Do you know the different edits a copy-editor can do?

An Example of Line-Editing and Copy-Editing on the same original passage

Original:

"The rising light of the sun was quickly brightening. Dawn was turning into morning. Alex finished reading her copy of the "New York Times" and put the paper down on the table, and then grabbed her ipod and put on Beyoncé's Crazy in Love and went out for her mourning run."


The result after a line-editor has helped the author to rework it so that it reads more fluidly:

"The dawn light brightened, giving way to morning. Alex tossed the "New York Times" onto the table, grabbed her ipod, and then put on Beyoncé's Crazy in Love as she headed out for her morning run."
Notice, the line-editor caught and fixed a couple of technical errors, i.e. the typo on the second use of "morning".


The result after the passage has been copy-edited for grammar and usage:

"The dawn light brightened, giving way to morning. Alex tossed the New York Times onto the table, grabbed her iPod, and put on Beyoncé's "Crazy in Love" as she headed out for her morning run."


The order in which editing and proofreading should be done:

• First comes line-editing – focused on stylistic construction
• Second comes copy-editing – focused on the mechanics of the writing
• Third comes proofreading – focused on surface errors (misspellings, grammar, punctuation)

If you need help with any of these, contact me :)