The 4 Stages of Editing

It’s Skilful Saturday! Let’s Talk…the four stages of editing. What are they and what do they entail? This is a quick introduction into the different sides of the editorial process.

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Manuscript Assessment / Critique:

This is the initial assessment of strengths and weaknesses, with general suggestions for improvement.

Developmental / Structural Editing:

This stage gives more in-depth feedback on aspects such as pace, writing style and appropriate language for your readership, and technical features such as characterisation (fiction) or reference styles (non-fiction).

Copy-editing:

This focuses on detail, accuracy, completeness and consistency of the text, including grammar, spelling and punctuation.

Proofreading:

This stage is where the final check happens to pick up anything that was overlooked earlier.

There are plenty of courses available within the UK. The Publishing Training Centre and the Society of Young Publishers offer training and paid courses across various levels of experience. If you cannot afford to undertake a course in your current circumstances, there is plenty of free material to learn from online. I will be dropping more Skilful Saturday posts to share my knowledge that I have learned from my university Creative and Professional Writing degree and my editorial experiences within the publishing industry – so stay tuned for more Skilful Saturdays!