What Is Editing?
Language
- Checking the text thoroughly for grammar, word usage, and spellings
- Suggesting better phrasing in the comments
- Checking for consistency in hyphenation, capitalisation, treatment of numbers, punctuation, quotation marks, etc
- Checking for consistency in UK vs US English
- Ensuring tense use is consistent
- Ensuring the text is in the correct tone (formal, academic, informal)
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Checking for plagiarism (if requested)
Formatting
- Checking for consistency in style across the document
- Checking for consistency in formatting headings and captions
- Checking for consistency in number formatting in tables
- Checking for consistency in section numbering
- Checking that all acronyms have been expanded at the first mention
- Compiling a style sheet for the above
Content
- Basic fact checking: spellings and dates
- Checking that table figures match the text
- Flagging any obvious gaps in the argument
- Flagging irrelevant text that can be removed
- Flagging obvious bias
- Highlighting repetitions
- Querying for citations if missing
References
- Formatting references according to the style guide
- Checking correspondence between the citations and references
- Converting citations and references from one style to another
- Checking that URLs are working
- Querying for missing details