10 Essential Copyediting Tips to Improve Your Editing Workflow
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Curious about what my copyediting process looks like? I’m giving you a sneak peek in this episode of The Modern Editor Podcast. Listen in as I share the 10 quick searches I run every single time I start a new copyediting project.
Something I love about editing is that everyone has a different process, and I appreciate learning from others. This is a glimpse into the process that works for me, so take what you like and see if it works with your own process. There’s no one right way to edit.
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Hello. Welcome to today's episode. I am gonna be giving you a little glimpse, a little sneak peek into my copyediting process, and I'm going to do this by showing you ten quick searches that I run every time I start a copyediting project. So if you are like me and you're a little bit nosy, this is the episode for you.
I love getting a behind-the-scenes look into how people do things, like anything, really, but I especially like it when it has to do with editing because everyone edits differently. No two editors have the same process, and I've found that not many editors want to share their process, at least like the nitty-gritty.
I think, you know, I get that. I was a little bit like that too, because I think showing people our processes kind of is like showing how the sausage is made a bit. It could open us up to a little bit of judgment or, you know, oh, I don't do it this way or that way. But if you're listening to this episode, that means you're a modern editor, and you know modern editors don't judge, and this is a safe space to learn. So I am going to share just a little sneak peek into my process.
So I mentioned we're gonna go through ten searches that I do that free up a little brain space for me before I dig into copyediting. Now, I admittedly run a lot of prechecks when I copyedit. I've found after ten years of editing—more than that—but ten years in my business, it just works well for me.
It's what my brain can handle, and it allows me to focus on other things that require more brain space. So if your brain works like mine, then you might find these searches helpful. If you listen and you're thinking, "Well, I don't like doing prechecks," or "I don't wanna search for those things," that is totally fine. You do not have to do them. This is just my process, not the process. There is no one right way to edit.
And this list that I'm gonna go through is not exhaustive by any stretch. I just chose ten because I have a ton, and this episode would be 400 minutes long and kind of difficult to explain via podcast. It would be a more of a live training kind of thing.
So I use Microsoft Word with my editing because I work on fiction. But you can also do this in Google Docs, of course. But what you're going to need is either the search bar in whichever tool you're using or the find function. And I'll show you, or I'll share the codes or the—oh, shoot, what are they called? The keyboard shortcuts to search for some of these things.
And I'm also going to mention CMOS, which is the abbreviation for The Chicago Manual of Style, and this is the style guide that we use to edit books. So I'm going to share the specific rules in CMOS when it's applicable so you can go look up those rules and study them a little bit more if you choose.
All right? Okay, let's get started. Number one thing I search for is double, triple, or bajillion extra spaces. As we know by now, in 2023, no double spaces between sentences, so we change all of those to single space. And we've all had a document before where there's either 400 spaces inserted for a tab or some sort of indentation. We don't work with those, especially your formatters, because we need to have hard indents or styles applied, not those extra spaces. So all you would do is simply type in two or three or more spaces into the search bar to go find all of those and delete them and make them the appropriate number of spaces.
All right, number two are L-Y adverbs and if they're hyphenated. So as a general rule, adverbs that end in L-Y do not take hyphens, and you can look more into this in CMOS 7.86. So these are things like expertly dressed or superbly eloquent. Those don't have hyphens in between. So what you can do is you can search for L-Y hyphen in the search bar to easily find any instance of those.
Okay? Chugging right along. Number three, further and farther. Now, this is found in CMOS 5.250, which is the good versus common usage. So further is used for figurative distance, so like, "Let's talk about this further." Farther is for literal distance, so that would be like, "They ran farther up the road." Those two are very easily swapped, so that's a very quick search you can do to get those straightened out.
Number four is half. This is something that always trips me up, which is why I include it in my precheck. I can never remember what gets hyphenated and what doesn't, and I have a style guide I follow for one of my clients that further confuses me. Ooh, see how I used "further" there? That was for figurative distance.
So CMOS 7.89, which is the hyphenation table, is going to be your best friend, and you're going to hear me say that a few more times in this list. So you can easily look up that hyphenation table and go through and find all of the halfs in the document and fix accordingly.
