Dissertation Guide
Our comprehensive guide to the process of writing a dissertation or thesis. Back to Student Resources
What is copy-editing and sub-editing?
“I check and correct grammar, spellers, literals [typing mistakes]; add in missed words; rephrase sentences for greater clarity; check author references in text for consistency with bibliography, reference-list, end- or foot-notes; check hierarchy of headings; impose consistency. Create preliminary pages. Create bibliographies from references in notes. Raise queries relating to the above. Formatting and page design (in our case). Produce final camera-ready/laser-printed copy (in our case). Indexing (in our case).”
“I try to ensure the author’s work is as fluent and consistent with the style of the publication as possible. This means marking up hard copy typescripts for typesetters (rarely amending disks) for style, consistency and grammar (sense as well as typos). The publisher’s style sheet will indicate spelling conventions to be applied (e.g. s or z spellings), spacing of numerics, capitalisations, abbreviations, and how chapter and section headings, footnotes, tables and figures should be presented. Running heads need to be devised and references cited in the text checked against the Reference List (also vice versa!).”