Copy editing

Copy editing (also copy-editing and copyediting) is the editorial work that an editor does to make formatting changes and improvements to a manuscript; copy (as a noun) refers to written or typewritten text for typesetting, printing, or publication.

In the United States and Canada, an editor who does this is 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. In the United Kingdom and other parts of the world that follow UK nomenclature, the term is sub-editor, commonly shortened to sub ("to sub" is the verb form). The senior sub-editor on a title is referred to as the Chief Sub-Editor.

There is no universal form for the job or job title; it is often written as one word (copyediting) or with a hyphen (copy-editing); the hyphenated form is especially common in Britain. Similarly, the term copy editor may be spelled either as one word, two words, or as a hyphenated compound term.

Overview

The “Five Cs” summarize the copy editor's job: make the copy (i) clear, (ii) correct, (iii) concise, (iv) comprehensible, and (v) consistent; that is: make it say what it means, and mean what it says. Typically, via the publisher's house style, copy editing ensures the use of correct spelling, consistently used terminology, accurate punctuation, correct infelicities of style, i.e. grammatical and semantic errors, and formatting of text in accordance with the house style headers, footers, headlines, etc.

The copy editor renders the text to flow sensibly, fairly, and accurately so that it will provoke no legal problems (plagiarism, misstatements, etc.) for the publisher. Newspaper copy editors are sometimes responsible for selecting which news agency's wire copy the newspaper will use and for rewriting it to house style. Often, the copy editor is the only person, other than the author, to read an entire text before publication. Newspaper managing editors regard copy editors as the newspaper's last line of accurate defense.

A copy editor might abridge a text by cutting and trimming the length of a novel or article, either to fit broadcasting or publishing limits or to clarify the text's meaning. This usually requires omitting sections of text and rewriting (abridging) the remainder to bridge the gaps created by the omission; some abridgments are only slightly shorter than the originals, but others are abridged extensively, especially in such cases that a classic literary work is abridged for young readers.

Changes in the profession

Traditionally, the copy editor would read a printed or written manuscript, manually marking it with editor's correction marks. Today, the manuscript is more often read on a computer display and corrections are entered directly.

The rise of desktop publishing means that many copy editors do design and layout work that once was the province of design production crews in print publications. As a result, the skills needed for editing copy have shifted: Technical knowledge is sometimes considered as important as writing ability, though this is more true in journalism than it is in book publishing.

See also

• Proofreading
• Fact-checking
• House style
• American copy editors
• AP Stylebook
• Obelism
• Controlled language

References

• The Art of Editing, by Floyd K. Baskette, Jack Z. Sissors, and Brian S. Brooks.
• Butcher's Copy-Editing: the Cambridge Handbook for Editors, Copy-editors and Proofreaders. 4th edition, by Judith Butcher, Caroline Drake and Maureen Leach. Cambridge University Press, 2006.

External links

General

• Sub-editing style and directory
• Advice on freelance proofreading and copy-editing (UK)
• Copy Editor newsletter (USA)
• Proofreading practice at Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders
• Copyeditors' Knowledge Base
• An Online Proofreading and Copy Editing Community

Organizations

• American Copy Editors Society
• Society for Editors and Proofreaders (UK)
• Editors' Association of Canada
• Editorial Freelancers Association (USA)

Newspaper copy editing

• Test examples for Dow Jones Newspaper Fund internships
• Test question examples, compiled by the American Copy Editors Society
• The Slot, includes What exactly is a copy editor? and How a copy desk works, by Bill Walsh of The Washington Post
• Testy Copy Editors Newspaper copy editors and their fans talk shop