The Copyeditor's Handbook: A Guide for Book Publishing and Corporate Communications

577 Pages·2005·7.51 MB·English

by  Amy Einsohn

The
Copyeditors
Handbook

The
Copyeditors
Handbook

A Guide for Book Publishing
and Corporate Communications
• •
•

With Exercises and Answer Keys

Second Edition

A M Y
E I N S O H N

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

Berkeley
Los Angeles
London

University of California Press, one of the most distinguished
university presses in the United States, enriches lives around
the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences,
and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press
Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals
and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu.

University of California Press

Berkeley and Los Angeles, California

University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England

© 2000, 2006 by
The Regents of The University of California

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Einsohn, Amy.
The copyeditor's handbook : a guide for
book publishing and corporate communications,
with exercises and answer keys / Amy Einsohn. — 2nd ed.

p.
cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-520-24688-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Copy-reading — Handbooks, manuals, etc.

2. Journalism, Commercial—Editing — Hand-
books, manuals, etc.
3. Editing — Handbooks,
manuals, etc.
I. Title.

PN4784.C75E37
2006

808'.027—dc22
2005048579

Printed in the United States of America

14
13 12 11 10 09
08
07
06

10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements

ofANSI/NISOZ39.48-1992 (R 1997) (Permanence of Paper).

Contents

Preface ix

PART 1. THE ABCs OF COPYEDITING 1

1. WHAT COPY EDITORS DO
3
Principal Tasks 4
Levels of Copyediting 13
The Editorial Process 15

Editorial Triage 19
Estimates 21
One Paragraph, Three Ways 23

2.
BASIC PROCEDURES
29
Marking Changes on Hard Copy 30
Making Changes On-Screen 37
Querying 39

Style Sheets 47
Cleanup 54

3. REFERENCE BOOKS AND RESOURCES 57

Four Essential Books 57

On the Bookshelf 62
Newsletters 66
Internet Sites 66

PART 2. EDITORIAL STYLE 69

4.
PUNCTUATION 71

Conventions, Fashions, and Style 72
Function 1 : Terminal Punctuation 74
Function 2: Joining Clauses 78
Function 3: Setting Off Phrases 86
Function 4: Indicating Omission 92
Mark-by-Mark Pitfalls 93

Multiple Punctuation 111
Eyeballing Every Mark 113
Controversial Techniques 115
Exercise A 117
Exercise B 119

CONTENTS

5. SPELLING AND HYPHENATION
121

Improving Your Spelling Skills 122
Variant Spellings 125
British Spelling 126
Homophones 127
Foreign Words and Phrases 129
Proper Nouns and Adjectives 130

Plurals 131
Possessives 134
One Word or Two? 137
Spellcheckers 144
Exercise C 146
Exercise D 148

6. CAPITALIZATION 151
Personal Names and Titles 152
Geographical Names 155
Racial and Ethnic Groups 157
Company Names, Trademarks,
and Brand Names 158

Cyberjargon 159
Titles of Works 160
Names of Plants and Animals 163
Exercise E 164
Exercise F 166

7. NUMBERS AND NUMERALS 171
Words or Numerals? 171
Money 178
Time 180
Street Numbers and Phone
Numbers 183
Units of Measurement 184
Roman Numerals 187

Inclusive Numerals 188
Mathematical Signs and
Symbols 189
Style Sheet Entries 190
Exercise G 192
Exercise H 194

8. QUOTATIONS 196

Misspellings in the Source Document 197
Odd Wording in the Source
Document 197
Run-in and Set-off Quotations 199
Punctuation of Quotations 203

Syntactical Fit 205
Ellipsis Points 208
Brackets 210
Citing Sources 211
Exercise I 213

9. ABBREVIATIONS, ACRONYMS, AND SYMBOLS 216
Abbreviations 218
Acronyms 226
Symbols and Signs 231
Exercise J 234

10. TABLES, GRAPHS, AND ART 242
Tables 243
Graphs 261
Art 269

Exercise K 271
Exercise L 272

CONTENTS

11. REFERENCES 274
Author-Date System 275
Reference Notes 284
Citation-Sequence System 292
Exercise M 295

12. FRONT AND BACK MATTER 297

Front Matter 297
Back Matter 300
Glossaries 300

Indexes 302
Exercise N 307

13. TYPECODING
309

Typecoding on Hard Copy 309
Typecoding On-Screen 312
Heads and Subheads 317

Lists 319
Design Specs 322
Exercise O 329

PART 3 . LANGUAGE E D I T I N G
333

14. GRAMMAR: PRINCIPLES AND PITFALLS 335
Whose Grammar? 337
Subject-Verb Agreement 339
Troublesome Verbs 347
Split Infinitives 351
Subjunctive Mood 352
Dangling Participles 356
Dangling and Misplaced
Modifiers 359

Pronoun-Antecedent
Agreement 361
Case of Nouns and Pronouns 364
Parallel Form 368
Adjectives and Adverbs 369
Fewer and Less 371
Prepositions 372
Miscellaneous Bugaboos 374

