As editors, we have a knack for fixing the smallest details; we painstakingly assess every grammar principle, every punctuation mark, and every usage of a word. But it can be easy to let simple mistakes slip through the cracks. Here are some easily overlooked mistakes to look out for:
First, editors must remember to never skip the title! While editing academic papers, it is especially easy to skip straight to the body of the writing. Doing so causes editors to miss obvious mistakes that readers will instantly catch. For example, I edited an academic paper once, and it wasn’t until I returned it to the author that I realized the title was in sentence case instead of title case. Additionally, it wasn’t even grammatically correct. What an embarrassing mistake! Therefore, editors should take extra caution to understand how titles should be formatted for different papers and to check the grammar and punctuation of titles (CMOS 2.21 and 2.22).
Second, editors should always remember to check that apostrophes and quotation marks are “smart.” Oftentimes, when writers copy and paste quotes or other sentences with these punctuation marks into a Word document, the punctuation does not automatically become the “smart” versions. You can tell whether they are smart punctuation marks if they curl; if they don’t, then they need to be changed. Use Microsoft Word’s Find And Replace feature to change all apostrophes and quotation marks to “smart” apostrophes and “smart” quotation marks to align with the guidelines of The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS 6.123 and 6.125).
Third, editors should always check the definitions of words they come across while they are editing. Authors may accidentally use a synonym of a word to enhance their writing, not knowing that the synonym doesn’t exactly match the meaning they were going for. For instance, an author might use the term “alongside” to mean “in the same direction as” something but not realize that “alongside” implies something different. Also, authors may make up words by trying to change the part of speech of words we know. For example, they may accidentally use an adjective as an adverb that doesn’t exist (e.g., using “cognizantly” as the adverb form of “cognizant”). Double-checking everything you aren’t 100% sure about with a reputable dictionary like Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary is essential to catching these small mistakes.
Fourth, editors should double-check that footnote citations are formatted and written correctly. Like titles and subtitles, footnotes and endnotes tend to fly under the radar because they aren’t in the body of the document. Footnotes, which are citations at the foot of each page of a document, can be formatted with less information than endnotes, which are citations at the end of a manuscript (CMOS 13.51). Therefore, it is important to become familiar with the format of your style guide’s citations for each manuscript you edit.
Fifth, editors must ensure that numbers are consistent in their numeral and spelled-out forms. The Chicago Manual of Style, for example, advises spelling out larger numbers that are followed by hundred, thousand, or hundred thousand (see CMOS 9.4). But CMOS also advises using the numeral version of large numbers when they are monetary amounts (CMOS 9.4). Percentages are usually written in the numeral form with the word “percent” spelled out unless they are the first word in a sentence (CMOS 9.20). Just in CMOS alone, there are many different exceptions to the way numbers are written depending on the genre of the manuscript. Thus, number formatting can easily slip through the cracks if editors are not careful.
Altogether, making sure that these simple mistakes don’t go unnoticed will help you take care of the simple mistakes before tackling the harder grammar and punctuation you copy edit.