All right. Number five are compounds like mid, non, pre, semi, over, under, et cetera. Again, 7.89 in CMOS. And these are easily searchable with typing in, you know, mid hyphen, non hyphen, semi hyphen, et cetera. Those are things that are fairly easy to fix and so make a good precheck topic for me.
All right. Number six is words that end in like, so hyphenated like, childlike, lifelike. Again, 7.89 CMOS, but that says that those words that end in like are closed if they're listed in Merriam-Webster. If not, they're hyphenated, and then there's a couple exceptions in there. So childlike is all one word. Lifelike is all one word. So to find the ones that are hyphenated, you would type in hyphen like in the search bar, or you can search for like to see if there are any that are closed up incorrectly.
But be aware that if you search for like, you're gonna get the word like and depending on the content, it could come up with a lot of search results. So keep that in mind.
Number seven, commonly confused words that trip you up. So like I said before, half is on the list because that trips me up. So does lay versus lie. I will never get it. I've come to accept it, so that is a precheck I do every time. So I search for all instances of those, lay, lie, laid, lain, et cetera. That might be an easy one for you, but you might miss, you might mistake here H-E-R-E with H-E-A-R. Add that to your list. Whatever words trip you up, make your own list and add that to your precheck process.
I did this for a long time, and then I converted it into a guide called Elevate Your Editing, and it's actually sixty pages, and it's a bonus that Freelance Editors Club members get because I would come across them all the time.
All right, number eight, commas with internal or terminal to, either, and though. So I'm gonna go into this a little bit. What I mean by internal is when one of those words is in the middle of a sentence, so like, "He, too, likes bread." And terminal means when that word is at the end of a sentence, followed by a period. So, "She didn't like it, either." CMOS rule is 6.52, but you're also going to use your style guide if it's applicable.
So if you work for a publishing house or a company, they should have a house style guide, or you're gonna go off a style sheet, which is created for a particular project. And we're going into the weeds here a little bit, but short story, CMOS 6.52, check that out, and then you can do searches for to comma, either comma, or though comma, and you can do the same thing with periods as well. And that will help you stay consistent throughout the project.
Two more. All right, number nine, double punctuation. This is a super easy one. Wherever you see two periods, two commas, two semicolons, you know, just accidentally put in, that's an easy thing to search for. Two question marks or two exclamation marks are also an option to search for.
Most likely those are errors, but sometimes they can be a style choice depending on the author and the project. So if you're unsure, that's where you reference that style guide or style sheet, or query the client to see if that was on purpose, if they wanna keep it or if they should remove one to make it a single punctuation mark.
And number ten, last but not least, straight apostrophes and straight quotes. So in a manuscript, these should be curly, and you can use this on Word. You can see the difference where there's, you know, it's straight or curly. And how you search for straight quotes is in your search bar, you're gonna type in caret, which is the number six but with your Shift on, caret 34, and that's going to find all of the straight quotes in a document. And then caret 39 is going to show you all of the straight apostrophes to swap out.
Ta-da, that's it. That's a very brief ten precheck list of what I do when I start a copyediting project. I hope it gives you just a little glimpse into the process, maybe gives you some ideas on what you can add to yours.
You know, just give you an idea of what it looks like. And I know this is kind of hard with a podcast format, and I actually did this on Zoom inside the Freelance Editors Club, where I did, like, a look-over-my-shoulder training where everybody was on Zoom and they watched me go through a manuscript and do these prechecks, and I did most of the prechecks that I do so it was lengthy.
But all members get access to that training and the recording. So if you do decide to join the club, you would get instant access to it ASAP. So if you're interested, go to TaraWhitaker.com/Club to learn more and to join.
And I would love to hear if this type of episode was helpful for you. I know it's a little different than what I normally do. It's a little more actually about editing, copyediting specifically. So if you wanna hear more editing tips like this or any comments, I would love to hear them. So please always email me, Hello@TaraWhitaker.com, and share your thoughts.
All right, until next time, keep learning, keep growing, and know that you've got this.
Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode. If you enjoy The Modern Editor Podcast, I would be so grateful if you left us a review over on iTunes. And as always, you can head to TaraWhitaker.com to connect with me and stay in touch. We'll chat again soon.
