COPYEDITING FOR CONSISTENCY

means that the same text or the same type of

text or illustration is treated uniformly throughout the document

Example: “turn off” or “shut down” the computer.

What is Consistency in Copyediting?

Do the same directions mean something different?

Example:

A group of four co-authors wrote sections of a journal article to be combined into a one draft; in the editing process, they noticed that they had spelled proofreading as proofreading, proof reading and proof-reading.

Gives useful information to readers

Makes documents, people and companies they represent more professional

Helps promote the image of the company

THINGS TO PONDER IN CONSISTENCY:

FIVE TYPES OF CONSISTENCY IN

DOCUMENTS

refers to the meanings and arrangements of

words (semantic, syntactic, stylistic)

A. Verbal Consistency

refers to anything a reader can see on the

page or screen (typography, spacing, color, icons, illustrations)

B. Visual Consistency

is the typeface and typestyle which are the

same for parallel items such as level-two headings.

Example:

APA Heading Levels (Level 2 [Left-Aligned, Bolded, Title Case])

What is TYPOGRAPHY?

includes spelling, capitalization, hyphenation,

abbreviations, numbers, and type of styles

C. Mechanical Consistency

Spelling (acknowledgement – acknowledgment, copy editing-copyediting)

Capitalization (Web site-website, French fries-french fries)

The following examples illustrate issues in the consistency of mechanics:

Hyphenation (long-term project; in the long term or two-meter length; length of two meters)

Abbreviations (United States- US or U.S, inches- in. or “)

Numbers

commas ( 1000 or 1,000)Dates (8 April 2010 or April 8, 2010)time (eight o’clock or 8 am.)

Punctuations (Five types of consistency are

verbal, visual, mechanical, structural and content. ) or (Five types of consistency are verbal, visual, mechanical, structural, and content.)

 

refers to styles for citing sources which differs

from discipline to discipline Example: APA AND MLA FORMAT

DOCUMENTATION

Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Location: Publisher.

Duncan, G. J., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (Eds.). (1997). Consequences of growing up poor. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.

BASIC FORMAT FOR BOOKS (APA)

Laplace, P. S. (1951). A philosophical essay on

probabilities. (F. W. Truscott & F. L. Emory, Trans.). New York, NY: Dover. (Original work published 1814)

refers to organization (chapters and etc.)

Example: The introduction of each chapter in the

book ends with “key concepts”. If a report reviews four topics and includes a table summarizing the topics, the order of topics in the report and in the table should be the same.

D. Structural Consistency

eliminates contradictory information

Example: If the readers are told to find a reference on page 18 of a document when that reference actually appears on page 19, they will be frustrated or may not find the reference at all.

E. Content Consistency

THANK YOU….

Maria Jessa Podelana Miliane Antone

Brian Barrot