The Copyeditor's Workbook

Erika Buky is a freelance editor currently based in New Zealand. She joined the University of California Press in 1991 and served as Assistant Managing Editor from 2000 to 2004. She has worked as a freelance copyeditor and developmental editor for scholarly and commercial publishers, research foundations, advocacy groups, museums, and private clients. She has also taught English composition and grammar, rhetoric, and scholarly editing.
 
After earning a PhD in English in 1976, Marilyn Schwartz joined the staff of the University of California Press and served as Managing Editor for twenty-eight years. From 1979 through 2004 she also taught editorial workshops for UC Berkeley Extension. She is the principal author of Guidelines for Bias-Free Writing.
 
Amy Einsohn was a professional editor who worked in scholarly, trade nonfiction, and corporate publishing. She taught dozens of copyediting courses and also conducted on-site corporate training workshops.

Preface
List of Abbreviations

EXERCISES
A Copyediting Challenge: Test Your Skills

PART 1. THE ABCs OF COPYEDITING
1. WHAT COPYEDITORS DO
Exercise 1-1. Comparing Editorial Styles
Exercise 1-2. Preliminary File Cleanup

2. BASIC PROCEDURES
Exercise 2-1. Hand Marking a Manuscript
Exercise 2-2. Editing On-Screen
Exercise 2-3. Editorial Markup of PDF Files
Exercise 2-4. Querying
Exercise 2-5. Creating a Style Sheet
Exercise 2-6. Writing a Transmittal Memo

3. REFERENCE BOOKS AND RESOURCES
Exercise 3-1. Using Dictionaries
Exercise 3-2. Using Style Manuals
Exercise 3-3. Consulting Usage Guides
Exercise 3-4. Using the Google Books Ngram Viewer
Exercise 3-5. Using Practical Grammar
Exercise 3-6. Doing Internet Research
Exercise 3-7. Specialized Style Guides

PART 2. EDITORIAL STYLE
4. PUNCTUATION
Exercise 4-1. Punctuation
Exercise 4-2. Restrictive versus Nonrestrictive Modifiers
Exercise 4-3. Editorial Zealotry: A Light Copyedit
Exercise 4-4. American Humor: A Medium Copyedit

5. SPELLING AND HYPHENATION
Exercise 5-1. Compound Forms
Exercise 5-2. A Publisher’s Catalog: A Light Copyedit
Exercise 5-3. A Health Newsletter: A Medium Copyedit

6. CAPITALIZATION AND THE TREATMENT OF NAMES
Exercise 6-1. Capitalization
Exercise 6-2. Finding Work: A Light Copyedit

7. NUMBERS AND NUMERALS
Exercise 7-1. Numbers and Numerals in Nontechnical Text
Exercise 7-2. Numbers and Numerals in Technical Text
Exercise 7-3. Editing a Recipe

8. QUOTATIONS
Exercise 8-1. Quotations
Exercise 8-2. It’s Our Money Awards: More Quotations

9. ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS
Exercise 9-1. Medical Language: Abbreviations and Symbols
Exercise 9-2. A Travel Guide: More Abbreviations and Symbols

10. TABLES, GRAPHS, AND ART
Exercise 10-1. Editing Tables
Exercise 10-2. Restructuring Tables
Exercise 10-3. Editing More Complex Tables
Exercise 10-4. Editing Graphs

11. REFERENCES
Exercise 11-1. Editing Author-Date References
Exercise 11-2. Taming Citation Managers
Exercise 11-3. Editing Reference Notes
Exercise 11-4. Creating Author-Date Citations

12. FRONT AND BACK MATTER
Exercise 12-1. Editing a Table of Contents
Exercise 12-2. Editing a Glossary
13. MARKUP
Exercise 13-1. Markup of Greeked Text
Exercise 13-2. Markup of Instructional Text: A First-Aid Guide

PART 3. LANGUAGE EDITING
14. GRAMMAR AND USAGE: PRINCIPLES AND PITFALLS
Exercise 14-1. Found in the Wild
Exercise 14-2. The Truth Is Out There

15. BEYOND GRAMMAR
Exercise 15-1. Editing for Bias-Free Writing
Exercise 15-2. Editing for Plain Language
Exercise 15-3. Counting Heads: Beyond Copyediting

ANSWER KEYS

Appendix: Manual Copyediting Symbols
Selected Bibliography