Make Every Editing Hour Count

Even today, book copy editors mark up manuscripts with colored pencil. Editors and authors add their comments to the draft with different-colored pencils so that the edited hard copy often resembles an Expressionist scrawl by the time it is sent to the compositor to be typeset.

Not all publications still use such an archaic editing process, but editorial managers can always be on the lookout for ways to save time and money. These tips offer a framework with which to start:

• Edit online and use track changes. If editors are making substantial fixes to a piece, it almost never makes sense to edit on paper, no matter how much of a purist the editor claims to be. Working online allows the editor to try multiple options for syntax, flow, and precision (and to save paper!).
• Submit queries. When using the track changes, MS Word’s inserted “comments” can virtually fall off the side of the margin of the screen, especially in a heavily marked-up manuscript. To ensure clarity, I typically “embed” queries in the text of the document, like so: [Ed: Ok to recast as follows for flow?] The editor or writer can see the suggestion without straining and offer a response.
• “Write through” instead of editing line by line. This applies particularly when editing monographs and articles for think tanks and institutes, where content is often written by experts whose first language is not English. Editing line by line can eat up hours and, in addition, prevent the editor from sculpting fully idiomatic prose. See the brief example below, in which the editor stepped back to rethink the logic of the entire sentence.

Before: In the 2004 elections, the reformists were defeated by the voters only at the end of an unprecedented political crisis that stripped the legislative ballot of any authenticity.

After: In the 2004 elections, the reformists’ defeat came only after an unprecedented political crisis in which the legislative ballot lost all legitimacy.

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