Uncommon Tips for Self-Editing Your Book

Beyond-the-Basics Copyediting Skills

While knowing the finer points of style isn’t necessary for getting published, looking like a consummate professional can help you stand out as an author. In this post I’m sharing specialized skills for polishing your manuscript that most people won’t learn unless they train to be a copyeditor.

Self-Editing Definition

What does it mean to self-edit your work? The term refers to the process of looking at your own writing through an editor’s eyes and resolving all the structural, syntactical, and word-choice issues you can. Once those higher levels of self-editing are complete, you can do a final pass for spelling and punctuation.

Even when you are going to be working with a professional editor, self-editing is an important step so that your work is as clean as you can make it, leaving the editor more time and space to elevate your work to a new level.

Note: Some rules of style vary depending on which style guide you use. I’m using the Chicago Manual of Style, which is dominant in North American trade publishing.

Know Your Hyphens, En Dashes, and Em Dashes

Your computer can produce three distinct horizontal lines: -, –, and —. Although laypeople often use them interchangeably, they each have their own functions.

The hyphen (-) is used for joining compound words like know-it-all and long-term. It’s also used for visual separation of letters or digits that are not representing a series, e.g., in a phone number or when someone is spelling out a word:

s-p-e-l-l-i-n-g

The en dash (–) is used to show a series of numbers. In the words Read chapters 1–8, the en dash represents all the consecutive numbers that fall between the 1 and the 8. It should also be used for time spans, for example 8:45–9:00. The Alt code for the en dash is Alt + 0150.

Special Case: When you write a compound word and one of the words you use is already a hyphenated compound, then the reader needs help distinguishing the division between the larger compound and the one contained within it. In that case, replace the hyphen of the larger compound with an en dash:

A Kitchener-Waterloo–bound train. 

The effect will be subconscious for most readers, but it does the trick.

The em dash (—) is what we tend to mean when we use the word dash. It’s the piece of punctuation we use to offset a related thought when commas, parentheses, or a colon don’t quite suit our goals. The frequent use of em dashes tends to create a casual tone in a piece of writing, so use them with consideration. I’ll provide an example of their use—in fact, I’m providing it right now—before the end of this paragraph.

An em dash should also be used in dialogue when a character abruptly breaks off speaking:

“Aren’t you going to—” He stopped, his face turning red. 

The Alt code for the em dash is Alt + 0151.

Get Familiar with Compound Words

e Mail, e-Mail, or email? The Saga of Open, Hyphenated, and Closed Compound Words

English is full of words that were originally two separate things (post and card) but have come together to mean a new thing: postcard. However, when a new concept is first born, it rarely starts with a single combined word. Instead, the new term is introduced as an open compound (post card). Over time, as it becomes a distinct concept, it becomes a hyphenated compound (post-card). Eventually, society can hardly remember a time when this combination of words didn’t mean this specific thing, and it becomes a closed compound (postcard). We’re seeing this play out today with plenty of technology-related words, such as the progression in the past few decades from on line to on-line to online. I’m keeping my eye on video game as the next contender.

While all three versions of a compound are likely to be in use in the world simultaneously, dictionaries will update their entries over time to reflect the one they feel is the most dominant. If in doubt, check a recent dictionary. The most common ones used by literary publishers are Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary in the United States and the Oxford Dictionary (often country-specific editions) in many other English-speaking nations.

Don’t Get Tripped by the Hyphenation of Compound Adjectives

Just to make things interesting, here’s a rule that is applied based on the order of the words in your sentence. When a hyphenated compound adjective comes before the noun it describes, it is, of course, hyphenated:

A midnight-black cat
The most-skilled workers
A going-in-circles kind of day

However, when the noun comes first, the hyphens are left out:

My cat is midnight black.
The workers who were most skilled started first.
I’ve been going in circles all day.

The last example suggests a reason for dropping the hyphens, since it would make no sense to use them in that case. Overall, though, the reason is most likely that the hyphens are necessary for reader comprehension when the adjective comes first (notice how the second example could mean “the greatest number of skilled workers” without it), but not when the noun comes first. Style guides always favour solutions that offer the greatest clarity with the least redundance.

My Compound-Word Pet Peeve

If you learn this, you will be ahead of even the ad and web departments of major corporations. (You will also notice errors everywhere you look. Sorry.)

We see certain words pairs (always containing a verb) that are used for both actions and nouns or adjectives:

You log in on the login page.
If you run in certain crowds, you might have a run-in with the police.

Unlike the above examples of postcard (a noun) and online (an adjective), verbs don’t tend to become closed or hyphenated compounds. If they did, what would happen when the tense changes?

❌ I login to my account.
❌ I loggedin to my account.

✅ I log in to my account
✅ I logged in to my account

I, like many professionals who work with words, celebrate the evolution of language. You won’t hear me criticize the change in meaning or pronunciation that a new generation or population brings to a word. But this common error has serious functional problems. Let’s all avoid it together.

Make Informed Decisions about the Capitalization of Job Titles and Degrees

Should you capitalize the word “Mayor”? If you’re stating the full title of a specific person, yes. Otherwise, no. The same holds true for other titles, and the situation is similar with the titles of degree programs:

Mayor John Doe
Jane Doe, Master of Education
The sign read City Council Chambers.
Go to the web page titled Bachelor of Fine Arts Program

But:

The mayor was expected at the ceremony.
I earned my master of education at Nipissing University.
Did the city council make its decision?
She’s working on her bachelor’s degree in a fine arts program.

Now, plenty of internal style guides at corporations—and even Microsoft Word’s spell-check feature—might disagree with some of these examples. Many people find it more respectful or prestigious to always capitalize titles and degrees, so there are publications out in the world that reflect that. Literary books are much more likely to follow the rules I’ve laid out above, whereas journals and internal documents might not. Whatever you do, make a firm decision and be consistent.

Examine Your Formatting

Part of the copyeditor’s job is often to make sure that the manuscript’s formatting is effective and consistent. Do you have headings and subheadings? Photo captions? Front matter like a preface? Back matter like an author’s note or glossary? Dress your manuscript to impress by applying consistent formatting decisions (typeface, type size, bold/underline/italic, indentation, justification, etc.) to each of these. It doesn’t have to be beautiful, but consistency will make it easy to digest.

Doubt Yourself

You may have been told all your life to believe in yourself, but not today. Today you’re going to question everything—at least in terms of your confidence in how words are spelled. As you read your manuscript, stop every time you come to a word that could, for any conceivable reason, be incorrect. The most likely reason is that it’s a homonym (one of two words that sound the same but are spelled differently, like affect and effect). Or maybe it’s a technical word that looks similar to another related one, like hypothyroid and hyperthyroid.

Look up the word, and then add it to a word-processer document where you’ll build an alphabetical list of all the words you’ve stopped to look up. Add character names and place names to lists as well. Now, the next time you come to that word or name, you can quickly check it against the list. And if you’re self-publishing and are therefore responsible for getting your own proofreader (do get a proofreader! The author’s eye will always miss something, and so will the editor’s after a while), give them the word list. It’s a time-honoured way of ensuring any inconsistencies are caught.