Services
For those new to the world of editing and/or publishing, it can be hard to differentiate the many types of editing. To make matters more complicated, different editors can sometimes have different understandings of what each field of editing entails.
That’s where Editors Canada’s Professional Editorial Standards come in. These standards outline the duties and responsibilities for each type of editing. They indicate what the client can expect from their editor, and what their editor will do for their document.
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If you’re not sure what kind of editorial service your material needs, read on to learn about the editorial services that I offer. Though the explanations are my own, they’re based on the Editorial Standards mentioned above and follow the responsibilities laid out in that document.
Developmental Editing
Have an idea but not quite sure how to take it from concept to publication?
Developmental editing can help with that. Developmental editors work with you to build an outline out of your idea, based on your intended goals for the project. During a developmental edit, we consider things like:
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Who you’re trying to reach
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What the goal of your material is
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What the market is like for your material, and where the competition is
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What medium you’re intending to publish in
If you already have an outline or even a full manuscript, a developmental edit can still help ensure your material is hitting the intended marks.
Structural Editing
Think of a structural edit as a second pair of eyes on an early draft.
When we write, we often write based on information held in our minds, forgetting that others don’t necessarily have access to the same information. The result is that we develop blind spots: things that seem to make perfect sense to us might not make logical sense to others. Connective tissue might be missing.
A structural edit looks for those blind spots and helps move the piece closer to its intended goal. It asks questions like:
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What’s missing?
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What can likely be removed to improve the piece’s flow?
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Would certain points be more effective if they were arranged differently?
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Would additional types of material (images, quotes, charts, etc.) help communicate the information more effectively? If so, where should they be placed?
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Would some of the material work better in another format?
You can always ask yourself these questions when writing, but when you’ve spent so long writing a document, it can be hard to look at it objectively. That’s where an editor can help. If you request a structural edit, we’ll discuss your document’s goals and assess how it can be adjusted to best achieve them.
Copyediting
You’ve finished your draft and are generally happy with the structure, but before you send it off to design, you want to make sure it’s polished.
Copyediting is what makes your document look as professional as it can. It focuses on reviewing your material for correctness, clarity, and consistency.
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Correctness
Simple spelling errors or grammatical issues aren’t the only mistakes to watch out for.
Do your calculations add up? Does the source you cited really say what you said it does? Could a sentence be misinterpreted to mean something entirely different? Are there potential legal issues that could arise from how you’ve phrased something?
A copyeditor goes through your document with a fine-toothed comb, line by line, to ensure it’s as error-free as possible.
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Consistency
Consistency is one of the most underestimated ways of conveying professionalism and credibility to your readers.
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Acronyms, spelling of specific terms, treatment of numbers — these might seem minor, but readers will notice inconsistencies. When they do, it can lead them to doubt the document’s trustworthiness.
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And when they doubt the document’s trustworthiness, they begin to doubt the author. Inconsistency can damage your brand.
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Clarity
As mentioned above, writers can develop blind spots due to their proximity to the act of writing a document. It can become hard to think of the content from the reader’s perspective. You may not realize that some parts may not make sense to anyone but you. Things that seemed obvious to you may not seem so to the reader.
A copyeditor can tell you when your ideas or your writing are not as clear as you might think.
Proofreading
Your document has been designed and laid out and will soon be ready for publishing. All it needs now is a final check.
Even if you had the pre-design draft copyedited, mistakes might have snuck in during the design phase. Text may have accidentally been dropped, image and figure captions may be incorrect or missing, and there may be visual formatting errors you didn’t notice.
This is where proofreading comes in. Proofreading is the last stage before your document goes out into the world. A proofreader will take an extremely close look at every aspect of your document to ensure that it’s as close to perfect as possible.