We all know the feeling: after hours of staring at your work, all the commas seem wrong. You forget whether you spelled the color grey with an E on page ten and A on page 80 or vice versa. And you’re completely at a loss about whether you should fix that dangling modifier or whether you should let it go even though it’s technically incorrect. (Because come on…the sentence makes sense! Does it really matter if it’s “wrong?”)
Copyediting is a technical discipline, one that involves understanding not only grammar and punctuation but style rules and common conventions that are used within a certain genre, sub-genre, or niche. If you can afford to work with a professional copyeditor, you’ll probably be shocked at what they find in your work! But if your budget doesn’t have room for pro editing, these seven tips will give you a head start so you can produce and even publish more technically correct writing.
1. Read it again.
The most important thing to remember when copyediting is to read the project once, then read it again and again. If you’ve heard this advice before, there’s a good reason for that. You as the writer have done something extremely difficult: you’ve created something. Writing is a complex function of our brains, which is why so often we become desensitized to errors and miss typos. Our brains fill in or “see” what’s not really there on the page! The closer you are to the writing process, the harder it will be to look at the work “fresh.” Read through excerpts of your work over the course of a few days, ideally at least two weeks after you’ve written it. Vary the size font or even the device you’re reading on. Seeing a larger different font or exporting your Word doc to a PDF can help you to catch more mistakes that your tired eyes may have missed in the original. This tip only applies to catching mistakes that you know are mistakes, though! Read on for grammar and punctuation tips that might be new to you.
2. “Hear” your sentences.
Good copyeditors “hear” sentences and catch discrepancies or errors this way. One simple way to do this is to read the text aloud to yourself. Notice if you pause, take a breath, or stumble over words. Mark any areas that sound odd or out of place. If you catch yourself stopping for breath, do you have a run-on sentence or a sentence with too many adjectives or action words? Do you hear the same words repeated within the same paragraph or page? If you pause, ask yourself if you need a comma or if you’re pausing because that’s how people speak. (I go into the mistake of the aural comma in detail below!) Varying your word choices, shortening sentences for clarity, and revising awkward phrasing are all vital copyediting tasks that you can do for yourself by “hearing” errors.
3. Avoid the “aural” comma.
Some writers love commas. Like sprinkle them everywhere kind of love. One very common comma error is putting a comma where you think they belong because you “hear” a pause in the sentence. Comma rules are vast and deep, and it can take years to really master the essentials—especially when the essentials are applied to an author’s voice and style. One way to avoid adding unnecessary commas is to catch the commas you put in only because you “hear” them when you speak. Here’s an example:
He loved moonlight, almost as much as he loved sunrise.
Read that sentence aloud. Do you hear a tiny pause before almost? While that may be how the sentence sounds when someone speaks naturally, the comma does not belong there. In fact, this sentence doesn’t require a comma at all!
Correction: He loved moonlight almost as much as he loved sunrise.
4. Always use commas around direct address.
You may shocked to learn this, dear reader, but when you address a person/character in text, you must set the name or noun that refers to that individual off with commas. Here are a few examples:
“Mom, can I please go to the store?” (The speaker is addressing Mom directly.)
“No, Susan, not now.” (Mom is addressing Susan directly.)
“Why not? You letting Henry and Justine go.” (No commas because the speaker, Susan, is talking ABOUT Henry and Justine—not TO them.)
“Young lady, you know the rules. Henry, Justine, would you please pick up something for Susan at the store so she doesn’t feel left out?” (Mom addressing Susan as young lady. Then, addressing Henry and Justine. Finally, no commas when she talks about Susan.)
Here are a few more examples with the commas correctly included or left out where they are not needed!
Santa, baby, hurry down the chimney. (Did this one trip you up? Santa is the name but baby is a diminutive/endearment! You’ll see this incorrectly formatted in many, many places!)
Hurry up, Grandpa! Mom, tell Grandpa to hurry up or we’ll be late!
5. Only use a comma with conjunctions when they join two independent clauses.
If you remember that an independent clause is a complete sentence (has a subject and verb, actor and action) you’ll pick this one up right away. Before I explain, test yourself. Which is correct?
a) I really want to go but my mom won’t let me.
b) I really want to go but can’t.
Sentence a) above has two complete sentences that are logically connected by the conjunction but. Don’t be confused because but is generally a limiting conjunction. It functions the same way as the word AND.
