Copyediting Services

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The term ‘editing’ covers a range of activities across the publishing process. Several distinct and specialised functions are included. TPE offers a ‘subset’ of these functions, specifically, copyediting.

So, what does that include?

Copyediting concerns the overall flow of a document, how it fits together, and deals with the material as presented by the author or sometimes by a substantive or structural editor. The copyeditor reviews (in addition to those aspects checked when proofreading) elements such as: -

·         Sentence structure

·         Tense and point of view

·         Appropriateness of vocabulary and tone (for the intended audience)

·         Phrasing

·         Balance of passive or active ‘voice’

·         Repetition, jargon, clichés,

·         Colloquialism and anachronism

·         Consistency and continuity

·         Style elements

It is extremely difficult for the author of a document to distance themselves from that document and examine it dispassionately. That is where the copyeditor comes in - the aim of the review and of the corrections/suggested corrections is to improve the text by in effect being a second set of eyes.

Documents provided to TPE in hardcopy (print only) will be copyedited and marked-up using standard editing symbols. A report will also be provided explaining both the symbols themselves and the corrections / suggested corrections indicated.
 
Documents provided to TPE in softcopy (electronic) will be proofread twice, once on screen and once from a printout. Documents able to be read in either Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat will be marked-up and commented using the ‘Track Changes’ and ‘Comments’ functions of those programmes. Output will include both electronic and printout versions of the documents concerned.
 
 If requested, text can be ‘extracted’ from PDF documents and reviewed in Microsoft Word. Alternatively, TPE does have software available which emulates most of the functions of a word processing programme to review and amend PDF documents in their native format.