Comments on: Proofreading Versus Copy Editing

By: Bart Scrivener

Bart Scrivener — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 16:28:41 +0000

Not true, Anon. Webster’s 11th is the standard reference for American publishing, and has copyediting as one word, copy editor as two. Random House’s preferred usage is copyeditor and copyediting. But no dictionary anywhere hyphenates either term.

Your last sentence, by the way, is missing a comma. It should read, “Thank you, Blart.” I don’t care what you call me as long as you punctuate correctly.

By: anon

anon — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 22:43:33 +0000

Copyediting is preferred; copy-editing works, too.

Thank you Blart. (That was on purpose.)

By: Sara

Sara — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 14:53:19 +0000

Bart – You are right. I have too many errors on the site. In my long list of “to do’s” the blog often comes last, but that’s no excuse. I should work harder on details and less on updating the blog regularly.

Never claimed to be perfect or the world’s best – just trying to help small businesses with their marketing materials.

By: Bart

Bart — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 19:01:50 +0000

Very accurate and entertaining. All those copy errors WERE intentional, right? I thought these were the funniest ones since they’re so ironic:

Copyediting is one word, not two.

The cliché is not “not one in the same;” it’s “one AND the same.”

“Copy editors don’t write, they refine.” True. They would refine that sentence by replacing the comma with a semicolon.

“Well written” is not hyphenated unless it precedes the noun it modifies. The sentence is well written. It is a well-written sentence.

Your Best of “2009 Blog Challange” might go over better if you were to spell “challenge” properly.

In your About section, you write, “I’ve found a few writer’s who…” Plurals are formed by adding an “s,” not an apostrophe, except in places like bait stands (“Worm’s!”).