Types of Editing by Vini Lilian

When you hear the word “editing” what comes to your mind? It could be that section in your English paper where you correct grammar, punctuation and vocabulary. But editors do much more than that. Every book we read and enjoy is not only the author’s effort but an entire team of editors who played a part in perfecting the book. They ensure that the author’s vision reaches the audience and resonates with them.

This brings us to the types of editing (yes, there is more that correcting grammar and punctuation!). Let’s take a look at the types of editing that a book goes through before it comes to life in our hands.

Developmental Editing

Let’s begin with developmental editing. Development editors looks at big picture of a manuscript. They conduct a thorough evaluation of the characters, themes, plot, subplots, tension and dialogue and provide feedback to the author. A developmental editor will give you an insight on how to keep your readers engaged. Whether it is a boring character or plot holes, the tension isn’t enough or the plot is too cliché, this feedback can help improve your story tremendously. Developmental editing is the first and the last step for fine tuning a manuscript before publishing. A developmental editor is perfect to get a critique on your first draft.

Structural Editing

As the name suggests, structural editing focuses on the structure of the story. A structural editor will read your entire manuscript and advice you on what type of structure might work for your story. Their critique will help you understand if your story should use flashbacks as a backstory for a character, or a more chronological approach. They might provide suggestions on length of chapters and the overall book.

Substantive Editing

Substantive editing focuses on the organization and presentation of a manuscript. Substantive editor works on the actual prose, ensuring there are clear transitions and information does not appear randomly. Substantive editing is similar to line editing but focuses on making sure that the manuscript is aligned with the author’s vision.

Line Editing

A line editor will go through your manuscript line-by-line and evaluate the choice of words, sentence structure, the uniformity of tense, syntax, description of scenes and images and whether a sentence needs to be trimmed or tightened. It is not the same as copyediting. Copyediting focuses on correct use of language whereas line editing ensures your prose sings.

Copyediting

This brings us to copyediting. Once your story has fallen in place and you’re ready for a grammar and spelling, a copyeditor will go through your entire manuscript with a fine-tooth comb. They will look for errors like typos, grammar or spelling errors, punctuation, wordiness, or complex sentence structures that affect readability. Copy editors are often called mechanical editors since they aren’t concerned with the content of the story as much as the correctness of the language. They want to make sure you’re using dialogue tags correctly and spelling your character’s names right every time so your reader can focus on the story.

Mechanical Editing

Mechanical editing focuses on the application of specific style, such as Modern Language Association (MLA), Associated Press (AP) Style. The editor reviews punctuation, spelling, capitalization, abbreviations, reference formats and any other rules based on the style guide used in the manuscript. Mechanical editing can sometimes be included in copyediting.

Proofreading

After all the editing, the final step is proofreading. Proof-readers go through the manuscript meticulously looking for spellings, grammar errors, any inconsistencies that were previously missed. As they conduct the final review, they ensure your manuscript is perfectly cleaned up before going to print.

Editors also play a role determining what content should be added or removed along with the author and publisher, identifying legal issues like plagiarism, copyright infringement, defamation risks and much more. They are the unsung heroes of the publishing world. 

Author Bio:

Vini (officially Lilian Nelson), is a counselling psychologist who has a passion for writing. She has worked on various content writing projects as a freelancer. She loves music and travel.