Let’s talk copyediting

While you might be familiar with the work of a translator or even that of a proofreader, that of a copyeditor might not be so clear The activity of a copy editor might be considered to be quite a creative one in that he or she edits words, sentences and paragraphs in such a way as to improve the clarity of an already written text; in so doing the copy editor’s aim should be that of improving the reader’s experience and ensure a certain degree of consistency. All while preserving the writer’s own voice: their style, pace and lexical choice. If you are not sure which one of the services provided by Euris Consult you need, the aim of this article is to help you understand just that.

Especially in the book-publishing world and more recently in that of online marketing content, copyeditors gladfully realise that copy editing is much more interesting and goes beyond a simple exercise of making language changes. A copy editor also makes suggestions where needed so working hand-in-hand with the author of the text is paramount; he/she is always striving to appropriately treat specialised texts, such as heavily-quoted text or technical reports.

For example, if the material is a pedagogic one, a copyeditor would ensure the content suits the target student’s level of knowledge while in the case of marketing text, the copy editor would focus on adapting the text to capture the interest of the target reader. Finally, a copy editor would also be in contact with the proofreader or the editor or typesetter, as the case may be, for details like editing tables and figures but also to ensure the house style is respected. Usually, the copyeditor uses a given house style or guide to ensure consistency of style.

This borders on the proofreader’s tasks. In fact, following the copyediting stage the text should look very polished and fluent, so the last step of a text undergoing proofreading is basically a final check for typos and lexical, grammatical and syntax errors. We can provide all these services under one roof, so do not hesitate to contact Euris Consult Ltd to discuss your project. To summarise, copyediting aims to improve the reader experience by making sure that text is clear and says what the author intended it to say. It eliminates distracting errors and makes the writing easy to absorb so the reader can focus on the actual subject matter. To achieve this, needless to say, copyeditors would make sure to eliminate any repetitions or redundancies; they would identify inconsistencies which disturb the flow of text; they would make sure that the author’s ideas are well-articulated and expressed in an orderly fashion; they would also need to make some degree of research or check facts especially when they are copy editing text dealing with less familiar subjects or specialised text, and they would double-check the intended meaning with the author.

Once this is ensured, they are in a better position to make changes and enhance the text without changing in any way the tone and message of the author. If this sounds like what you need for your company or your personal projects (and you require Copyediting Services Company in Malta), please email us on translations@eurisconsult.com and we will provide you with a quote for free.