Welcome to the beginning of yet another new year. We here at Turner Editing will be posting helpful hints and tips on how to make your writing process smoother. There will be Grammar suggestions, Story line helps, Definitions of terms used in writing, Discussions of traditions in the printing industry, and even a few time-saving keyboard shortcuts! (I’ve always said that if I have to pull my hand off the keyboard, grab the mouse, wiggle it around, push it to where I want, click on something, then go back to the keyboard, I have wasted too much time that could be better spent on creating something wonderful.)
Posting levels:
As you read, you’ll notice that the post categories have a topic and level indicated. This one is “Terms, 1 Introductory”. That means it is a first level discussion on some terminology that’s important to the writing world. The other levels are “2 Basic”, “3 Advanced”, and “4 Excessive”. (If you get to that level, you’re really trying to understand the whole process!) After you get done reading, if you’re still confused, let us know. We hope to be able to answer all your questions.
“Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.”—Samuel Johnson, creator of A Dictionary of the English Language, published in 1755
Let’s start off with a few basic terms. There are at least four different types of Edits that need to take place for any written work to be ready to share with the world.
Types of Editing:
- The first level is Developmental Editing. It looks at the work as a whole, considering the flow or sequence of information from beginning to end, possibly reordering whole sections—a chapter level edit.
- The next level is Line Editing. It looks at the work deeper, considering how the information is presented to the reader, focusing on language usage, tone, transitions, pacing—a paragraph level edit.
- Following that is Copy Editing. At this step the idea is to follow accepted conventions. The Copy Editor will often have a style sheet, specifying the rules to be followed. Very few decisions need to be made. If the style sheet says it, then it must be so. Indexing can also be done now, but the attention is mostly on grammar and punctuation—a word level edit.
- Then, after the work is formatted and laid out, a final check is made to see that it looks right on the printed page. That’s the work of the Proofreader (reading the Galley Proof). By now the content is done, so the emphasis is how it looks to the reader. It’s a very high level view of the document—a page level edit.
Although we have editors who can do Developmental editing, here at Turner Editing we suggest that you use Beta Readers or a Critique Group for the Developmental Editing (saving you plenty of money) and allow us the opportunity to address your Line and Copy Editing needs. We will also do Proofreading if you need it.