Copyediting Levels

Can you spot the egregious errors in this sign? This would be a Level 1 copyedit.

Most publishers and most publishing vendors have developed levels of copyediting, based on what are sometimes very loose “wish lists” in terms of what the publisher (or author) would like to be taken care of at the copyediting stage. The levels can vary in number. At Virtus we recognize three basic levels that closely align with the expectations of authors and publishers.

Light copyediting (Level 1)

• • Correcting faulty spelling, grammar, punctuation, and syntax

• • Ensuring consistency in spelling, hyphenation, numerals, fonts, and capitalization

• • Checking specific cross-references

• • Applies to the well-written text where enhancement of the author’s text is not required.

Level 1 is the simplest and also the least frequently used level. It is intended as a very light process that corrects only those aspects of a manuscript that are unquestionably incorrect. The last bulleted item is critical: Level 1 is generally only applicable to text authored by a native speaker. The reason for this distinction is that manuscripts authored by those for whom English is a second language will generally require intervention by the copy editor that exceeds the points that are included in that level.

Note that in this context, “syntax” refers to “the part of grammar that deals with the expression of predicative, qualifying, and other word relations according to established usage in the language under study” (From the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary).

In general, think of it in terms of the order of the words. This is an area that can be difficult for many non-native copy editors: Because they inherently “think” in their native tongue, they will often introduce unnecessary (and often incorrect) changes to syntax that are based on differences between the grammatical structure of their native language and English.

Example 1

A native English speaker might say

                                                                                                  Natasha was in St. Petersburg in December.

But in Russian (as translated directly into English) it would be perfectly fine for this to ordered differently:

                                                                                                  Natasha was in December in St. Petersburg.

If the copy editor isn’t aware of the conventional syntax used in English, problems will arise.

Example 2

A native English speaker might say

                                                                                                  This meeting will last only 5 minutes.

A non-native (particularly an Indian) speaker will usually say

                                                                                                  This meeting will last 5 minutes only.

The transposition of the word “only” occurs due to differences in the rules of grammatical structure in English versus their native tongue, such as Hindi.

Applying the rules of their native language to English is a direct root cause of many errors. This is why even with a Level 1 copyedit, the skills and qualifications of the CE are critical.

Medium or standard copyediting (Level 2)

• • Includes light copyediting 

• • Checking grammar and punctuation, sentence structure, sense and overall clarity of meaning.

• • Rephrasing of text as necessary rather than rewriting

• • Creating queries to the author for ambiguous or incorrect statements

From a practical standpoint, Level 2 copyediting is the level that’s the most appropriate in most cases. It includes all of the aspects of Level 1, with additional provisions for the rephrasing of text. Rephrasing differs from rewriting in that to rephrase a sentence one may reorder the content that is already there to improve the readability and help make the meaning clearer. Rephrasing may include a limited number of instances of inserting words, but would generally not include deleting words. Carelessly or needlessly deleting content is the number one crime of an unqualified copy editor.

Level 2 copyediting also includes a provision for querying, which simply stated means asking the author or publisher to check or clarify something that is questionable or unclear. Querying will be discussed in Part 3 of this series.

Note the mention of querying for incorrect statements. It’s important to understand what constitutes “incorrect.” In the copyediting realm, as indicated in Part 1 of this series, the copy editor is not (and shouldn’t be) a subject-matter expert. So “incorrect statements” would not include errors in, for example, scientific content that require subject-matter expertise to spot. What it would include would be statements that are easily deemed incorrect within the manuscript without subject-matter expertise.

Example:

Let’s say that in Chapter 1 the author says, “The sky is blue,” but in Chapter 2 says, “As we saw in Chapter 1, the sky is green.”

The copy editor would be expected to insert a query questioning this discrepancy. Subject-matter expertise is not required to spot the contradiction, and a sharp copy editor would indeed spot this error.

Heavy copyediting (Level 3)

• • In addition to light and medium copyediting tasks, heavy copyediting eliminates wordiness, triteness, and inappropriate jargon

• • Smoothing transitions and rearranging transitions to improve readability

• • Suggesting and implementing additions and deletions

• • Applies to the text where the English is poor and sense and meaning are unclear.

Level 3 is the most complex level of basic copyediting. It is generally only performed by highly qualified copy editors who are native speakers. It is generally required in those cases where the language as written is extremely poor. For this reason, in addition to all aspects of levels 1 and 2, it may also include extensive rewriting.

In Part 3 we’ll explore querying.