Dear Reader,
If you’ve ever written a manuscript for publication, you’ve probably been aware at some point that your draft needed editing. And you’ve probably engaged in self-editing, or received editorial assistance from someone else on your way to publication.
What you may not have been aware of is that professional writers and editors distinguish between various levels of editing, and that there’s an ideal order of operations for these levels to happen:
- First comes developmental editing, which deals with the most fundamental aspects of a text. I break these aspects down into the four categories of argument, evidence, structure, and style (which I call the "four pillars of scholarly writing" in my forthcoming book).
- After the big-picture aspects of a text have been solidified, the text is ready for line editing. Line editing deals with the flow of text and clarity of ideas at the paragraph or sentence level.
- Finally, copyediting ensures that the text is free of mechanical and grammatical errors and that the manuscript adheres to publisher guidelines about the proper presentation of elements in the text.
If you’ve been hazy on the distinctions between these levels—or you're just now learning they exist—I’m willing to bet you’ve never received actual training in how to do them well for your own writing.
Many good guides do exist for academics who want to improve their writing, but they mostly cover the line editing phase. The problem is that if you skip to line editing and copyediting without doing a thorough developmental edit, you'll likely waste time and effort where it isn't needed. You'll also fail to hone the aspects of your work that will make the biggest difference in getting your manuscript accepted for publication.
Unfortunately, there's a lot less help out there for writers need to figure out if their argument is coming across clearly, if they've supported their argument with adequate evidence and analysis, if the structure of their manuscript is working, and if the overall style of the text is presenting their voice in the most ideal way to connect with publishers and readers.
That lack of available training for scholarly writers is what motivated me to develop my new course, aptly titled Developmental Editing Workshop for Scholarly Writers.
This course takes the principles of developmental editing that I use with my clients' manuscripts (and that I have taught to other professional editors) and translates them for scholarly writers themselves.
You'll learn to assess your manuscript for the four major aspects of any scholarly text—argument, evidence, structure, and style—that hold the keys to impressing peer reviewers and receiving positive publication decisions.
Using a time-tested checklist of the most common areas where scholarly manuscripts need help, you'll evaluate what's working and what isn't in your own draft. Then you'll craft a concrete revision plan that you'll be able to implement on your own schedule after the course ends.
Before diving into assessing your text, you'll learn how to see scholarly manuscripts from the publisher and reader's point of view, ensuring that your revision plans are headed in the right direction from the start.
You'll also gain clarity on your publishing goals, identify the readers you care most about reaching, and account for constraints on your time and attention during your revision process.
If you have a book, sample chapter, or journal article manuscript sitting on your hard drive that you know needs work but you haven't been certain exactly what work it needs—or you've been editorially nibbling around the edges of it for months with no end in sight—this course is for you.
This course welcomes academic writers at all career stages—from graduate students, to recent PhDs, to mid-career scholars, to those who are exiting an academic career and now want to build up their writing and editing skills. If you know someone who fits the bill and might benefit from this course, please forward this newsletter along!
Coming up at Manuscript Works
More free resources for academic authors
Additional support
Use my time-tested curriculum to bring structure and motivation to your book writing process. The Book Proposal Shortcut takes the guesswork out of writing an outstanding pitch for university presses and other academic publishers.
Every writer who enrolls in the Book Proposal Shortcut gets complimentary membership in the Manuscript Works Author Support community, a private hub for ongoing support in your scholarly book publishing journey. Inside this community you'll get honest advice about publishers, peer review, offers and contracts, as well as join live Q&A sessions with Laura Portwood-Stacer and your fellow Manuscript Works authors.
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See you soon,