Editing is not just someone correcting mistakes in something you’ve written. It’s a dialogue, in which the writer has a vital part to play…
When I do a quote for an editing job, it contains this paragraph:
“The fee includes one set of amendments based on client feedback to queries.”
In my head, it’s crystal clear what that means. But I’m learning that clients don’t always understand what’s on offer, or how the process around those queries unfolds.
Here’s what you need to know.
WHAT IS A QUERY
Most people know what editors do. They fix spelling and grammar errors and make sure that the document is formatted consistently (so, for instance, are the names of books in italics, and are all the headings in bold?).
Generally, an editor does do all of those things, and they will do them without telling you that they have made those changes. Life is just too short for that!
(But if you do want to see what’s been done, you’ll generally get a version of the document in which Word’s Track Changes function has been activated. See: Word’s Track Changes – what writers need to know. I suspect though many people don’t really want to know which of those kinds of errors have been fixed: they just want to know that the document is now good to go.)
As an editor, a writer who is happy to take this on faith is a blessing: it’s a sign of the writer’s trust in me to make things right.
But editing is rarely so simple. There are often places in a document where a meaning is unclear, or where something appears to be factually incorrect, or where an editor thinks something should be changed for reasons of their own.
It is at these points that an editor will do what’s known in a jargon-ish way as “raising a query”.
Example:
A text contains this dodgy paragraph, which I asked Claude AI to write, complete with mistakes:
To use a dictionary effectively, start by locating the word you’re looking for in the alphabetical listing. Most dictionaries are organized from A to Z, although some older versions may use a reverse alphabetical order. Once you find the word, you’ll typically see its pronunciation guide, which uses special symbols to indicate how each syllable should be pronounced. Next, you’ll find the part of speech, such as noun, verb, or adjective, followed by multiple definitions.
The queries which arise in my editor’s mind on reading this are:
ONE: “some older versions may use a reverse alphabetical order’ – that doesn’t sound right to me, but perhaps the writer (who is an expert on dictionaries) knows something I don’t?
TWO: “Next, you’ll find the part of speech, such as noun, verb, or adjective, followed by multiple definitions.” – this sounds like the part of speech is being defined but the author almost certainly didn’t mean that. Perhaps it should be rewritten like this: “Next, you’ll find the part of speech, such as noun, verb, or adjective. The part of speech is then followed by multiple definitions of the entry.”
Now, I can just change the text according to my own thoughts and research. But I might be introducing errors because my knowledge of the subject matter is just not as good as that of the writer. Since the article will eventually be published under the author’s name, answering these two questions is simply not my call to make. The author needs to be consulted! Which meands I must raise some queries.
HOW WILL QUERIES BE “RAISED”?
Typically, a query will be raised in a comment on a Word document. They generally appear down the right-hand side of a document, and look like this:
It’s also possible that an editor will make a list of all the queries and send them to the writer in a separate document. If there’s only one or two queries, they might be sent in an email or a WhatsApp message.
Writers can tell the editor how they’d like queries to be handled. Be aware that the comment method is the quickest for the editor. If you insist on a full written-out list of queries, that’s going to take longer and will push up the price given in the quote.
WHAT DOES THE WRITER NEED TO DO ABOUT QUERIES?
As the writer, you need to answer the query. You can reply to the comment in the Word document, or write your answers in the document sent to you, or answer the email.
In the example of the supposed versions of dictionaries that began with the letter Z and ran to A, you might say:
Of course that’s wrong! I meant to say that in some older versions there might be multiple volumes – please fix!
WHAT WILL HAPPEN THEN?
As promised in the quote, the editor will rewrite that sentence (though they would always hope that you would do that yourself).
You’ll then get a final version of the document with the changes made, for your final approval.
WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU DON’T ANSWER THE QUERIES?
The editor has a choice: they can change the text as they see fit, and possibly change the meaning, or they can just leave the (possible) mistakes as they are.
Neither of those is a satisfactory outcome: it means that the work the editor has been paid to do is incomplete, and it means that the text is not as good as it might have been.
So, to get your money’s worth out of the editing process, build in time so that you can answer queries and view the document in its final form.
That’s the best way to honour the creative work that you put into the writing in the first place.
READ MORE
Why an editing routine works, every time | Safe Hands
Editing and opinion: the inner voice
Editors – how to tell the good from the bad | Safe Hands
What is editing anyway? A love letter… | Safe Hands
Main picture: Carl Tronders, Unsplash
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