Chapter 3 of The Copyeditor's Handbook

The third chapter of The Copyeditor's Handbook summarizes and explores the various resources with which most copyeditors use in order to assist in their systematic process of editing a manuscript. Four of the most essential books that the book stresses all copyeditors use include, dictionaries, style manuals, thesauruses, and usage guides. Although the chapter stresses that the volume of a copyeditor's reference shelf will drastically vary depending on the types of material he or she copyedits, the book insists that these for aforementioned works are essential to any copyeditor.

 

What I found most extraordinary was the level of subjectivity in the field of copyediting. Although I knew very little of the subject to begin with, I always assumed that there would be very stringent, non-negotiable texts and procedures that all editors have to follow. This chapter seems to stress the opposite as most of the materials needed for editing depends on the company for whom the editor has been hired. It seems as though every company has their own sets of guidelines and, therefore, there is a vast differentiation between companies of what is considered acceptable and unacceptable. In short, there seems to be no definitive list of copyediting rules (with regard to capitalization, hyphenation, punctuation and other random literary idiosyncrasies). Although the chapter seems to stress that the Chicago Manual of Style is the preferred manual of choice by most editors, they go on to suggest the discrepancies between that particular book and other resources on the subject.

 

Despite the inconsistency between texts and how certain once well practiced standards become obsolete after time, I respond well to the consistency that's shared among all copyeditors when revising a manuscript. The chapter stresses the importance of a copyeditor's focus on clarity, coherency, correctness, and consistency. Although there may be slight variations in standards in editing, the method by which all copyeditors achieve the ultimate success is the same.