Divya Jyoti Munjal
Imagine you are beginning a copyediting assignment. The publisher has provided editorial instructions covering language preferences, spelling, punctuation, numbers, references, and other requirements. You read these instructions carefully before starting work.
As you edit, you notice that the author uses follow-up in one paragraph and followup in another, both as nouns. The publisher’s instructions do not specifically address this term. You consult the prescribed dictionary, confirm that follow-up is the preferred form, make the correction, and continue editing.
In a later chapter, you encounter followup again. Will you remember the decision you made earlier? Perhaps you will, but what if you are editing several manuscripts simultaneously or returning to the project after a week?
What if you had a reference document in which you could record such decisions as you make them? Whenever the same issue appears again, you could consult that document instead of relying on memory or repeating the same investigation.
In copyediting, this reference document is known as a style sheet. It records the editorial conventions and decisions applicable to a particular manuscript. It also helps others who work on the manuscript at later stages understand the choices made during copyediting.
Start with the publisher’s instructions
Before preparing a style sheet, the editor needs to understand the publisher’s requirements. These may include a house style, a preferred dictionary, an established style guide, and project-specific instructions.
The style sheet does not replace these resources. Instead, it brings together the relevant conventions and records additional decisions made while editing the manuscript.
For example, the publisher may specify US English and the use of the serial comma. These requirements can be recorded at the beginning of the style sheet for quick reference.
What should a copyediting style sheet contain?
A style sheet should contain information that the editor or another person working on the manuscript may need to consult. Depending on the project, this may include:
- Language and spelling: US or UK English, preferred dictionary, and spelling variations.
- Capitalization: Treatment of job titles, department names, and manuscript-specific terms.
- Hyphenation: Preferred forms of compound words and frequently used expressions.
- Punctuation and numbers: Project conventions, date formats, and number treatment.
- Abbreviations: Preferred abbreviations, expansions, and exceptions.
- References: Citation style and manuscript-specific decisions concerning reference presentation.
Consider an author who uses “employee handbook” throughout a manuscript but occasionally capitalizes it as “Employee Handbook.” If the expression refers to a generic document rather than an official title, the editor can establish lowercase treatment.
The style sheet could record this decision as:
Capitalization: “employee handbook” (lowercase when used in a generic sense).
How to use a style sheet during copyediting
A common mistake is waiting until the entire manuscript has been edited before preparing the style sheet. By then, the editor may have forgotten why a particular form was chosen or where an inconsistency first appeared.
A better approach is to establish the style sheet at the beginning of the assignment and update it as editing progresses. If the publisher has already supplied one, the editor can add manuscript-specific decisions as required.
It is equally important to distinguish between confirmed decisions and matters awaiting clarification. If the author has been asked to clarify a term or expression, the preferred treatment should not be considered final until the issue is resolved.
The style sheet should also be updated whenever an author’s response or a subsequent editorial decision changes an earlier entry. An outdated style sheet can create confusion during later stages of production.
A style sheet supports the next stage
The copy editor may not be the last person to work on the manuscript. A proofreader, production editor, or another member of the editorial team may need to understand the conventions followed during copyediting.
Suppose a proofreader encounters a term presented differently in two chapters. A style sheet recording its preferred treatment can help determine whether the variation is intentional or requires correction.
The real test of a style sheet
A useful style sheet does not need to be lengthy. Its value lies in how accurately it records editorial decisions and how easily those decisions can be located and applied.
If it helps maintain consistency, reduces repeated investigation of the same issues, and supports the people working on the manuscript at later stages, it is serving its purpose.
If you prepare style sheets for your editing assignments, what information do you find yourself referring to most often?