Copyediting

Introduction

Editing, like revising, is something that you will do throughout the writing process. Most of the editorial process will take place after you have worked out your final argument and organizational structure. Editing looks at your work on a sentence-by-sentence level, considering ways to make everything you say as clear and precise as possible.

During the editing process you’ll mainly want to consider language, construction, and style.

Editing

Once you have completed your revision and feel confident in your content, it’s time to begin the editing stage of your revision and editing process. The following questions will guide you through your editing:

• Are there any grammar errors, i.e. have you been consistent in your use of tense, do your pronouns agree?
• Have you accurately and effectively used punctuation?
• Do you rely on strong verbs and nouns and maintain a good balance with adjectives and adverbs, using them to enhance descriptions but ensuring clear sentences?
• Are your words as accurate as possible?
• Do you define any technical or unusual terms you use?
• Are there extra words or clichés in your sentences that you can delete?
• Do you vary your sentence structure?
• Have you accurately presented facts; have you copied quotations precisely?
• If you’re writing an academic essay, have you tried to be objective in your evidence and tone?
• If writing a personal essay, is the narrative voice lively and interesting?
• Have you spellchecked your paper?
• If you used sources, have you consistently documented all of the sources’ ideas and information using a standard documentation style?

Editing for Language

With language, the overall question is whether you are using the most accurate language possible to describe your ideas. Your reader will have an easier time understanding what you want to say if you’re precise. Be sure to check for the following.

• Pronoun clarity: Make sure it’s clear what each “it,” “he,” and “she” refers to.
• Precise vocabulary: Make sure every word means what you intend it to mean. Always use a dictionary to confirm the meaning of any word about which you are unsure. Although the built-in dictionary that comes with your word processor is a great time-saver, it falls far short of college-edition dictionaries, or the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). If spell-check suggests bizarre corrections for one of your words, it could be that you know a word it does not. When in doubt, always check a dictionary to be sure.
• Defined terms: When using terms specific to your topic, make sure you define them for your readers who may not be familiar with them. If that makes the paragraph too cumbersome, consider using a different term.
• Properly placed modifiers: Make sure your reader can clearly discern what each adjective and adverb refers to.
• Hyperbole: See if you can eradicate words like “amazing” and “gigantic” in favor of more precise descriptions. Also examine each use of the word “very” and see if you can find a more precise word or phrase.

Finally, pay attention to wordiness. Writing that is clean, precise, and simple will always sound best.

Editing for Sentence Construction

If you want to make everything easy for your audience to read and understand, start by simplifying your sentences. If you think a sentence is too complicated, rephrase it so that it is easier to read, or break it into two sentences. Clear doesn’t mean boring, by the way. Complicated is not a synonym for artistic!

Consider how balanced your sentences are within a paragraph. You don’t want every sentence to have identical length and structure or to begin the same way. Instead, vary your prose.

This is also the time to add transitions between clauses and sentences that aren’t connected smoothly to each other. You don’t need to introduce every sentence with “then,” “however,” or “because.” Using these words judiciously, though, will help your reader see logical connections between the different steps of your argument.

Editing for Style

Editing for style is more difficult, because as writers gain practice they usually develop their own unique stylistic quirks. That’s a good thing. Instead of thinking that you should write a certain way, what follows is general advice for the kinds of writing that can help or hurt your work.

Think about how you use active and passive verbs. Often, rewriting a sentence to take it from passive to active will make it simpler and easier to read. Consider the following sentences:

• Many of those who have held the office of governor of Illinois in the past twenty years have been met with charges of corruption due to political misdealings.
• Over the past twenty years, many Illinois governors have faced political corruption charges.

The second is shorter, less wordy, and clearer. In this case, changing from passive to active made a major improvement. Please note, this doesn’t mean that you should never use passive verbs. Some sentences do read better with them. It’s up to you to decide which works better for your scenario.

In general, whenever you can replace an “is” or a “was” with an action verb, your writing will feel more vibrant. “The horse was shaking with fear,” is slightly less powerful than “The horse shook with fear.” Better yet, if the context tells us the horse is frightened, we can say, “The horse trembled.” “Trembled” is a more specific form of “shook,” which is itself an improvement over “was shaking.” This step enlivens research papers perhaps more than any other.

Another thing to look at with your verb use is parallelism—using the same pattern of words to provide balance in a sentence. If you are listing things, try to make them all the same part of speech. Look at these examples:

• Unbalanced: “John likes reading, his studies, and talking.”
• Parallel: “John likes reading, studying, and talking.”

Both are grammatically correct, but the parallel sentence has a better rhythm.

Proofreading

Proofreading is the final stage of revision. It’s okay to correct typos or grammatical errors if you catch them in early drafts, but you should save thorough proofreading for your final draft. Wait to begin this step when you are sure that you will not be changing anything else in your paper.

Here are some of the things you should do every time you proofread:

• Check spelling. Be alert for typos.
• Check punctuation.
• Make sure that you are using the correct formatting and citation style.
• Check that your verb tenses remain consistent.
• Look at subject/verb and pronoun/antecedent agreement.

Try reading each page backward. This doesn’t work so well for editing, but it can really help with proofreading. You’ll catch many of the above problems this way.

Summary

Proofreading: The reading of text to detect and correct production errors.

Editing: The process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audio, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete work.

• Editing and proofreading are concerned with the style of your writing, not the substance of your argument. Editing focuses on the clarity of your writing, particularly word choice, sentence construction, and transitions. Proofreading focuses on mechanics, such as grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
• Unlike revising for purpose, editing and proofreading focus on the sentence level of your work. When editing, you look at how clearly you have written. The goal is to make sure that your sentences are easily understood and tightly written.
• While editing focuses on improving your writing, proofreading is more like fact-checking it. The goal of proofreading is to find and correct mechanical errors.
• It can be helpful to do a peer review: ask one of your peers to edit and proofread your paper. Since they are seeing your work for the first time, they will probably be able to spot problems that you have missed.
• Reading a printed page of text backwards is a good way to catch errors.

Sources:

“Revising Stage 3: Editing Up Close.” By Excelsior Online Writing Lab. Retrieved from: https://owl.excelsior.edu/writing-process/revising-and-editing/revising-and-editing-revising-stage-3/ Licensed under: CC-BY

“Steps of Writing a Paper.” By Lumen Learning. Retrieved from: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-writing/chapter/steps-of-writing-a-paper/ Licensed under: CC-BY-SA