy editor doesn’t modify sentences, chop them up or combine them. My focus will be on making sure of the correctness of the syntax and grammar. But the copy editor’s job is more than just checking grammar and spelling. I need to ensure that all elements of the manuscript are consistent, cohesive and complete.

Copy editing consists of:

• Checking for and correcting errors in grammar, spelling, syntax and punctuation.
• Maintaining a style sheet of decisions on spellings, hyphenation, italics, capitals, units of measurement, how quotations are presented and more.  
• Checking for technical consistency in spelling, capitalization, font usage, numerals and hyphenation. For example, is the term “e-mail” used on one page but spelled “email” on the next page? Or, are both British and American English spelling variations used interchangeably, such as “favourite” versus “favorite”?
• Watching out for inconsistency within the story line. This includes character description, plot points and setting. Questions we copy editors need to ask ourselves are whether or not the characters stay true to their descriptions throughout the story and are there conflicting descriptions of the background. For example, has the setting been described as “a red-brick home” on one page but “a dilapidated wooden house” further on in the manuscript? 
• Understanding information chunking. This depends on the readership, the material and the means of access (e.g., books, comics, web pages, advertisements), but usually sentences should be short and straightforward with paragraphs to introduce new ideas and break up the page. If appropriate, headings also break up text and make it more digestible. 
• Checking for factually incorrect statements. We copy editors must check if the facts in your manuscript are accurate and if the names and dates are correct.

For a little more concise list, here are things I’ll be looking for and revising, if necessary:

• Awkward phrasing
• Capitalization
• Consistency
• Grammar
• Hyphenation
• Number formatting
• Punctuation
• Readability
• Spelling
• Syntax
• Word flow

Copy editing can be heavy, medium or light depending on the amount of work or the needs of the manuscript. Again, being able to do English copy editing and Spanish copy editing is a big help to a lot of my clients.

Heavy copy editing may stray into the realm of line editing or even substantive editing when it involves changes to structure. This can happen while working with any author, but is especially true when working on manuscripts authored by non-native, non-fluent English writers. In such cases, the content might be brilliant from a developmental perspective but sentences could be cumbersome, paragraphs need better organization and word choices might not be optimal.

Medium and light copy editing do not require structural changes. They focus on improvements like correcting wordiness, punctuation, subject-verb agreement and others from the above list.

Now is a good time to mention that if you’re on a limited budget, are confident in your writing style, and are only going to have one round of editing done, make it a copy edit. While a misspelled or misused word in a published book can be embarrassing, a full sentence that just doesn’t make sense is worse.

Read about how I can help you with my Spanish and English proofreading service. Or, if you’re ready to move forward, contact ÉSETE today!

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