This blog will take you through – step by step – how editors do their work, what they are looking for and why.  The information given here is based on how professional editors are trained to work in publishing houses.

How does an editor show that there is a mistake?

To show that there is an error in the text the proofreader marks this on the text using proofreading symbols.  To get an idea of the sorts of symbols that might appear, have a look at this:-

http://www.designerstoolbox.com/designresources/proofing/

The proofreader marks that there is a mistake and a typesetter or designer makes the changes. The proofreader checks the images, tables and any other visual material as well as the main body of the text.  Corrections may be needed in a graph or diagram, just as much as in the body of the text.  In some cases a typesetter might even put the wrong image with the wrong caption.  This could cause total confusion for the reader.

The proofreader marks the correction in the text as well as in the margin of the page.  For example, they might cross out a letter in the text and put a deletion symbol in the nearest margin.  Imagine that there is an imaginary line down the centre of the page; if the correction happens to the left hand side of that line then the proofreader marks the correction on that side.  The reason for putting a symbol in the margin is to make it easier to spot that there are corrections.  At a glance a typesetter can see whether there are any corrections on a page by having a quick look at the margins.

Corrections are marked in different colours.

• Red is used if the mistake was made by the typesetter.
• Blue corrections are made for other corrections, for example, if you are proofreading a book, the author may decide that they want new alterations.  These would be marked in blue.

The reason for the different colour marks is often to do with pricing.  Imagine that the typesetter is working on a book.  The typesetter will correct text for free if they have made the errors themselves.  If, however, it is the publisher or the author who is requesting changes, then those are not the typesetters’ fault and so they charge for these corrections.