Copy editing
In addition, copy editors do not normally engage in "developmental editing", which includes helping an author develop an idea into a publishable manuscript, overhauling a rough draft, identifying gaps in subject coverage, devising strategies for more-effective communication of content, and creating features to enhance the final product and make it more competitive in the marketplace.
Similar to print, online copy editing is the process of revising and preparing the raw or draft text of web pages for publication.
[4]: 12 Mechanical editing is the process of closely reading a piece of writing for consistency, either internally or in accordance with the publisher's house style.
Companies that produce documents and reports but do not consider themselves publishers in the usual sense tend to rely on in-house style guides or on the judgment of the copy editor.
[4]: 9 Although copy editors are not responsible for factual correctness of the document, they can provide comments for the author on any information that they know to be untrue,[4]: 9 such as year discrepancies or misleading ideas.
[4]: 7–10 To do this, the copy editor will permit intentional "politically incorrect" views and censor only marginalized, offensive, or exclusive language.
Traditional markup copyediting, or hard-copy editing, is still important because screening tests for employment may be administered in hard copy.
These parties (together with the copy editor) work to achieve the same goal, namely, to produce an error-free publication and improve the reader experience by reducing extraneous cognitive load.
One editor in particular, Maxwell Perkins, was sought out by writers such as Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Wolfe because he greatly improved the work of these prominent authors with his editorial eye.
Some copy editors were even employed by public relations and advertising firms who valued strong editing practices in their business.
This phenomenon began as the result of a series of inventions that were released during the middle of this decade, and refers to the growth of technology usage in the field of copyediting.
Most copy editors today rely on more modern WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) text processors such as Microsoft Word that are based on the original PageMaker to do their work.
This technological advance also required that copy editors learn new software such as Adobe InDesign, QuarkXPress, Affinity Publisher or Scribus.
Digital copyediting requires copy editors to understand RSS feeds, social media (such as Twitter and Facebook), and HTML.
[21] While copy editors still do traditional tasks such as checking facts, grammar, style, and writing headlines, some of their duties have been pushed aside to make way for technology.
The nearly universal adoption of computerized systems for editing and layout in newspapers and magazines has also led copy editors to become more involved in the design and the technicalities of production.
These vary widely and can include general items such as acronyms, current events, math, punctuation, and skills such as the use of Associated Press style, headline writing, infographics editing, and journalism ethics.
Whether using programs like illustrator, publisher, or photoshop, copy editors can obtain skills in using different types of software to help catch further errors that may be present in a writer's work.
Understanding these distinctions is useful for authors, publishers, and editors to ensure that each piece of content undergoes the appropriate level of scrutiny and refinement before reaching its audience.
Before the digital era, copy editors would mark errors and inconsistencies with a red pen, using a markup language of symbols which were universally known.
The technological development of cloud storage allows contemporary copy editors and writers to upload and share files across multiple devices.
[35] Copy editors must now consider multimedia aspects of the story, such as video, images, audio, and search engine optimization, which may be included in digital publications.
[35] Digital editing now requires copy editors to understand SEO, HTML, CSS, and RSS feeds,[35] as well as creative tools like Adobe Illustrator.
The basics of checking grammar and punctuation are still necessary, but in the age of technology, the field of copy-editing has grown to include digital editing of various forms of media.
[35] Contemporary copy editors now have to review and understand current technology to help authors gain credibility in today's digital age.
[36] Web-based publications, such as BuzzFeed and Slate, do not have enough room in their budgets to keep sufficient staff to edit their massive, daily rushes of content.
[37] In response to such high demands for fast-produced content, some online publications have started publishing articles first and then editing later, a process known as back-editing.
Carolyn Rude exemplifies such cases in alternatively replacing illustrations with text and audio translations for the visually impaired.
One of the most important advancements of the digital age is the advent of pagination, which gives copy editors more control over the construction and revisions of their content, and is a convenient feature in modern software.
Although it may be tempting to neglect proper revisions in favor of convenience, the credibility and quality of an editor's work should still be maintained, as there will always be updates in software and technology.
