All About Copyediting

Study Notes

Copyediting involves reviewing writers' work to ensure it is publication-ready.
Copyeditors analyze content and grammar to ensure clarity, accuracy, and the absence of errors.
Copyeditors do not change the author's writing style or message.
A copyeditor will want to know the intended audience, thesis, main points, and mood of the piece.
The purpose of copyediting is to ensure information is clearly articulated, accurate, well-organized, and consistent with a style guide.
Copyeditors provide feedback on writing style consistency, grammatical errors, information accuracy, source citation correctness, audience clarity, fulfillment of purpose, and adherence to style guide expectations.
Minor errors, like inconsistencies in tense, are typically corrected by the copyeditor.
Significant issues like inaccurate or missing information are sent back to the author.

Grammatical errors and typos are typically fixed by the copyeditor.
Ambiguous sentences can be rewritten for clarity, such as rephrasing to specify that all video games, not just multiplayer ones, help children learn from mistakes.
Subject-verb agreement errors should be corrected. For example, changing "gamers has" to "gamers have."
Errors involving similar-sounding words (like "lite" instead of "light") need correction.
Introductory quotes should be relevant and appropriately placed.
The body of the work should align with the thesis of the text.
Unfamiliar terms should be defined for the audience.
Conclusions should be supported by the evidence presented in the text