Copy-Editing Corrections and Instructions Placement
For some background, see 20240908151947-Publishing_Vocabulary. Before making any corrections as a copy-editor, make sure you know the appropriate markup color-coding (for that, refer to 20240919103518-Copy-Editing_Markup_Colors).
Placement Cases
From “Preparing the Text for the Typesetter¨ in Butcher’s Copy-Editing
Avoid adding flaps of paper that will hide what is underneath or self-adhesive notes that may become detached and get lost. Write instructions to the typesetter clearly and concisely in the margin and do not write on the back of sheets. Any lengthy additions should be typed on a full-size sheet and placed in the typescript after the relevant folio. Head the sheet ‘Insert at <A> on fo. 000’ and key it into the text by a marginal note ‘<A> insert from fo. 000a’; at the end of the insert write ‘back to fo. 000’, to remind the typesetter to go back, not straight on.
From “Preparing the Text for the Typesetter¨ in Butcher’s Copy-Editing
Avoid obscuring the author’s original wording with paper or correction fluid; […]
Essentially, any instructional annotations must not (Butcher 2006, 51):
- Obscure what is underneath, or that which is being corrected or instructed on
- Be easily detachable such that they become easy to lose
In general, they should be placed in the margins.
However, lengthy instructional annotations should instead be comments written on full-size sheets, placed after the relevant folio. Both the relevant folio and its corresponding commentary sheet should be marked thusly (Ibid):
| relevant folio | corresponding commentary sheet | |
|---|---|---|
| Head | no | yes, ‘Insert at <A> on fo. 000´, referring to relevant folio |
| Marginal key | yes, ‘<A> insert from fo. 000a,´ referring to the corresponding commentary sheet; add ‘back to fo. 000´ at end of insertion | no |
| Further, changes that apply across the board, i.e. to all instances of a type or kind, can be helpfully listed in a separate sheet (Butcher 2006, 51-52): |
From “Preparing the Text for the Typesetter¨ in Butcher’s Copy-Editing
Most typesetters find it helpful if you list the global changes required on a sheet of paper attached to your style sheet, rather than marking them on the typescript, so that they can make them before they correct the rest of the typescript.
That being said, listing global changes for a typescript separately does not mean every instance of that change should not itself be “correctionally¨ annotated (Butcher 2006, 52):
From “Preparing the Text for the Typesetter¨ in Butcher’s Copy-Editing
Text that is to be keyed by a typesetter needs to have each correction marked throughout. It is not enough to mark the first few instances of a correction, because the job may be handled by more than one keyboard operator.
Correctional/Instructional Placement
Further, while instructions to the typesetter generally lay in the margins (refer to Placement Cases), corrections should be seen in-between the lines of the typescript (Ibid):
From “Preparing the Text for the Typesetter¨ in Butcher’s Copy-Editing
[…] you should make your corrections neatly between the lines of the typescript if there is to make them clearly […].
One should “not duplicate marks or add proof correction symbols in the margin unless unless further clarification is necessary […]; if a correction is marked in the margin, the operator will have to look from the line of text to the margin and then back to the text, which will take more time¨ (Ibid).
So, placement of correctional/instructional annotations is as such:
| length | instructions | corrections |
|---|---|---|
| short | margins | inter-lineal |
| long | sheet attached after folio/page to be corrected | none |
Info
If the difference between a correction and instruction is not clear, corrections generally involve proofreading (i.e., commands to change “mechanical¨ textual errors), while instructions generally involve structural editing, content layout, and design. For examples, read page 53-56 of Butcher’s Copy-Editing
Summary
Depending on the length of a written or typed instruction for the typesetter, the instruction may be written or typed on either the margins of a folio/page, or as a separate sheet after the page on which the instruction is to be applied. The former must be headed, and then the latter keyed according to this heading (i.e., the latter should refer back to this new sheet).
Corrections should be placed neatly in-between lines of the given text.
typesetting marginal_notes annotation proofreader proofreaders proofreading editor editors editing copy-editing copy-editor copy-editors correction_fluid paper_fluid keyboard_operator key keying
bibliography
- “Preparing the Text for the Typesetter.” In Butcher’s Copy-Editing: The Cambridge Handbook for Editors, Copy-Editors and Proofreaders, 4th ed., 28–68. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2006.