Resources used for
editing:
Chicago Manual of
Style, 15th Edition
The Associated Press
Guide to Punctuation
The Copyeditor's Handbook
Links to online
editing resources:
Online
Guide to
Grammar and Writing
Grammar Slammer!
Owl:
Online Writing Lab
Guide
to Grammar and
Style by Jack Lynch
English Guide
for those
for whom English is a second language |
Evaluation
of the first ten or more pages
of a manuscript is free and will consist of intense editing of these
items:
Line edit:
| Grammar |
Sentence
fragments and
run-on sentences |
|
|
Parallelism |
"I
came, I
saw, I conquered" is parallel in verb and tense. "I came, I saw, I'm
hungry" is not. "First, secondly, third" is not parallel." |
|
Subject-verb
agreement |
|
|
Verb tense |
one of
the most
misunderstood and mangled grammatical elements by beginning writers |
|
Pronoun
agreement |
"Someone
who commits a crime should have their head
examined" is not in agreement, because the subject (someone) is
singular, while the pronoun (their) is plural. |
|
Misplaced
modifiers |
|
|
|
|
| Syntax |
The
order in which words (acting as subject/verb/object) appear in sentences |
"I
went home" is a clear placement of
subject/verb/object in that order. But writers often play with the
syntax to lend a different flavor to a sentence. Bad example, but a
writer could mix up the syntax of subject/verb/object to say "home is
where I went." Or the writer could use modifiers around the
subject, the verb, and the object. We check to make sure that a core
sentence is present, and if it's rich with modifiers, we check to make
sure it is syntactically understandable, clear, and logical. |
|
|
|
| Punctuation |
Periods
Commas
Semicolons
Colons
Question marks
Exclamation points
Quotation marks
Dashes versus hyphens
Ellipsis
Apostrophes |
Quotation
marks: (single and double) American usage and British usage |
|
|
|
| Spelling |
Based on
standard
American English |
or
if the
writer is
British or Canadian, the appropriate spelling, unless the setting is in
the United States |
|
|
|
| Capitalization |
|
Proper
nouns, acronyms, first words
in sentences, and instances where capitalization is misused.
|
|
|
|
| Hyphenation |
|
Generally
speaking, while hyphenation is used in typeset documents to break words
at the ends of lines, the main emphasis here will be
on the use of hyphens to form compound adjectives and some
compound nouns.
|
|
|
|
| Word
usage |
Commonly
misused words |
(their/they’re/there,
affect/effect, to/too/two) |
|
Incorrect
word choice |
|
|
|
|
Clear
and consistent
use of |
Abbreviations
Acronyms |
|
Obviously, the overall structure and unfolding of a
book, whether fiction or non-fiction, will not be evident to us during
the ten-page evaluation, but we strongly request that you send your
entire manuscript to us for the evaluation, so that we can look deeper
into your overall work. The editorial relationship that we have with a
writer is dependent on the writer's willingness to work on his/her
manuscript just as intensely as we do, once the entire manuscript has
been edited. Once grammar, punctuation, and other line-editing has been
done, we will turn our focus to content and structure, and we hope to
have a lively exchange with the writer, until the final version of the
manuscript is written.
Content and
Structure Edit:
| Fiction |
We
will look at point of view, the hook in the opening to get reader
attention and interest, story development and how suspense is built.
"Suspense" doesn't necessarily mean something scary or cause
nail-biting, but the sustained interest for the reader to want to "find
out what happens." Character presentation and development. Setting in
time and place. Action and pacing, dialog, style, readability, building
climax, denouement (story resolution).
|
| Non-fiction |
We
will look at point of view, the opening to see if a clearly stated
objective is offered, overall organization and development,
fact-checking, target audience. |
Our editors will highlight potential issues
with your
manuscript such as:
Consistent use of
the same
spelling of characters’ names throughout the manuscript.
Correctly italicizing the names of books, magazines,
movies, and television shows.
Two Brothers Press editors will explain why less
obvious edits were
made so that you can make an educated decision about whether or not you
will
use those edits. We will provide suggested changes
you might
wish to consider, to improve the clarity of your
writing without affecting your writing style.
This evaluation should be sufficient for you to decide if
professional
editing will be required before the
manuscript is submitted to an agent or publisher.
It is important to provide the name of the book and the author on the
first page.
After the initial evaluation, if you choose to use Two
Brothers Press editorial services,
the
rest of the manuscript will be just as intensely edited.
|
