Good Housekeeping: What to Look For When Editing

It's true that editing can be a tedious process, and sometimes you just feel like hitting the "delete" button altogether to make the problems go away. But to simplify things, there are various types of mistakes that I have already predetermined I need to look for. Most people assume that editors like me check just for spelling and punctuation, but for most editors in the corporate setting, there is much more to this superficial marking.

The following categories are areas all aspiring editors should take into consideration when editing:

1) CONTENT: Before any other step, the first item I check for is the accuracy and comprehensiveness of the document. To check for accuracy, I make sure that the document has met the required specifications in terms of what type of information has been offered and if that information came from valid sources. Second, I reread the document to make sure the average reader would understand it. Do the words make any sense? Is it logical? Does the information meet the needs of the audience, or would it make them more confused? Are there any areas that can be rewritten better for the sake of readability and clarity? At this point, it would be safe to do some fact-checking of the information received, especially if the document were a research-oriented piece, such as a peer-reviewed medical journal. If the information is too technical beyond my knowledge, it would be best to seek the advice of an expert; in my case as an editor for a CME company, I would seek the opinion of other scientifically-trained experts, such as the Clinical Affairs department or the Medical Editor, usually a physician specialized in a specific area of oncology.

2) COPYEDITING: Now that you have learned to fully trust the content, I can proceed to the other phases of editing:
• Spelling: Are you absolutely certain that all the words have been spelled correctly? Pay careful attention to homonyms (e.g., “accept” versus “except”; “their” versus “there”; “compliment” versus complement”, and the list goes on). Are there any technical terms that are completely foreign to you and/or are extremely long (e.g. “chronic myelogenous leukemia” or generic drug names like “Liposomal daunorubicin”). Feel free to use a dictionary to look up any foreign words (primarily any European language or Greek/Latin derivatives used for scientific terminology).
• Grammar: Check for correct sentence structure, subject verb agreement, and consistency in tense usage
• Punctuation: Inconsistencies in punctuation will lead to issues with spelling and grammar. Make sure all commas are inserted after dependent clauses, listed nouns, and abbreviated words (also known as “contractions”); likewise, check that quotation marks are used within quoted excerpts, dialogues, and new terminology. Foreign names (especially French and German words) require consistent use of accent marks; unless you are fluent in those languages, be sure to have a dictionary handy to double-check along with spelling.

3) FORMAT: Once the text looks fine, look at the document as a whole. Are the spacing and textual arrangements consistent? If you’re not sure, check to see the following are consistent and meet you or your employer’s required criteria:
• Spacing: Is the document single-spaced, double-spaced, or somewhere in between? Is this spacing style applied throughout the document? How is the line spacing overall? Do you notice any inconsistencies with lines of text being larger than spaces that separate entire sections or paragraphs? Are the margins set correctly, so that information is not cut out, nor crammed?
• Orientation: Landscape or portrait, your document’s orientation is important, especially when it that involves some degree of graphic art or photography. Examples of this include (but are not limited to): posters, book or video covers, billboards, brochures, website banners, etc. Is space used well with the orientation you are now viewing, or would it be better to have the lay-out personnel or graphic artist do some rearranging?

4) REFERENCING: Last, but certainly not least, have all the information presented been referenced properly according to you or your employer’s preferred style manual? It is imperative that references are included on the document if information based off of another source is being used. Without it, not only does the editor jeopardize the credibility of the document, but also poses the risk of being accused of plagiarism. Referencing applies to all types of information in the following ways:
• Text: Internal citations, footnotes, and bibliographic/reference sections
• Graphics: Captions containing the references from where they came from; most publishers now require that a fee be paid for using their tables or figures, so the editor would have to fill out and submit a permissions request
• Audio/Visual: Give references to the people who created the audio/visual file, whether it be a visiting lecturer for a podcast or a musician for a live performance. If the program recorded is owned and copyrighted by another company (such as a TV station like the Public Television Station), be sure to include that as well.