If you’re line editing on your own, the process may be awkward in the beginning. Do I use language in a precise and clear way?.Do the words I’ve chosen help my reader understand my meaning or get in the way of their understanding?.Are there any extra words, redundancies, or needless information I can remove?.What is the tone of this passage? Do the words I’ve chosen convey that tone?. ![]() Before we get into the actual how-to of line editing, let’s look at a few questions you should ask during your line edit: The purpose of line editing is to make your ideas more concise and clear by re-examining and rewriting your sentences. If you struggle to catch these types of errors yourselves, an editing tool can help. You can perform your own line edit and then contact a professional editor who will offer their personal recommendations on how to improve the readability of your manuscript. Now that we know the difference between line editing and copy editing, let’s get into what happens during the line editing stage.Īs a reminder, you don’t have to be a professional to carry out a line edit. Both stages work together to polish your manuscript and ensure that you’re using language effectively. Line editing and copy editing are critical to the writing process. Layout on the physical page, including line breaks, indents, headings, footers, titles, etc.Formatting and usage of numbers, acronyms.Consistent hyphenation, fonts, and capitalization.Language errors, including missing or misused punctuation, grammar errors, and misspelled words.What Happens During a Copy Editĭuring the copy-edit phase, keep an eye out for the following errors: However, they are looking for two different edits. ![]() She felt so excited by the constant movement of the people below her.Ī line editor would look at these two sentences and ask questions like “Is bustling, hustling redundant?” and “Should we switch the second sentence to active voice?” A copy editor would look at those sentences and correct the misused semicolon.īoth line editors and copy editors approach work line by line. Miranda gazed out over the bustling hustling city. Let’s look at an example to better understand the difference. Copy editing is more focused on the mechanics of your writing. Line editing comes before copy editing and is more focused on the stylistic construction of your story. Neither stage is better than the other-both are key parts of finalizing the language in your manuscript. Many people confuse line editing and copy editing however, the two stages are distinct and important. Line editing is also called stylistic editing as it focuses specifically on your content and the flow of your sentences versus the mechanics.ĭuring line editing, you will comb through your manuscript to identify opportunities to elevate your writing and explain your ideas more clearly. That’s where line editing comes in.ĭuring this stage, your goal is to be as clear as possible by going line by line to look at the content, style, tone, and consistency of your writing. Once you finish your story edit, it’s time to focus your attention on how you communicate your ideas. During the story edit (also known as the developmental edit), you’ll examine the key ideas and themes in your work. Line editing comes after the story/substantive edit. In this article, we’ll look at the differences between line editing and copy editing so you can have a better understanding of both.Ĭonclusion: How Important is Line Editing? What is Line Editing? ![]() Line editing focuses on the style of your writing, whereas copy editing focuses on the mechanics of your writing. Sometimes line editing and copy editing are confused or conflated but they are two distinct stages. While there isn’t one set editing process that every writer follows, most professionals agree that there are four main stages of editing: story editing, line editing, copy editing, and proofreading. Most writing needs to go through every stage of editing before being published. Whether you choose to self-edit using an automated grammar checker or engage a professional for this important part of the writing process, it’s important to be familiar with the stages of editing and what each entails. During the editing phase, you’ll polish your ideas and how you present them so your audience can more easily understand your meaning. Good storytelling isn’t just about your characters, settings, and themes the clarity, style, and readability of your writing are equally important.
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