15. BEYOND GRAMMAR 377
Organization 377
Expository Style 383
Bias-Free Language 404
Publishing Law 416

Checklist of Editorial Preferences 421

Glossary of Copyediting Terms 431

Glossary of Grammar Terms 447
Answer Keys 457
Selected Bibliography 527
Index 531

Preface

This handbook is addressed to new and aspiring copyeditors who will be work-
ing on nonfiction books, journal articles, newsletters, and corporate publi-
cations. Many of the topics will also be of interest to copyeditors working for
newspapers and magazines, although I do not discuss the editorial conven-
tions peculiar to journalism.
One of the first things a new copyeditor learns is that there are two general-
purpose style manuals (The Chicago Manual of Style and Words into Type),
two widely used scientific style manuals (Publication Manual of the Ameri-
can Psychological Association and Scientific Style and Format: The CBE Man-
ual) , and a variety of specialized style manuals. (All the manuals are discussed
in chapter 3.) This guide is intended as a supplement to, not a substitute for,
an editorial style manual.
Given that the shortest of the major style manuals is some 360 pages and
the longest is roughly 960, you might wonder why a copyeditor would need
this handbook in addition. One reason is that although all the manuals are
filled with rules, preferences, exceptions, and examples, they assume that their
readers already understand what copyeditors do, why the rules matter, and
how and when to apply, bend, or break the rules. Second, because the man-
uals are addressed to both copyeditors and authors, they do not discuss the
procedures peculiar to copyediting, nor the kinds of minute-by-minute
decisions that copyeditors make.

Here's an example. In January 2005 I was editing an instruction sheet
intended to help corporate employees manage their electronic mail. The
manuscript read: "You'll find it easier to locate a particular message if you

PREFACE

folderize your emails." "Folderize your emails" piqued my curiosity: Was
folderize a word? If so, was this writer using it correctly? Would the com-
pany's employees understand it? Might some, recalling their schoolroom
Strunk and White, snicker?1 What was it that readers were to folderize: their
emails (count noun) or their email (mass noun)? Did the company's style
guide recommend email or e-mail7.

I was working on a tight deadline, and the schedule called for me to edit
roughly 1,500 words an hour. The most practical, most efficient way to han-
dle the sentence was to propose that the writer revise it, and I wrote him a
quick note: "Folderize too techie for your readers? How about: You'll find it
easier to locate a particular message if you save your messages in folders—
one for each of your projects or clients."
A week later, after I was off the clock, I sought to satisfy my curiosity. I
began with folderize: Nothing in any of my print dictionaries, nothing at
www.onelook.com, and nothing when I typed "definition:folderize" in the
Google search box. However, Google displayed 95 hits for the term. Many
of these were from blogs and e-bulletinboards, but a handful were from
edited publications, for example:

Sure, you can categorize and folderize all of your links for easy find-
ing, but a really savvy and cool way to access all of the sites you regu-
larly visit is to create what's called a Start page, or in my case, a
Super Kickstart page. (Alexandra Krasne, GeekTech column, PC
World website, April 27, 2004)

At least one computer-literate employee wondered about the term ("I've
also heard 'folderize' at my work, and I'm still trying to figure out exactly
what is meant by it! Is that like 'filing'?" at www.ezboard.com, undated),

1. After labeling customize, prioritize, and finalize as "abominations," Strunk and White lay
down the law: "Never tack -ize onto a noun to create a verb. Usually you will discover that a
useful verb already exists. Why say 'moisturize' when there is the simple, unpretentious word
moisten7." (Elements of Style, pp. 50-51). Because, dear sirs, the remedy for dry skin is not to
moisten it (make it slightly wet) but to moisturize it (rub in a small amount of an emollient
that is to be absorbed). And even if these words were closer in meaning, can writers and speak-
ers ever have too many synonyms?
Fortunately, dozens of verbs made their way into the language before Strunk and White's
edict: agonize, alphabetize, apologize, categorize, demonize, deputize, digitize, emphasize, hos-
pitalize, idolize, itemize, lionize, monopolize, patronize, philosophize, satirize, serialize, ser-
monize, stigmatize, symbolize, terrorize, unionize, vandalize, winterize.

PREFACE

and another used scare quotes ("I need to be able to 'folderize' emails on ar-
rival, so I can keep jobs separate" at www.mobileminds.com, undated). One
writer pounced on the term to characterize the speaker: " 'It's better to spend
one hour getting organized than to spend 10 hours being frustrated,' says
the woman who uses verbs like 'folderize' " (www.wright.edu/news_events,
November 1998).
A patent application (March 2004) doubled my pleasure by introducing
a normalizer to do the folderizing: "a normalizer adaptively tailors and
folderizes markup based information content.... The user of the electronic
device can then further explore the folders of interest as desired."

