The Copyeditor’s Creed: Consistency, Correctness, Accuracy, and Completeness

As with so many specialized professions, copyediting is a job whose remit is somewhat opaque to those who aren’t already in the know. When I tell people I’m a copyeditor, they often confuse it with copywriter, or they conflate it with other forms of editing—usually structural/developmental. I have to explain, basically, that copyeditors work with a text as it approaches its final form, ironing out the bugs.

We are the QA of the writing world.

If you want more of an overview of the different types of editing (including copyediting), you can read all about that in this article I wrote last year.

For now, I thought I would discuss what copyeditors do more concretely. There’s no better framework for this than the Professional Editorial Standards (PES) from Editors Canada.

As the PES for Copyediting lay out, copyeditors have four main areas that we cover: consistency, correctness, accuracy, and completeness. (The PES also outlines standards for communication, which is the meta of how copyeditors do our jobs.)

Let’s examine what each of these areas mean for a writer wondering whether a copyeditor is worth their while.

Consistency

Check out this passage. Notice anything off about it?

Americans are growing old. According to the Population Reference Bureau, the population of the US is roughly 330 million people, 16% of which are people over the age of sixty-five, and 22 percent under the age of 18. In 2000, these figures were 12.4% and 25.7 per cent. The U.S. will need to decide how to adapt to these demographic changes in the decade ahead.

The figures in this passage are correct, yet the way they are presented is inconsistent. At various points in the paragraph:

• percentages are written as %, percent, or per cent;
• ages are written as numerals (18) and also spelled out (sixty-five);
• the abbreviation for United States is written with periods (U.S.) and without (US).

Inconsistency is one of the enemies of clear communication. I have exaggerated the problem in the above example, of course—usually writers are consistent at a sentence- and paragraph-level (though you might be surprised). However, in a longer text like a novel, memoir, dissertation, or corporate report, these small matters of style can drift. This is especially true for documents with multiple contributors.

What’s the correct way of dealing with the issues I noted above? What’s the right style? There isn’t one.

This is one of the fundamental misconceptions many of us carry around about writing, and specifically about grammar and style, often pressed upon us by stern teachers who revere “the rules” of writing because it helps them impose order on the chaos of student composition. (I understand this feeling because I am a teacher.)

The truth, as with many things in life, has much more nuance: style is inherently subjective and mutable. That makes consistency more important, not less!

How copyeditors help with consistency

Writers are, above all else, concerned with telling a story. That might be about a princess saving herself or how the quarterly statistics reflect record growth. Either way, most writers don’t want to spend too much time worrying about whether they should be using “percent” or “%.”

Fortunately, numerous style manuals exist to solve this problem for you: AP, APA, Chicago, MLA, etc. If your industry or publication tends to use a certain style, it’s probably worthwhile learning more about it as a writer.

As your copyeditor, I go through your manuscript with a fine-toothed comb and ensure it conforms to the style you’ve chosen (including any particular idiosyncrasies you prefer). If you don’t know which style manual you want to follow, I can even recommend the best one for your situation.

I make sure your manuscript goes from looking like the paragraph at the start of this section to something clean, polished, and consistent. This makes it easier on the readers and more professional overall.

Correctness

It’s true: copyeditors are here to check your grammar too. Although I just said there aren’t any rules in the previous section, there are still conventions of the English language. When you stray from those conventions, you put strain on the reader.

This area of copyediting is one most easily automated so far. You’ve probably heard of Grammarly. Indeed, for everyday communication, grammar and spell-checking software can be very helpful. But human copyeditors will always take you further.

How copyeditors help with correctness

The problem with machine editors is that they lack true understanding of the material they’re parsing. They can detect most grammar errors, and some programs are even starting to grasp idiom. Yet even the best proofing tools aren’t there yet when it comes to the diverse and dazzling creativity that writers infuse into their works.

Take poetry, for example. Poets often break conventions of the language for rhetorical or semantic effect. An algorithm will only see that a poem is breaking the rules. A human copyeditor like myself can read more intelligently, more empathetically, and make educated guesses as to when the rules were meant to be broken, and when there’s a typo or unintended departure from convention.