My Top 10 Copyediting Tips & Pre-Checks
I edit using Microsoft Word, but this process also works with Google Docs. All you need is a search bar or a find function. Before I start editing, it helps my brain to run some checks before I dig into copyediting. It lets me clear up a few things I can address quickly at the beginning, so I can fully focus.
While I actually run a lot of prechecks, let’s review my top 10. I’ll also include the keyboard shortcuts I use to search and a few CMOS rules that apply to these checks.
1. Extra Spaces
The first thing I look for is double or triple spaces, and I change them all to single spaces. Double spaces between sentences are a big no-no, so I take care of those right away. I also remove all indents because they make formatting more difficult.
To run this precheck, simply type two spaces into the search bar, find them all, and replace them with one space.
2. -ly Adverbs with Hyphens
According to CMOS 7.93, adverbs ending in ly should not be hyphenated. This includes things like…
Expertly dressed (NOT expertly-dressed)
Superbly eloquent (NOT superbly-eloquent)
Note that this rule applies to adverbs only. For example, you might still hyphenate nouns like sly or ally. To search for this, type ly- into the search bar.
3. Further and Farther
Next up, we go to CMOS 5.254 to understand the difference between further and farther.
Further is used for figurative distance. For example: "Let's talk about this further." Farther is for literal distance. For example: "They ran farther up the road."
Those two are very easily swapped, so I run a quick search on both words to get them straightened out.
4. Half
Halves always trip me up, so I like to run this precheck before I dive into the editing process to make sure I catch them all.
If they confuse you, too, the CMOS Hyphenation Guide in section 7.96 is going to be your best friend. You can easily follow it to check when a half should or shouldn’t be hyphenated.
5. Compounds
Compounds like mid, non, pre, semi, over, under, etc, are fairly easy to fix, so I always search for them at the beginning of my process. Again, you can use the CMOS Hyphenation Guide.
6. Words That End in “Like”
Words that end in like, such as childlike or lifelike, can be confusing because there are exceptions to the rule. The CMOS Hyphenation Guide (7.96) says that if the word is in Merriam-Webster, use that spelling (whether hyphenated or not). If it’s not in Merriam-Webster, it should be hyphenated.
To find ones that may be incorrectly hyphenated, search -like in the doc.
7. Commonly Confused Words
If there are commonly confused words that always trip you up, add them to your pre-check list so you can get them out of the way. For me, I always confuse lay/lie/laid/lain, so I search for them every time. Another good one to check for is here and hear.
8. Comma With Internal or Terminal Too/Either/Though
Let’s break this one down.
Internal comma: When the words too, either, and though are in the middle of a sentence, surrounding commas can be helpful.
Example: He, too, likes bread.
Terminal comma: When the words too, either, and though are at the end of a sentence. However, you may also work with a publishing house that has its own style guides and consider author preference.
Example: She didn’t like it, either.
This is outlined in CMOS 6.56.
To find and fix some of these, search for these entries:
too,
either,
though,
too.
either.
though.
9. Double Punctuation
This is a quick and easy one to fix. Simply search for two periods (..), two commas (,,), two semicolons (;;), etc. You can also search for two exclamation marks and two question marks, but note that sometimes these may be a style choice. Refer to the style guide and query your author if you need clarity.
10. Straight Apostrophes and Straight Quotes
In a manuscript, apostrophes and quotations should always be curly. To find all the straight quotes in the document, type ^34 into your search bar. To find the straight apostrophes, type ^39 in the search bar.
Look Over My Shoulder While I Edit
These 10 tips are just the beginning of the prechecks I run at the beginning of a new copyediting project. If you want to see more of my process, join the Freelance Editors Club, where I recorded myself going through all my prechecks.
Important Sections:
(1:35) Why I Like to Run Prechecks
(3:35) Extra Spaces
(4:25) -ly Adverbs with Hyphens
(5:00) Further and Farther
(5:33) Halves
(6:19) Compounds
(6:51) Words That End in “Like”
(7:46) Commonly Confused Words
(8:45) Comma With Internal or Terminal To, Either, or Though
(9:47) Double Punctuation
(10:28) Straight Apostrophes and Straight Quotes