In sentence a), you need a comma before the but because what follows the but is a complete sentence that could stand alone. Here’s a test:
I really want to go BUT my mom won’t let me
Are the parts on either side of the but complete, clear sentences? If yes, then the word but should connect the two with a comma. The correct way to punctuate this sentence is: I really want to go, but my mom won’t let me.
Easy, right? Now try the same test with sentence b).
I really want to go BUT can’t
Is can’t all by itself a complete sentence with its own subject? Not the way it’s written here! So the but should not connect the two sides with a comma!
The correct way to punctuate this sentence is: I really want to go but can’t.
Test yourself! What if I add this to sentence b): I really want to go but I can’t.
Would this need a comma?
Try the test… If you said yes, you’re correct! The addition of the word I puts a subject beside the verb can’t. With I added, you’ll need to add a comma here:
I really want to go, but I can’t.
It may seem tricky, but with practice I know you’ll get it! (See what I did there?!)
6. Look closely at clauses. You’ll want to find and fix dangling modifiers!
Confusion around modifiers can often be linked to commas. (Pesky commas!) Ha, and since I was complaining ABOUT commas, not TO commas, I didn’t use a comma there!
When you start a sentence with a clause, it can be very easy to make mistakes and not realize your modifiers are misplaced or dangling. Take a look at this sentence and see if it sounds all right.
While sitting on the bench, my phone rang.
Running quickly, the finish line came into view.
With a smile, the test was finally over.
Walking down the street, the tree caught my attention.
All of these sentences may make sense to you, but guess what? They all have dangling modifiers!!
Let’s look at why.
While sitting on the bench, my phone rang. Hmmm. While sitting on the bench refers to something. What should this adjective phrase modify? It should modify whoever is sitting on the bench, right? But I don’t see anyone sitting on the bench. I only see a phone ringing. Since what comes immediately after the comma is NOT the object of the adjective clause (or the do-er of the action in that clause), I know I have a dangling modifier. To fix it, we simply make sure the clause is closest to the noun, proper noun, or pronoun it refers to. In this case, we would revise this way:
While sitting on the bench, I heard my phone rang.
Easy, right? Now the “I,” the person sitting is directly beside the adjective phrase that describes it.
There are many ways to correct a dangling modifier, and some require more revision than others. Here are the corrections for the rest:
Running quickly, the finish line came into view. (The finish line can’t run quickly, so…)
Running quickly, I spotted the finish line.
With a smile, the test was finally over. (The test can’t smile! So that means…)
With a smile, I handed in my exam. The test was finally over.
Walking down the street, the tree caught my attention. (Unless you’re looking at Treebeard from Lord of the Rings, you won’t see a tree walking down the street. So…)
Walking down the street, I noticed a tree that caught my attention.
Now, the tree sentence doesn’t sound great when you fix it the way I did. This is why it’s so important for authors to be able to do some self-editing. If you’re revising this sentence for yourself, you might add more details or nuance, even changing the entire sentence or paragraph just to fix that broken modifier. Here’s a better-sounding example.
Walking down the street, I noticed the tree with its broken tire swing. The shredded rope immediately caught my attention.
See how easy it can be to fix dangling modifiers? But you have to find them first!
7. Revise “it” and “that.”
Most of the time, the words it, this, that, and these are lost opportunities in writing and are better off removed. Going through and highlighting (or better yet, revising) these words in the text and seeing how the sentences sound without them is a great way to realize their often unnecessary placement in writing. Find and replace all the dull, dead, or sluggish filler words to bring your writing to new life.
While copyediting can be tedious, these tips and tricks are great ways to revisit your copyediting project with fresh perspective. Rather than attempting to tackle a copyediting project head-on and fix all errors at once, take several read throughs and follow some of the advice listed above. It can be a lot easier to catch mistakes when you’re looking for a specific type, and at the end you’ll find your finished product to be much more polished for it. What’s more, the copyediting process is much simpler when you have a methodology to conduct it and when you have some ideas to revamp your technique.
As a professional copyeditor and copyediting instructor, I have so many more copyediting tips to share. What’s confusing to you? Parallel structure? Pronoun-noun antecedents? Ask me anything, and I’ll try to answer your burning copyediting questions!
Happy editing!