Resource Centre Writing Tips

Defining Your Editing Role

Your role as an editor is not always clearly defined, because it often overlaps other areas of writing, designing and production. To increase your speed and effectiveness you need to clearly define the tasks of you and your co-workers, and then develop a systematic approach to the job. Developing a system will help you and your colleagues improve the quality of your documents and enable everybody to meet deadlines. The following descriptions will help you create a checklist and timetable for your editing role.

Types of Editorial Skills

1. Project Management
• Managing an editing project from proposal to draft to printed product — could include budgeting, staffing, design and production coordination
2. Production Editing
• Coordinating design, typesetting, mock-ups, assembly, proofing, printing
3. Structural Editing
• Editing and reorganizing a document for content, structure, and overall clarity (could include some rewriting)
4. Copy Editing
• Editing for grammar, spelling, punctuation, word choice, headings, graphics, consistency
5. Mark-up
• Marking design specifications for typesetter or word processor
6. Mock-up
• Creating a mock-up from proofs — fitting copy and graphics to match design and dimensions of finished product
7. Reference & Fact Checking
• Checking accuracy of facts, quotations, labels, pictures, diagrams, charts, tables, calculations
8. Proofreading
• Checking edited document matches corrected draft
• Checking galley proofs match submitted document
• Checking layout and design matches mock-up
• Checking corrections to galley proofs
• Checking vandykes (dyluxes) match galley proofs
• Checking colour codes match original design

 

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