Judith Butcher's book on copy-editing, 'The Cambridge Handbook for editors, authors and publishers' is considered an authority on the subject by most people in the line.
According to Judith Butcher, 'copy-editing is largely a matter of common sense in deciding what to do and of thoroughness in doing it.'
The kinds of editing include the following:
1. Substantive Editing:
This aims to improve a piece of writing by improving its content, scope, length, level, and organization. The editor needs to look into issues such as libel and plagiarism.
2. Detailed editing for sense:
This involves looking at each sentence, word choice of the author, punctuation, use of abbreviations, data in tables, checking illustrations and captions, etc. The editor needs to look into permission from the copyright owner and other legal problems.
3. Checking for consistency:
This involves a spell check, use of quotation marks - whether single or double, checking against a house style, checking illustrations, tables, notes, cross-references and bibliographic references.
4. Clear presentation of the material for the typesetter:
This involves making sure all parts of the text are clearly identified and marked for the typesetter.
The same person could do 1-4 or different people could do them.
Those who do substantive editing may be called editors, commissioning editors, journal editors, or developmental editors.
Those who do 2-4 may be called editors, desk editors, production editors, subeditors, or copy-editors.
According to Judith Butcher, 'copy-editing is largely a matter of common sense in deciding what to do and of thoroughness in doing it.'
The kinds of editing include the following:
1. Substantive Editing:
This aims to improve a piece of writing by improving its content, scope, length, level, and organization. The editor needs to look into issues such as libel and plagiarism.
2. Detailed editing for sense:
This involves looking at each sentence, word choice of the author, punctuation, use of abbreviations, data in tables, checking illustrations and captions, etc. The editor needs to look into permission from the copyright owner and other legal problems.
3. Checking for consistency:
This involves a spell check, use of quotation marks - whether single or double, checking against a house style, checking illustrations, tables, notes, cross-references and bibliographic references.
4. Clear presentation of the material for the typesetter:
This involves making sure all parts of the text are clearly identified and marked for the typesetter.
The same person could do 1-4 or different people could do them.
Those who do substantive editing may be called editors, commissioning editors, journal editors, or developmental editors.
Those who do 2-4 may be called editors, desk editors, production editors, subeditors, or copy-editors.
Comments
Post a Comment