I concluded that folderize was for now the property of the techies. Even
among the in crowd, various meanings of folderize seemed to radiate from
the core notion of sorting digital information into folders. And though I
don't blink at prioritize or moisturize, I was taught to be suspicious of new-
fangled terms ending in -ize.2 Delicate sensibilities aside, folderize seems to
fill a semantic need, and I suspect it will move into general circulation
someday soon.
My research into e-mail was easier: both e-mail and email are in current
use. In conversation, I have heard e-mail used as a count noun ("He sent me
six e-mails on this topic alone!") and as a mass noun ("We received a lot of
e-mail on this topic"), and the examples in M-W Collegiate showed both
usages.
Of course, working copyeditors usually cannot devote hours to research-
ing a word or two. Instead, as they go about their job of advising authors
and mending manuscripts, copyeditors develop judgment about when to
leave something alone, when to ask the author to recast, and when to pro-
pose a revision. Some problems are easily solved: there is only one correct

2. Two usage notes in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate dictionary (11th éd., 2003) attest to
the ubiquity of this prejudice in certain circles:

The suffix -ize has been productive in English since the time of Thomas Nashe
(1567-1601).... Nashe noted in 1591 that his -ize coinages were being criticized, and
to this day new words ending in -ize . .. are sure to draw critical fire.

Finalize has been frequently castigated as an unnecessary neologism or as United
States government gobbledygook. It appears to have first gained currency in Australia
(where it has been acceptable all along) in the early 1920s... . Currently, it is most
frequently used in government and business dealings; it usually i$ not found in belles-
lettres.

xii
PREFACE

way to spell accordion. But many questions do not have a single correct an-
swer, and these require the copyeditor to consult more than one reference
book, to identify and weigh conflicting opinions, and to make an informed
decision about when to apply, adapt, or ignore various conventions and
rules. This guide is intended to help you make just those sorts of informed
decisions.

T I P S FOR USING THIS BOOK

1. The sequence of chapters in this book follows the order I use in
teaching copyediting courses. We explore the general tasks, procedures, and
processes (part 1) before scrutinizing the mechanical conventions (part 2),
and then we look at grammar, organization, and other "big picture" topics
(part 3). You may, however, prefer to read part 3 before part 2.

2. If you are perplexed by a term, consult the Glossary of Copyediting
Terms and the Glossary of Grammar Terms at the back of the book. You
could also check the index to see if the term is discussed elsewhere in the
book.

3. Most of the recommendations in part 2 follow those stated in The
Chicago Manual of Style, but widely used alternatives are also discussed. To
locate the precise point in one of these style manuals, consult that manual's
index.

4. Indisputably incorrect sample sentences are preceded by the symbol X.
Either an explanation or a corrected version or both follow. Sample sentences
that are unsatisfactory but not incorrect are preceded by a label such as Weak
or Tangled.

5. Cross-references within the text are by first-level head and chapter
number; all first-level heads are listed in the table of contents. (If you're
wondering why the cross-references are not to page numbers, see the dis-
cussion of cross-referencing under "Organization" in chapter 15.)
6. The Answer Keys provide hand-marked manuscript and line-by-line
explanations for the exercises in part 2. (Don't peek.)
7. Because The Chicago Manual of Style is the style manual used by the
University of California Press, this book was copyedited to conform to that
manual. Eagle-eyed readers, however, will notice a few spots in which the edi-
torial style here diverges from Chicago, especially on some matters of hy-

PREFACE

phenation (see "One Word or Two?" in chapter 5). Kindly construe all errors
in the text as opportunities for you to exercise your editorial acumen.
8. For an errata list and other helpful tools, visit the Copyeditor's Hand-
book on the Internet at http://copyedit.ucpress.edu.
9. The following short titles are used for works frequently cited in the
text. (For complete bibliographical data, see the Selected Bibliography at
the back of the book.)

APA
Publication Manual of the American Psychological
Association

CBE
Scientific Style and Format: The CBE Manual for
Authors, Editors, and Publishers

Chicago
The Chicago Manual of Style

DEU
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage

MAU
Wilson Follett, Modern American Usage: A Guide
[References are to the 1966 edition, not the 1998
revised edition.]

M-W Collegiate
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary

New Fowler's
R. W. Burchfield, éd., The New Fowler's Modern
English Usage

WIT
Words into Type

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Since the mid-1980s I have taught copyediting classes to hundreds of stu-
dents, both in Berkeley, California, and through correspondence study. I want
to thank all these students for their inquisitiveness and high spirits as we
explored the picayune aspects of the copyeditor's life.

I am also grateful to the two people most responsible for my editorial ca-
reer: Gracia Alkema, the first managing editor to hire me as a freelancer (at
Jossey-Bass in San Francisco), and Marilyn Schwartz, managing editor of the
University of California Press, who has always given wise answers to my ques-
tions. She also guided this book from acquisition through production with
meticulous care and unflagging enthusiasm. Barbara Ras—first at the Uni-
versity of California Press, then at North Point Press, and now at the Univer-