In many ways, editorial review is editorial review, no matter what the writing is about. Whether the subject is botany or brake repair, investing or interstellar space, your objective is always the same—to ensure that the finished product is correct, consistent, and clear. And the stepwise procedures you use to reach that goal (see Chapter 2) shouldn't vary.
That said, it's also true that each industry, each client, and each project has its own nuances. There are literally hundreds of editorial specialty areas that have their own peculiarities and requirements, and familiarity with their quirks makes meeting their needs much easier.
To that end, we'll offer tips on four areas: advertising, annual reports with financials, catalog copy, and computer-related text.
Don't think that because you don't have expertise in a particular field you can't edit material for it. With the guidelines in this book, your general editorial experience, and a good style sheet or two, you have what it takes to do a very capable review.
Also, in reading any material, you begin to see patterns, and you quickly notice when something doesn't quite fit that pattern. For example, if in computer-related text you repeatedly see "Click on the OK button" and "Click on the Next button," and suddenly you see "Press the OK button," you know you've got an inconsistency on your hands that requires a change or a query.
Still, in specialty editing you might need to let go of some things you'd ordinarily mark or change in general text. Particular professions, industries, and projects often have reasons to use language in ways that don't conform to Chicago and Webster's, and you need to be sensitive to that. In specialty editing, it's important to be alert to, and respectful of, the style conventions of that specialty.
Advertising copy comes in many forms—letters, brochures, posters, sale coupons, buckslips (one or more small inserts—about the size of a dollar bill—included with a letter or brochure), print ads, Web copy, point-of-sale (POS) pieces like banners and table displays, billboards, even press releases.
In advertising copy, as in Web copy, it's safe to assume that readers want things faster, shorter, and sometimes more casually presented. Shortened or abbreviated phrasing that you might query in a book or manual might be just fine (or preferable) for ad copy. If the writing is consistently casual, don't try to make it more formal. Just make sure it's clear. As always, if any text strikes you as confusing, awkward, or ambiguous, or it just doesn't make sense to you, be sure to query it, or if you're working beyond the level of proofreading, suggest appropriate changes.
Tip
Some clients use different styles for different media. For example, they may use en dashes in ranges of numbers in print ads, but use hyphens in Web copy. To be in touch with small differences such as these requires good communication with your clients, as well as a good style sheet.
Some style choices made for advertising copy may seem just plain wrong to editors, but the reasons behind them can be compelling.
Does anyone remember the furniture polish ad campaign with the slogan "Treats Wood Good"? To the grammatically sensitive, that was fingernails on a blackboard. But even your English teacher would have to admit that "Treats Wood Well" wouldn't have been nearly as catchy. Who knows? Maybe part of what made the slogan stick was the obvious misuse of good. So was the slogan wrong? Grammatically, yes; from a business standpoint, probably not (we don't know the sales figures). In any event, the wording was someone's conscious choice and not subject to editing.
Another example comes from Toyota. Several years ago the company had a TV campaign with the slogan "Toyota Everyday." Again, fingernails on a blackboard to those who know this should be "Toyota Every Day." (Adverb, not adjective form.) In hopes they would hire her to save them future grammatical embarrassment, K.D. tracked down Toyota's U.S. marketing manager to point out the error.
It turns out that Toyota had done extensive research before choosing the wording and determined that people just seemed to like everyday better than every day. How do you argue with that? In advertising, it's all about appealing to potential customers, most of whom aren't grammarians. (By the way, the call wasn't a complete waste of time; K.D. did get a referral for her efforts.)
The moral here is to take your cue from industry styles and from your client or the company you work for. Rely on style sheets if an advertising agency has one (or several), and as always, if they don't, be sure to create them.
Following style guidelines for an ad agency can be more of a challenge than following the style of one company—because the agency often has several clients of its own, all with different styles. And some have multiple clients in the same industry—each with its own focus and styles.
For instance, one advertising agency we know had three different clients who all worked in the health-care industry. Each had its own way of referring to the profession:
Just another reason to cherish your style sheet(s).
Tip
In all editorial review, but especially when working in specialized fields, don't be frustrated or take offense if a client rejects a suggestion you've made. As you've seen, clients have their own valid reasons for the choices they make. It's your job to mark changes and make suggestions, but it's up to the client to take them or leave them.
The purpose of advertising copy is to promote something, and that something is often protected by a trademark. When a brand or product name appears in general (not advertising) text, an initial capital letter is enough to signal its special status. But in advertising and promotional materials, a small symbol often follows the name.
By law, trademark and other symbols don't have to appear to ensure protection, but most people in advertising choose to include them. That tiny ® or ™ speaks volumes about hard work, creativity, and ownership. (For a rundown of all the marks and what each one means, go to the Web sites of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the International Trademark Association.)
