Copyediting

Copyediting can be divided into three categories. The following descriptions
are based on those provided by the Bay Area Editors’ Forum:

• Correcting faulty spelling, grammar, and punctuation
  
• Correcting incorrect usage (such as can for may)
  
• Checking specific cross-references (for example, “As Table 14-6 shows…”)
  
• Ensuring consistency in spelling, hyphenation, numerals, fonts, and capitalization
  
• Checking for proper sequencing (such as alphabetical order) in lists and other displayed material
  
• Recording the first references to figures, tables, and other display elements

Medium Copyediting

• All tasks for light copyediting
  
• Changing text and heading to achieve parallel structure
  
• Flagging inappropriate figures of speech
  
• Ensuring that key terms are handled consistently and that vocabulary lists and the index
  contain all the terms that meet criteria specified by the publisher
  
• Ensuring that previews, summaries, and end-of-chapter questions reflect content
  
• In fiction manuscripts, tracking the continuity of plot, setting, and character traits, and querying discrepancies
  
• In a multiauthor manuscript, enforcing consistent style and tone
• Changing passive voice to active voice, if requested
  
• Flagging ambiguous or incorrect statements
  
• Typemarking the manuscript

Heavy Copyediting (substantive editing)

• All tasks for medium copyediting
  
• Eliminating wordiness, triteness, and inappropriate jargon
  
• Smoothing transitions and moving sentences to improve readability
  
• Assigning new levels to heads to achieve logical structure
  
• Suggesting—and sometimes implementing—additions and deletions, noting them at the sentence and paragraph level

Why do writers need copyeditors?

From writecontent.com:

Writing and editing are two very different writing processes that use different parts of the brain.
Editing is the bridge a text must cross before it can graduate into a professional document, and
entails a far more extensive process than many people realize.

Proofreading

“I wrote this myself, and I’ve already read it twice. Why do I need a proofreader?”

Because you wrote it yourself and you’ve already read it twice. If you are too
familiar with a piece of writing, it can be difficult to find errors that an
objective and experienced proofreader can readily identify and correct.

“But I got all A’s in English.”

An English major does not necessarily make a good proofreader. Knowledge of grammar,
punctuation, and spelling are as important as patience, a keen eye, and a knack
for remembering that the word Bahá’í appeared on page 56 as Baha’í.

“I always use my spellcheck function. I’m sure my computer caught all the spelling errors.”

Quick, off the top of your head, what’s the difference between adverse and averse?
continual and continuous? flout and flaunt? The spellcheck function cannot tell you
when a correctly spelled word is used incorrectly.

“People don’t pay attention to that kind of stuff.”

When readers find errors in your work, they automatically discredit you, your intelligence,
and ultimately, your competency. If you are a business, you may have lost a customer.
If you are a writer, you may have missed out on a potential publishing contract.

From the Bay Area Editors’ Forum:

Proofreading requires reading a manuscript to correct indisputable errors, such as misspellings, typos, misnumbering or mislabeling, subject-verb disagreement, errors in word usage, and incorrect or outdated cross-references. If copy is missing, the editor requests the copy. When the manuscript consists of typeset text, the editor checks for incorrect word breaks. The editor makes marginal notes to show the first citation of illustrations, tables, and other display elements. The editor adds punctuation to delineate a restrictive clause only if the change prevents confusion. Proofreaders may also check copy for conformity to type specifications, create a style sheet, and ensure attractive typography by checking kerning, margins, word spacing, repetitive word breaks, and the like. The proofreader retains secondary spellings and does not tamper with word choice or marginally incorrect punctuation (such as semicolons in a simple series) unless requested to do so.

Clients often request editorial proofreading when previously published material is to be reprinted or when they are concerned about possible input errors in material that has been heavily edited or drastically reformatted.

Newsletters

A newsletter is an excellent, cost-effective tool that can be used for a wide range
of business and personal communications.

Your Clients, Prospects, Vendors, Associates, and Employees Need to Hear from You!

Think of a newsletter as your own little magazine that can be distributed to your
target audience. In this magazine you can describe the services and products
your company offers, announce new developments, introduce new and existing
staff members, offer problem-solving techniques specific to your field of expertise,
and enhance your relationship with your client base or your employees.

Because readers tend to view newsletters as a news source, they are more likely
to believe what they read in newsletters, just as they tend to believe what they read in newspapers.
This is a different perspective than the reaction to other types of direct mail pieces,
which are often viewed with suspicion or disbelief…if they’re read at all.

