Searching for the right editor can be a tricky task, made all the more difficult by the many different types of editing that exist. Maybe you like the level of experience of one editor, but they seem to only offer developmental editing. Perhaps you want a proofread, but the description for that service seems completely different from what you need. In short, if you’re feeling uncertain about what editorial services your manuscript needs, you’re probably not alone. Editing comes in many varieties, with names that aren’t nearly as descriptive at face value as we’d all like. To help you narrow things down, I’ve put together a handy little breakdown of the different levels of editing.
Levels of Editing
Developmental Editing
Also known as structural editing, developmental editing occurs early in the publication process. A developmental edit will take into account the audience and purpose of the manuscript and suggest larger scale and/or thematic revisions to reshape and refine the manuscript’s content. At this stage, your editor will ignore grammatical errors and typos, focusing exclusively on what you’re saying, not how you’re saying it. The following bullet points come from the Editors Canada website, and describe some duties that may be fulfilled by a developmental editor:
- revising, reordering, cutting, or expanding material
- writing original material
- determining whether permissions are necessary for third-party material
- recasting material that would be better presented in another form, or revising material for a different medium (such as revising print copy for web copy)
- clarifying plot, characterization, or thematic elements
Line Editing
Also known as stylistic editing, line editing occurs after the overall structure of the manuscript is established and accepted. Line editing refines the manuscript’s language on the sentence level so the manuscript meets the expectations of its audience and more effectively serves its purpose. Depending on the agreement established ahead of time, or how many rounds of editing the manuscript will receive, a line editor may still overlook typos, but they should ensure that sentences are grammatically correct. Similar to developmental editing, line editing is more an art than a science, but finding an editor familiar with your field will be essential for this kind of edit. The following bullet points come from the Editors Canada website, and describe some duties that may be fulfilled by a line editor:
- eliminating jargon, clichés, and euphemisms
- establishing or maintaining the language level appropriate for the intended audience, medium, and purpose
- adjusting the length and structure of sentences and paragraphs
- establishing or maintaining tone, mood, style, and authorial voice or level of formality
Note: Substantive editing is essentially a combination of developmental and line editing, combining stylistic edits with those focused on content. However, some sources/editors seem to use it interchangeably with structural/developmental editing, so it’s best to clarify with the editor you’re working with.
Copy Editing
When someone says they need an editor, this is often the kind of editing they think of. Copy editors work through a manuscript, sentence by sentence, to fix issues in grammar, syntax, consistency, spelling, and more. They’ll also prepare a style sheet documenting their editorial decisions so that any further editing doesn’t introduce inconsistencies that may confuse readers. Once a copy editor has reviewed your manuscript, you should be left with a near error-free document (I say near because no one is perfect, and even the most diligent editors can miss things) that is ready to be transformed into its final format. The following bullet points come from the Editors Canada website, and describe some duties that may be fulfilled by a copy editor:
- editing for grammar, spelling, punctuation, and usage
- checking for consistency and continuity of mechanics and facts, including anachronisms, character names, and relationships
- editing tables, figures, and lists
- notifying designers of any unusual production requirements
- developing a style sheet or following one that is provided
- correcting or querying general information that should be checked for accuracy
- and more!
Proofreading
Often when we talk about proofreading, what we’re really referring to is a light copy edit. We want someone to look over the text, point out typos and misspellings that we missed in our previous read throughs, and hand back an error-free document. However, proofreading—in the way that editors and other publishing industry professionals use the term—actually entails far more. This is why, no matter the level of editing that you need, you should always discuss the scope of work with an editor before signing a contract. At the proofreading stage of an edit, the editor works with the document after it’s gone through design and is in its final format (e.g., a PDF). Not only does the editor look for typos and misspellings, but they also examine design elements, compare the document proof to the undesigned version (e.g., compare a PDF to a Word doc), and ensure that the copy editor’s style sheet choices are maintained throughout. In other words, even though proofreading is one of, if not the, last step in the editorial process, it remains a very time-consuming, detail-focused step. The following bullet points come from the Editors Canada website, and describe some duties that may be fulfilled by a proofreader:
- adherence to design
- minor mechanical errors (such as spelling mistakes or deviations from style sheet)
- consistency and accuracy of elements in the material (such as cross-references, running heads, captions, web page heading tags, hyperlinks, and metadata)
- and more!
Final Thoughts
In the end, you may be left wondering why you can’t simply request an edit and be done with it. Wouldn’t it be so much easier to hand your manuscript to a professional and say, “make it better”? But even the most technical writing reflects human choices and thought, and clear communication and expectations at the outset of a project can save you from feeling like someone has picked apart and destroyed, rather than enhanced, your hard work.
Even when we don’t form emotional attachments to our work, the complexity in levels of editing reflects the complexity of human communication and thought: breaking editing into different steps helps to ensure that the end product is high quality because the editor has clear guidelines for what they should be looking to improve at each step in the process.
That said, if determining the level of editorial support you need still seems overwhelming, that’s okay. An editor can help you assess the level of editorial intervention your manuscript would most benefit from, and many will do this free of charge. That includes me! If you’d like an assessment, please reach out via my contact form.