The Different Kinds of Editing
Content Editing or Substantive Editing
| Content editing, or substantive editing, is a heavy editing pass. It takes a comprehensive look at the overall intent and feel of a manuscript. Much of the content editor's efforts are to help the final product make sense, to improve overall clarity and accuracy, and to challenge the author to be certain that the manuscript's content is correct. A content edit generally includes looking for improvements in imagery, setting, foreshadowing, context, point of view, proportion, characterization, dialogue, plot, and general readability. For nonfiction documents, we look for clarity, continuity, tone, structure, organization, and layout. A content editor may reorganize paragraphs and sentences, and rewrite segments to improve readability and presentation.
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Copyediting or Medium Editing
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Copyeditors find problems with organization, coherence, redundancy, word usage, style, syntax, consistency, run-on sentences, and fragments. Copyeditors change words and sentences if they are awkward or incorrect. In addition, they look at paragraph and sentence structures, and may move sentences around to help the reader more easily follow the topic.
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Proofreading
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Proofreading is yet another kind of editing. A proofreader looks closely for typos, spelling errors, hyphenation problems, and punctuation. Proofreading picks up the problems that word processing spell-checkers do not find.
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General Editing (combination)
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General editing is a single editing pass that combines content editing, copyediting, and proofreading. A general edit can correct many problems, but because this is done in a single reading pass, it is not as exacting as separate readings consisting of content editing, copyediting, and proofreading.
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Manuscript Review
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A manuscript review is a critical reading of your manuscript to identify areas that might need improvement. For instance, we can tell you if your manuscript needs more conflict, dialogue, or narrative. We'll tell you if there are disconnects or inconsistencies, confusing passages, or if there is too much telling rather than showing. Then we will offer a few hints to help you fix problems. Rather than edit the manuscript itself, the editor provides a report to the author with general areas that should be enhanced or reworked.
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Consulting
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Consulting is for authors who need a little help getting through the rough spots. Our manuscript consulting service puts you in direct, one-on-one contact with our editors, usually by phone or e-mail. You may also want to hire one of our writing tutors who can address your specific problems; they can help you develop better dialogue, plot, and characters, and help you identify problems with balance and organization in your manuscript. |
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We Edit All Kinds of Manuscripts