A client newsletter

• keeps your business’s name in front of your clients
  
• creates an air of authority and professionalism
  
• informs customers of new products and services
  
• gains support for a cause or industry
  
• earns repeat business by maintaining a relationship with existing clients
  
• provides a complimentary source of information
  

An employee or internal newsletter

• improves morale
  
• increases productivity
  
• leads to better communication between management and staff
  
• explains a company’s goals and plans for the future
  
• recognizes and rewards outstanding employees
  

Why Not Do It Yourself?

Although many companies would like to produce and distribute a newsletter themselves,
it is a task that often ends up at the bottom of a long list of other priorities.
Usually, the job is handed to an already-overworked assistant or clerk who is expected
to turn out a professional and well-designed document in a matter of days.
A newsletter written on a word processor, printed on a laser printer, and hand-stapled
just isn’t good enough any more. Your customers and employees will judge you by your
presentation, professionalism, and attention to detail.

By using an outside source to write, design, and print your newsletter, you can avoid
the common pitfalls of a rushed and unprofessional job, such as

• typographical errors
  
• poor-quality graphics
  
• unreadable typefaces
  
• inadequate research and factual errors
  
• trite or lazy writing
  

Sample Newsletters Produced by Pro Edit

Capital Cleaning Services

U.S. Office Products

Superior Office Products

Indexing

The ocean flows of online information are all streaming together, and the access tools are becoming absolutely critical. If you don’t index it, it doesn’t exist. It’s out there but you can’t find it, so it might as well not be there.
—Barbara Quint, ASI San Diego Conference, 1994

don't ask for specific degrees or credentials indexing include excellent language skills, high clerical aptitude, accuracy and attention to detail. Once you are indexing professionally, you will find that self-discipline, curiosity, tolerance of isolation and love of books are necessary to keep going. Most indexing is done by freelancers, often working from home, hired by authors, publishers or packagers. The indexer usually receives a set of page proofs for the book (images of the actual pages as they will appear, including final page numbers), often at the same time as final proofreading is being done by someone else. The indexer reads the page proofs, making a list of headings and subheadings (terms to appear in the index) and the location of each pertinent reference. After completing the rough index the indexer edits it for structure, clarity and consistency, formats it to specifications, proofreads it and submits it to the client in hard-copy form, on disk, by modem, or by email. Since the indexer is very late in the production process, there can be unreasonable time pressure.

Less time is available for the preparation of the index than for almost any other step in the bookmaking process. For obvious reasons, most indexes cannot be completed until page proofs are available. Typesetters are anxious for those few final pages of copy; printers want to get the job on the press; binders are waiting; salesmen are clamoring for finished books surely you can get that index done over the weekend? (from CMOS) The American Society of Indexers describes indexing as follows:

According to the British indexing standard (BS3700:1988), an index is a systematic arrangement of entries designed to enable users to locate information in a document. The process of creating an index is called indexing, and a person who does it is called an indexer. There are many types of indexes, from cumulative indexes for journals to computer database indexes.

Indexes are among those necessary but never spectacular products of hard as well as skilled work that can sometimes make the difference between a book and a good book.

Indexing work is not recommended to those who lack an orderly mind and a capacity for taking pains. A good index is a minor work of art but it is also the product of clear thought and meticulous care.
—Peter Farrell, How to Make Money from Home

Why not have the computer do it?

Computers can easily construct a concordance (a list of words or phrases and where they appear), but this is not an index, and is not very useful to someone looking for information. The so-called automatic indexing software programs now appearing on the market are simply not up to the task of indexing a book. Book indexing involves a little bit of manipulating words appearing in a text, which computers can do, and a lot of understanding and organizing the ideas and information in the text, which computers cannot do and will not do for many years to come. An example of the difference is that a book on protective gloves for occupational use might have a chapter discussing surgical gloves, how they get punctured and how they are tested for integrity, but might never use the word holes. Yet a user of the book would expect to find this word in the index and be directed to the appropriate chapter. The indexer handles dozens or hundreds of such issues in every book.

Where the text is already on computer disk, the indexing features of word processing programs can ease the handling of page numbers and sorting, but the real indexing work is still done by the human. Powerful dedicated software is also available for personal computers to aid the professional indexer in constructing, sorting, editing and formatting the index, whether from hard-copy text or computer files.

Whoever the indexer is, he or she should be intelligent, widely read, and well acquainted with publishing practices also levelheaded, patient, scrupulous in handling detail, and analytically minded. This rare bird must while being intelligent, levelheaded, patient, accurate, and analytical work at top speed to meet an almost impossible deadline.
—Chicago Manual of Style, 13th edition

Web editing

See Copyediting. Seriously, almost every rule for copyediting print material applies to online materials. Why wouldn’t it? Isn’t your online presence as, if not more, important, than your print materials? Web designers do not have the same qualifications as a good copy editor. How many times has good design and valuable content been undermined by misspellings, incorrect punctuation, and sloppy writing?