# Copyediting

## What Copyediting Is

The quality-control phase of manuscript preparation. Copyediting checks grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalisation, consistency, and factual accuracy. It is the final pass before the manuscript enters production.

Copyediting is the phase most often confused with "editing" by people outside publishing. It is important and skilled work, but it is the third layer — after developmental editing and line editing.

## What Copyeditors Check

### Grammar and Mechanics
- Grammar errors
- Spelling errors (including proper nouns, place names, technical terms)
- Punctuation consistency and correctness
- Capitalisation consistency (especially titles, proper nouns, and technical terms)
- Number style (spelled out vs. numerals, consistency)
- Hyphenation consistency

### Internal Consistency
This is one of the copyeditor's most valuable functions — catching contradictions the author and previous editors missed:
- **Character names** — spelled the same way throughout? Not accidentally changed?
- **Physical descriptions** — blue eyes in chapter 3, brown eyes in chapter 17?
- **Timeline** — events in the right order? Days of the week matching dates? Seasons matching months?
- **Geography** — distances, directions, and locations consistent?
- **Facts** — where checkable, are factual claims accurate?
- **Style sheet** — maintaining a running record of decisions made (spellings, capitalizations, hyphenations) and applying them consistently

### Good Expression
Copyeditors also flag:
- Awkward constructions that line editing should have caught
- Unclear antecedents ("She told her that she..." — who told whom?)
- Misused words (affect/effect, lay/lie, fewer/less)
- Jargon that may need explanation for the intended audience
- Sentences that are technically correct but confusing

## Copyediting vs. Line Editing

| Aspect | Copyediting | Line Editing |
|--------|------------|-------------|
| **Focus** | Correctness and consistency | Clarity, flow, and impact |
| **Scale** | Word and sentence | Sentence and paragraph |
| **Authority** | Follows style guide | Uses judgment |
| **Author contact** | Usually indirect (through managing editor) | Usually direct |
| **Structural changes** | No | Sometimes |

Good copyeditors frequently do the line editing that the acquiring editor should have done — a reality of the industry, though a source of professional tension.

## Style Guides

Professional copyeditors work from a style guide, most commonly:
- **Chicago Manual of Style** — the standard for most book publishing
- **AP Stylebook** — standard for journalism and some nonfiction
- **Publisher-specific variants** — house style that modifies the base guide

The copyeditor applies house style consistently and queries anything that deviates without apparent reason.

## The Value of Copyediting

Sloppy published books undermine the credibility of authors and publishers. In a competitive environment, poorly presented manuscripts may never receive the reading they deserve.

Copyediting is not optional, even for self-published work. Authors cannot see their own errors — familiarity creates blind spots that are precisely what an outside reader can address.

## Self-Copyediting Techniques

For writers who must do their own copyediting (knowing it is no substitute for professional work):

1. **Leave time between writing and copyediting** — the longer the better
2. **Read on a different medium** — if you wrote on screen, print and read on paper
3. **Read backwards** — sentence by sentence, from the end to the beginning, to break the flow of expectation
4. **Read aloud** — forces slower attention and catches awkwardness
5. **Use a style sheet** — write down every decision (name spellings, capitalizations, style choices) and check against it
6. **Focus on one type of error per pass** — check spelling in one pass, punctuation in another, consistency in another
7. **Use spellcheck as a tool, not a substitute** — it catches typos but misses correctly spelled wrong words
