copy
Copy editing (also copyediting) is the process of revising written material to improve readability and fitness for its purpose, as well as ensuring that it is free of grammatical and factual errors. In the context of publication in print, copy editing is done before typesetting and again before proofreading, the final step in the editorial cycle.The Chicago Manual of Style prefers the term "manuscript editing". As described by Chicago, "manuscript editing encompasses any or all of the tasks along a continuum from simple mechanical corrections (mechanical editing) through sentence-level interventions (line, or stylistic, editing) to substantial remedial work on literary style and clarity, disorganized passages, baggy prose, muddled tables and figures, and the like (substantive editing). Several professional associations of editors further describe this continuum of manuscript editing in terms of levels of editing and characterize the degrees of intervention as light, medium, and heavy copy editing."
In the world beyond traditional book and journal publishing, the term copy editing is sometimes applied to an even more expansive range of tasks, or the work is incorrectly referred to as proofreading by authors despite their lofty expectations of the services to be provided. Besides performing the conventional copy editing duties, an editor in these nontraditional publishing environments may be expected to assess the suitability of a manuscript for publication (usually the role of an acquisitions editor or literary agent); to midwife content, evaluate and reshape a manuscript, or overhaul organization and literary style (the work of a development or substantive editor).
Although copy editors are generally expected to make simple revisions to smooth awkward passages, they do not have a license to rewrite a text line by line, nor do they prepare material on an author's behalf. Creating original content to be published under another person's name is called ghostwriting. Furthermore, copy editors are expected to query structural and organizational problems, but they are not expected to fix these problems. Helping an author develop an idea into a publishable manuscript, overhauling a rough draft, identifying gaps in subject coverage, devising strategies for more effective communication of content, and creating features to enhance the final product and make it more competitive in the marketplace—these tasks describe developmental editing.In the United States and Canada, an editor who does this work is called a copy editor. An organization's highest-ranking copy editor, or the supervising editor of a group of copy editors, may be known as the copy chief, copy desk chief, or news editor. In book publishing in the United Kingdom and other parts of the world that follow British nomenclature, the term copy editor is used, but in newspaper and magazine publishing, the term is subeditor (or sub-editor), commonly shortened to sub. The senior subeditor of a publication is often called the chief subeditor. As the prefix sub suggests, copy editors typically have less authority than regular editors.In the context of the Internet, online copy refers to the textual content of web pages. Similar to print, online copy editing is the process of revising and preparing the raw or draft text of web pages for publication.Copy editing has three levels: light, medium, and heavy. Depending on the budget and scheduling of the publication, the publisher will let the copy editor know what level of editing to employ. The chosen type of editing will help the copy editor prioritize their efforts.Within copy editing, there is mechanical editing and substantive editing: mechanical editing is the process of aligning a document with editorial or house style, keeping the preferred style and grammar rules of publication consistent across all content. It refers to editing in terms of spelling, punctuation, and correct usage of grammatical symbols, along with reviewing special elements such as tables, charts, formatting footnotes, and endnotes. Content editing, also known as substantive editing, is the editing of the material, including its structure and organization, to ensure internal consistency. Content editing may require heavy editing or rewriting as compared to mechanical editing.In addition, copy editing may change punctuation, spelling, and usage for a different country. For a Commonwealth readership, the Oxford British and American spelling of "organize" may be changed to "organise", and "color" changed to "colour".
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In the world beyond traditional book and journal publishing, the term copy editing is sometimes applied to an even more expansive range of tasks, or the work is incorrectly referred to as proofreading by authors despite their lofty expectations of the services to be provided. Besides performing the conventional copy editing duties, an editor in these nontraditional publishing environments may be expected to assess the suitability of a manuscript for publication (usually the role of an acquisitions editor or literary agent); to midwife content, evaluate and reshape a manuscript, or overhaul organization and literary style (the work of a development or substantive editor).
Although copy editors are generally expected to make simple revisions to smooth awkward passages, they do not have a license to rewrite a text line by line, nor do they prepare material on an author's behalf. Creating original content to be published under another person's name is called ghostwriting. Furthermore, copy editors are expected to query structural and organizational problems, but they are not expected to fix these problems. Helping an author develop an idea into a publishable manuscript, overhauling a rough draft, identifying gaps in subject coverage, devising strategies for more effective communication of content, and creating features to enhance the final product and make it more competitive in the marketplace—these tasks describe developmental editing.In the United States and Canada, an editor who does this work is called a copy editor. An organization's highest-ranking copy editor, or the supervising editor of a group of copy editors, may be known as the copy chief, copy desk chief, or news editor. In book publishing in the United Kingdom and other parts of the world that follow British nomenclature, the term copy editor is used, but in newspaper and magazine publishing, the term is subeditor (or sub-editor), commonly shortened to sub. The senior subeditor of a publication is often called the chief subeditor. As the prefix sub suggests, copy editors typically have less authority than regular editors.In the context of the Internet, online copy refers to the textual content of web pages. Similar to print, online copy editing is the process of revising and preparing the raw or draft text of web pages for publication.Copy editing has three levels: light, medium, and heavy. Depending on the budget and scheduling of the publication, the publisher will let the copy editor know what level of editing to employ. The chosen type of editing will help the copy editor prioritize their efforts.Within copy editing, there is mechanical editing and substantive editing: mechanical editing is the process of aligning a document with editorial or house style, keeping the preferred style and grammar rules of publication consistent across all content. It refers to editing in terms of spelling, punctuation, and correct usage of grammatical symbols, along with reviewing special elements such as tables, charts, formatting footnotes, and endnotes. Content editing, also known as substantive editing, is the editing of the material, including its structure and organization, to ensure internal consistency. Content editing may require heavy editing or rewriting as compared to mechanical editing.In addition, copy editing may change punctuation, spelling, and usage for a different country. For a Commonwealth readership, the Oxford British and American spelling of "organize" may be changed to "organise", and "color" changed to "colour".
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