The line editing you do is of
critical importance in maintaining the quality of the Journal – please
take it seriously and take the time to do a quality job. The EIC will have to read the entire volume
within a short period of time and will not be able to give each section of each
piece as close a line edit as you will.
You are the only person who will give the section of the paper you are
reading an intense, concentrated line edit from this point forward. As such, please read the pieces as if you are
the last line of defense. This is the
one point at which embarrassing mistakes, inconsistencies, and other problems
must be caught and corrected.
As line editors, you are not
reading for substance but instead are looking for grammar, formatting, style,
and bluebooking errors. The following
are examples of the types of things
you should do as line editors.
1. Look for grammar, spelling,
and punctuation errors. On spelling, pay
particular attention to the types of errors that are easily missed by a spell
checker (for example, the words on, or, of, if, etc.).
2. Compare letters and numbers
of section headings with earlier sections to be sure that they are in sequence
and that the formatting is consistent.
3. Check short-form references
and abbreviations to be sure that they are consistent and have been “defined”
in the following form - (“xxxxx”).
4. Make sure the paper complies
with the Chicago Manual of Style and the Bluebook in all respects. For example, be sure that terms are capitalized
correctly, that ellipses are spaced properly, that colons and semicolons are
used correctly, etc.
5. Check the footnotes. Please note that you are responsible for
reading all footnotes in your assigned section. Many notes contain text that must be edited. You should also check “supras” and “infras”
to be sure that they refer to the right note or section in the paper. Finally, while you are not primarily responsible for ensuring that
footnotes are in Bluebook format, please keep your eye out for footnote errors
and ask the two Kellys if you have questions – They can’t catch everything
themselves!
6. Generally, look for and
identify formatting inconsistencies and related problems.
7. Keep your eyes out for
obvious mistakes/typos or glaring substantive errors. For example, if the author is talking about a
recent issue and uses the date 1898 instead of 1998, it is probably a
typo. Also, if you know that a fact is
incorrect or if you see a word that you feel is really inappropriate, you can
suggest a change. You should consult
with the author before making these types of changes.
IF YOU ARE NOT SURE ABOUT A RULE OR A FORMATTING ISSUE, PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO FIRST LOOK IT UP AND THEN, IF YOU ARE STILL UNCLEAR, ASK THE TWO KELLYS, LARA, OR SAM.
PLEASE DON’T ASSUME THAT WHAT IS ON THE PAGE IS CORRECT OR THAT SOMEONE ELSE WILL CATCH IT LATER.
1. First, make your line edits
on a hard copy of the Comment or Article.
·
You will be given a hard copy of the whole paper you are line editing.
·
Even though you may only be line editing a section of the paper, you
may need to consult other sections to be sure supras match or to compare items
for consistency/sequence.
·
Please think in terms of the whole paper.
2. Second, you may be required
to enter your edits on the computer using the tracking system. Check with Matt to see if that is the case.
·
When you have finished marking up your hard copy, enter any changes
into the latest version of the document on the computer using the tracking
system. If you do not know how to use
the tracking system or how to access the document on the computer, please ask
the two Kellys, Lara, or Sam.
·
Be sure to access the most recent version of the document you are
working on. Also, be sure you are
accessing our document files on Sherman and not on the hard drive of the
computer
3. Third, let Matt and, in the
case of a Comment, the author, know when you are finished.
·
At this point we will ask the author to review the edits and we will
move on to the next step in the process.