In non-fiction as well there are times when grammar must, for the sake of meaning, take a back seat. How many clever ads have you seen that would be utterly ruined if someone put a semicolon where there’s a comma?

As your copyeditor, I take my cue for correctness from you, not from a rulebook. I fix the errors—but only the ones that you didn’t intend to make.

Accuracy

Of course, copyediting goes well beyond grammar. Take a look at this example:

Bill walked into the bank. The calendar on the wall read Monday, December 5, 1975. Bill approached the teller and said, “I need to cancel my Mastercard.”

There aren’t any grammatical issues here, but there are two salient issues with this passage:

• December 5, 1975 was a Friday.
• The Mastercard brand name didn’t exist in 1975! At the time, it was known as the Master Charge brand of the Interbank Association. They rebranded as Mastercard in 1979.

I encounter issues with dates all the time, particularly in fiction. Sometimes it’s because an author just forgot to look up what day of the week a particular date was, but it can also happen if the author changes a date and forgets to update the day.

Similarly, anachronisms, misspellings of place names and the names of people, inconsistent or incorrect timelines—both within a novel or historically—are all possible problems that arise in a manuscript, especially a longer one.

How copyeditors help with accuracy

When I read your manuscript, I’m not just looking at the mechanics of your words: I’m reading for meaning. Every time I see a fact, I ask myself, “Is this something I can verify?”

It’s not always possible to check facts, of course. If you’ve written a memoir, it’s usually not in my remit to call up your cousin and ask her if you’ve faithfully reproduced a conversation the two of you had twelve years ago.

Nevertheless, if I can verify a fact, I will try, especially if the fact’s inaccuracy could adversely affect a reader’s enjoyment or understanding of your work. If I notice any issues, I flag them for you in a comment (called a query) and offer a correction or alternative—ultimately, of course, as the author, it’s up to you to decide how to proceed.

Completeness

Finally, there are a few areas of copyediting that some writers often forget are an essential part of the editing process. Here’s a few nightmare scenarios:

• You’ve just finished your manuscript. Throughout the second chapter, you refer to Figure 3, which has some important tabular data that supports your findings. The problem? Figure 3 isn’t anywhere to be found. You forgot to include it in the manuscript.
• You want to quote from Taylor Swift’s latest album in your novel. What you might not know or remember in the moment is that lyrics are subject to copyright, and you’ll need permission to quote them in your writing.
• You’ve put the finishing touches on your company’s new website. Everything looks great and seems to work. However, your website is missing alt text on its images and captions on its videos. Users with visual impairment won’t be able to access some key information.

Often, missing elements are not as egregious or obvious as the scenarios I just outlined. They can be as simple as a forgotten heading or a misplaced citation. Nevertheless, these kinds of errors and omissions can be costly to fix after publication and also affect your reputation as a writer.

How copyeditors help with completeness

As your copyeditor, my job is to put myself in the position of the reader—of many different types of readers, in fact—and ask, “Is anything missing?”

Usually, I can’t do much to fix these errors, just flag them. Where possible, I will offer suggestions as well.

This is where an editor’s familiarity with your subject matter and form can become crucial. Some copyeditors, like myself, tackle a wide range of forms and subjects. Others specialize, becoming adept at the most intricate texts in their form. Think about what level of specialist knowledge your copyeditor might require.

Now you know

Hopefully you have a better sense now of what exactly I’m doing with all those changes I’ve tracked on your document! The four areas I examined above are core to what I do.

Copyeditors’ work is subtle stuff. If we do it right, your readers will never know we were there. My job is to make you look good, and to sweat the small stuff so you don’t have to.

I’m available to copyedit almost anything, from social media posts and websites to longer texts. I have experience with academic writing—such as dissertations—as well as fiction. DM me if you think your work might benefit from some copyediting by Kara, we can talk about a free sample edit.

If you have more questions about any of these areas, comment below!