Understanding the Author's Voice (and Other Kinds of Editing ....)

We examine the different kinds of editing you might experience as an author, submitting your work to an international journal ....

This post is sponsored by Virtus Publishing: You can get 20% off self-publishing your book with Virtus ….

In a series of posts, our friends at Virtus Publishing will provide tips and advice covering many aspects of publishing. The first installment is a copyediting overview in four parts.

Copyediting Overview—Part 4: The Author’s Voice Plus Other Types of Editing

Think of copyediting as a task where you want to leave as few traces that you’ve been there as possible. If an author sees your footprints all over their text, it’s possible that as the copy editor you didn’t preserve the “author’s voice.”

An important aspect of copyediting involves the concept of being conservative with changes. Correcting errors of grammar, spelling, syntax, and style are the priority. Making the manuscript “your own” is not. When authors complain about a copyedit, it’s often related to the copy editor changing too much. We’ll address this issue below.

Let’s look at a few different types of editing.

Language Polishing

Language polishing is a term that’s often misapplied: It’s sometimes confused with Level 3 copyediting. Properly defined, language polishing involves editing text that may be grammatically correct, but that could be improved in terms of readability, the way the text flows, and the overall elegance of the language. It encompasses recognizing the nuances of the individual author and enhancing the way in which the text is written while retaining the inherent voice of the author. It may or may not include extensive rewriting, which is best determined on a case-by-case basis. Language polishing is comparable to what the CMOS calls “substantive editing.” [Throughout, the end of the quoted material is marked with a box [∎].

From The Chicago Manual of Style, section 2.47:

Substantive editing deals with the organization and presentation of content. It involves rewriting to improve style or to eliminate ambiguity, reorganizing or tightening, recasting tables, and other remedial activities. (It should not be confused with developmental editing, a more drastic process.) ∎

From The Chicago Manual of Style, section 2.48:

Discretion in substantive editing

A light editorial hand is nearly always more effective than a heavy one. An experienced editor will recognize and not tamper with unusual figures of speech or idiomatic usage and will know when to make an editorial change and when simply to suggest it, whether to delete a repetition or an unnecessary recapitulation or simply to point it out to the author, and how to suggest tactfully that an expression may be inappropriate. An author’s own style should be respected, whether flamboyant or pedestrian. ∎

CMOS raises a huge issue: Observing and honoring the author’s voice. Think of an author who has just had his first journal article published. Keep in mind that most authors are concerned strictly with the content: They are generally unaware of misspellings, grammatical errors, and problems with punctuation. Assuming that the manuscript falls under Level 2 copyediting, if the copy editor does their job correctly, the author will say to himself “Wow—I wrote a great article.”

But if the copy editor is heavy handed, makes unnecessary changes to aspects such as word choice (and ignores the author’s voice), the author may say “I didn’t write this article—the copy editor wrote this article.”

The goal of the copy editor is to be unobtrusive (almost invisible): To make changes that correct the text, but that do not disrupt the message or change the content in any way.

A common example of a completely unnecessary change concerns “may” versus “might.” There are subtle differences between the two, of which many people are unaware. These involve the likelihood that something will happen (“might” means less likely). I have seen countless instances of copy editors changing “may” to “might” (or vice versa) for no reason whatsoever. Another example would be “until” versus “till.” In both of these cases, if the copy editor makes these changes, they are not honoring the author’s voice. Remember: It’s their manuscript—not yours.

Mechanical Editing

Prior to desktop (electronic) publishing, manuscripts were submitted on paper. Copy editors would mark hard copy using specific symbols, which instructed the typesetter as to how text should be “composed” on a page. This was primarily related to how it would look.

At one time pages were set using actual metal type; eventually typewriters that resembled IBM “Selectric” machines were used. These employed interchangeable metal balls (called elements) that were about the size of a ping pong ball. Each ball had a different font or font style. If the typesetter wanted to switch from roman to italic they had to physically remove the ball from the machine and switch it. It was a time-consuming and costly process.

At that time, the first stage of the copyediting process included a pass when the copy editor would mark the manuscript to indicate specific parts, such as “CT” for “chapter title” and “BL” for “bulleted list.” This was known as “specing” (pronounced “specking”) the manuscript. The copy editor would not actually read the text, but instead skim through and identify and mark the various elements.

When digital typesetting was introduced, typesetters quickly realized that computer “scripts” could be written to address these very routine and predictable formatting concerns. This process became known as mechanical editing or pre-editing.

From The Chicago Manual of Style, section 2.46 (edited):

Mechanical editing involves the consistent application of a particular style to a written work—including text and documentation and any tables and illustrations. Style is used here to refer to rules related to capitalization, spelling, hyphenation, and abbreviations; punctuation, including ellipsis points, parentheses, and quotation marks; and the way numbers are treated. ∎

The original CMOS definition as written also includes “Mechanical editing also includes attention to grammar, syntax, and usage.” However, in most cases, mechanical editing would not include those aspects. It’s primarily about the visual structure.

In theory, the pre-editor’s job is to address anything that can be automated, to save the time of the copy editor. It is best executed before the manuscript reaches the copyediting stage.

Developmental Editing

Developmental editing is a process that takes place prior to pre-editing. It’s generally performed strictly with books. A subject-matter expert is required, who thoroughly reviews the text and ensures that it meets the requirements of the target audience. For example, if an author is preparing a manuscript intended to be used as a primary school textbook in the state of Texas in the United States, it’s the job of the DE to ensure that the text meets the very specific requirements of Texas. A DE will generally work directly with the author over several months, organizing content, suggesting the inclusion or deletion of sections or chapters, and rewriting as needed.

In some cases publishers will engage a developmental editor when they have a celebrity author who’s popular enough to sell his story, but cannot write well enough to produce a book on his own. When you see a book that includes the name of an author on the cover with a line that says, “with John Doe” or “As Told to Jane Doe,” that second person is generally a DE. Developmental editors tend not to worry at all about the finer points of the text that involve grammar or even consistency: They are well aware that those tasks will be addressed by the copy editor later.

Stayed tuned for a new series of posts starting next week, when we’ll start exploring specific language areas that can be problematic for editors (and that can make for a rough ride along the road).

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