Speaking of Editing: The Nomenclature of Copy-Editing

Publishing professionals concern themselves with the textual and graphic details of the content they publish. Editors, specifically, are responsible for checking and correcting the details of language, style, format, and typography. As precise as editors are paid to be, the nomenclature employed by editing professionals to identify the type of editing required by manuscripts, to communicate about editorial activity, and to evaluate editorial work is, ironically, imprecise. This article identifies the nomenclature used in the publishing industry, the scholarly publishing sector specifically, to label, describe, and discuss editorial activity. It provides an overview of terminology and definitions garnered from a review of literature on the subject of editing. It also presents the results of an original survey of editorial professionals, conducted online, which solicited responses to questions about terms and valuations in the practice of copy-editing. Based on these data, the article draws conclusions and makes suggestions about potential courses of action for standardizing editorial nomenclature in the publishing industry.