Let’s Talk Editing.

Do you know what type of editing your writing requires?  Let’s talk about the three most common types: Substantive Editing, Copy Editing, and Proofreading.

Types of Editing

• Substantive Editing

This type of editing would be considered from the perspective of the whole.  How do all the individual parts of the writing piece work together to maintain continuity, cohesiveness, and logic? Remember, your writing is telling a story, make sure that your reader can follow you.  This level of editing is looking at overall alignment.  Particularly for dissertation or capstone editing, or for publication in a peer-reviewed journal, substantive editing is crucial to success.

• Copy Editing

Copy editing is the one category most are familiar with as this area include grammar, sentence structure, spelling, writing style, and often abbreviations and professional jargon.  For the doctoral scholar, often this area includes such areas as avoiding passive voice, anthropomorphisms, synthesis, use of vague pronouns, and avoiding contractions and conversational or casual writing strategies.

• Proofreading

This type of editing is intended to be the final polish, where the role of the editor is really to dot the i’s and cross the t’s to correct minor issues of misspellings, grammar and style, perhaps capitalization or punctuation, and often in the case of dissertation editing, overlooked APA minor details.

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The next time that you are considering an editor, be sure you are aware of the many types of editing that are available.  Sometimes a client requires coaching, where a submitted doctoral proposal for example really isn’t yet ready for an editor.  Be sure that when you are hiring an editor, you and the editor are on the same page regarding the types of services your writing needs.

My very best to your writing success moving forward!

Dr. Cheryl Lentz
The Academic EntrepreneurTM

The Lentz Leadership Institute Editing Services