Here are some things to keep in mind when working with proprietary terms:
• Never assume a brand or product name is generic. If you are unsure, query your client or check on the United States Patent and Trademark Office or International Trademark Association Web site.
• Whether using symbols or not, always distinguish trademarked terms in some way, such as with an initial capital letter or with boldface or italic type.
• Use only the proper, trademarked form of the term wherever it appears.
• In general, use a trademark as an adjective modifying a noun (a Xerox copy), not as a noun (I have a Xerox of that) or a verb (I need to Xerox that).
• Any symbol used should directly follow the trademarked term (or logo).
• The ® or ™ symbol need appear in only the first or most prominent mention of a trademarked item. Some prefer to use it in the title of a document, but many prefer to use it when the item is first mentioned in the text.
• A single reference to the trademark (such as to which company the trademark is registered) is sufficient within the document. If the trademark is used in sections of a document that may be distributed separately, the symbol and a reference should be used in each.
• Symbols are used online the same as they are in printed works.
Tip
Many companies include product and brand names—with any relevant symbols—on their style sheets. If you aren't supplied with this information, be sure to ask for it, and if no list exists, start one yourself, for the client to verify.
Annual reports usually have three parts: a letter from the CEO or a letter to the shareholders, the text of the report, and the financial information.
Most often the letter will be reviewed and the general text prepared by the marketing department (or outsourced to an advertising agency). But the financials are supplied by the financial division. Because these pieces come from different places, you may find style inconsistencies, especially in references to fiscal quarters and years and in abbreviations. For example, you might see:
If you're lucky, a style sheet will let you know which of these items should be handled consistently throughout and which ones can be abbreviated in financial charts but should be spelled out in text.
As an editor or proofreader, you aren't responsible for the accuracy of the numbers in financial information any more than you're usually responsible for the accuracy of the facts in anything you review. And let's face it, you would probably have no way of knowing which numbers are right and which aren't.
Still, as you do in other types of editing, you can spot certain errors by looking for patterns. This four-step process for reviewing the rows and columns of financials will help you do that:
1. First, read each row from left to right, reading the descriptive text and then the numbers. Pay attention to whether any entries in the numbers columns seem out of place. You wouldn't bat an eye, for example, if under "Acquisitions expenditures" 294 appeared for the year 2004 and 1,914 appeared for the year 2005. But if 2004 showed 294 and 2005 showed 1.1%, you'd know something was wrong.
2. Once you've completed your review of each row, read down each column, looking for anything that might be an anomaly and also for proper alignment. Are dollar signs aligned, decimal places aligned, commas in figures placed correctly, etc.?
3. Now go back and read the column of descriptive text from top to bottom. Look to ensure consistency in all things, but especially in spelling, capitalization, and abbreviations. Most lines will be in sentence case (with no ending punctuation), with proper names and department names in title case:
Boom Bakery profits
R&D
Capital expenditures
Net investment
4. Finally, read the column headings from left to right, looking for the usual—accuracy and consistency in spelling, capitalization, abbreviations, alignment, font, and so on.
Tip
Don't forget to make sure the data is consistent between the text, the financials, and other tables. For example, the introductory text discussing a table might say that fourth-quarter 2005 net earnings were $10.5 billion, but the entry in the table for 2005 Q4 net earnings reads $10.5 million. Think of the data—column and row text and the financials—as you would an illustration in regular text and look for consistency in all the same ways—for example, by verifying that captions and numbering match in the text and tables.
In years past, most catalogs were pretty straightforward. They most often had a picture of an item for sale and a title or a brief description of the object, along with pertinent product and ordering information (the old L.L. Bean catalog comes to mind, bless it). And some catalogs are still this "simple."
But today more and more catalogs are glossy marketing pieces that include clever, fun, theme-based descriptions of products, such as this one:
Because of its complexity, you'll need to pay attention to all the same things in catalog text that you would in any other text, and then some.
In catalogs, there are also lots of elements you won't normally find in general text. Because there are so many different areas to watch, maintaining consistency in all the ways you usually would is even more challenging.
Tip
Be sure you know which elements your client wants you to review. For instance, one may want all elements, including product number, size, price, etc., verified against copy provided. Others may simply want text proofed and internal consistency of elements verified, with no reference to another source.
Reviewing in stages is extremely important in all editorial work, but in documents with many different elements it's indispensable. Following are some of the elements (in addition to the basic product description) that can accompany a picture of a product. Be sure to look at each element separately to verify accuracy and consistency:
• Product identifiers or product numbers (letters or numbers designating a pictured item and the corresponding description); watch to see that:
• The picture and description match for a particular product identifier.
• The placement of product identifier in pictures and in descriptions is consistent.
• The illustration is of the product described.
Note: Also be sure to check cross-references between pages. Catalogs frequently have photos showing products that are listed and described on another page; for example, "See Tolomeo Desk Lamp on p. 25."
• SKU (Stock Keeping Unit)—a common term for a unique numeric identifier that refers to a specific product in inventory or in a catalog
• Measurements (dimensions and fluid amounts), including decimals, fractions, abbreviations, order of dimensions (H × W × L)
• Sizes, especially capitalization and the order in which the sizes are listed
• Colors, especially abbreviations, capitalization, and the order in which colors are listed
• Price and special or sale price
• Additional charges, such as for shipping and handling or for oversized or customized objects
Then on certain pages and in certain locations (sometimes as headers and footers) are items such as:
• Toll-free ordering number
• URL
• Ordering information
• Delivery information
• Return policies
• Additional shipping and handling information
More and more, the last four of the preceding are being left for the order form—which you will likely also be reviewing for accuracy and consistency—in the center of the catalog. Some of these still appear, though, as boxed text in the body of the catalog, sometimes on every page or every other page.
Tip
One of the main places that errors slip through in catalog copy is in the description of and ordering information for a product. Clients have a specific order in which items such as product identifiers, SKUs, sizes, dimensions, and so on are to appear. Make verifying this sequence a separate and important stage.
While catalog copy contains more than general text, it can also contain less. Because of space limitations in catalog copy, you'll frequently see—and need to keep consistent, according to style sheet specs—incomplete sentences, abbreviations, or numerals (instead of spelled-out numbers) that might not be appropriate in regular copy.
In computer-related materials, you'll see a lot of copy of that looks like English but isn't. It's a language spoken by computers, and computers are notoriously picky. Most people can overlook a misplaced comma or an extra space; computers can cough on them, or worse.
For that reason, as you tend to the usual editorial tasks in computer-specific text, you'll need to tiptoe very carefully around programming codes, field names, menus, screen elements, and other arcane, high-tech items.
But don't let that daunt you. Computer terminology is just another set of letters and symbols to watch for consistency and to query when they seem amiss. If you follow the guidelines described here and elsewhere in this book, any style guidelines you're given, and the checklist at the end of this chapter, and keep an eye out for patterns, you'll do fine.
Just remember one cardinal rule: don't make any changes to programming code. Correct the spelling, grammar, and punctuation in the text around it, but never alter the slightest detail in a piece of code. Even moving a period from outside quotation marks to inside or changing the capitalization of a word for "consistency" can cause a computer disaster. Following are examples of how code set off from text might appear:
hostname# router 1
flash device:filename
Tip
You won't be responsible for verifying the accuracy of programming code, and you probably won't be responsible for verifying the accuracy of URLs (Internet addresses) either. In any event, you should never "edit" them. But you should still read them to pick up any obvious typos, like the one in je-architects.com/draafting. If you think you spot a typo, query it. And if you edit a lot of computer-related text, you'll be surprised at how quickly you begin to recognize bits of code. Really.
Snippets of code also frequently appear within text, as part of the discussion. Those are off-limits to editors too. You'll be able to pick them out easily enough, because they're usually shown in a font that's different from the surrounding text. Different people choose different styles for them—bold, italic, and Courier are popular choices. Some people use the same font for all code or computer-related elements shown in text; some use a variety of fonts to differentiate different elements, such as:
Arguments (variables)
Arrow keys
Buttons
Character strings
Command names
Command syntax
Dialog boxes
Directory, file, and path names
Drop-downs
Fields
Key names
Keystroke combinations
Keywords
Menus and submenus
Options
Scroll bars
Status bars
Toolbars
User input
Window and screen names
For instance, in a discussion of command syntax (the entire format of a software command), you might see a command in bold and a variable in italics:
{timeout minutes}
There are so many formatting styles for elements in computer-related content that it can make your head swim. In general text, an editor can rely on The Chicago Manual of Style, The Associated Press Stylebook, and Merriam-Webster's Eleventh Collegiate Dictionary. But there are no hard-and-fast styles or always-deferred-to style references for computer-related text.
You're not entirely on your own, however. Chicago and Webster's have recently added much more guidance on electronic style and computer terms, the Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications (in print and electronic versions) is an excellent reference, and on the Web, Webopedia.com is a great source for computer and Internet technology terms and definitions. Use Google to see how much consensus there is on a term, but don't expect it to show you anything definitive; companies still use a wide variety of styles in computer-related materials, and Google reflects that disparity.
Tip
When a client asks what the "standard" style is for a certain element, when there really is no standard, you might mention that although there aren't any universally accepted styles, you usually see the element a certain way. You might also cite how Microsoft handles certain conventions.
Add this checklist to the complete, three-part editorial checklist in Appendix B to ensure accuracy, consistency, and clarity in computer-related text.
