Editing process. Editing official documents

The concept of editing comes from the Latin word redastus - put in order. Editing is always aimed at making a single text or an entire edition more adequate for perception, in order to ensure their compliance with certain norms, and also to ensure that the text or edition is presented as a complete complete system.

Editing is the activity of creating and distributing a book.

To understand the nature of editing, it is also essential to use signification data. From the point of view of significs, communication includes all procedures by which one person can influence the behavior and actions of another.

Since communication is based on information, the specific feature of editing should be considered that it is directly related to information and the processes of its transmission.

Thus, the nature of editing, its formation and subsequent development are entirely related to the need for verbal processing of information.

2. Text concepts
1. A human thought fixed on some material carrier.
2. In general plan connected and complete sequence of characters.
3. An ordered set of words designed to express a certain meaning.
4. Written communication, objectified in the form of a written document, consisting of a series of statements combined different types lexical, grammatical and logical connection, having a certain moral character, a pragmatic attitude and, accordingly, literary processed.
3. Informative and communicative essence of editing

Editing arose and developed for a long time due to the need to process text. The text is a means of organizing, designing and fixing information in the processes of interpersonal and (or) public communication. From the very first steps, a person was forced to rely on information. Without it, there could be no knowledge of the surrounding world, it was impossible for a person to adapt to nature, its survival, self-development and vital activity. In connection with the need of people to exchange information, the text was born as a result of a specific act of speech.

Direct connection with information reveals the communicative essence of editing. For thousands of years, the only available was the non-material way of transmitting information through the word. Thanks to the exact word, not only mutual understanding was achieved between directly communicating people, but it also provided the opportunity to pass on the baton of accumulated knowledge and experience from generation to generation. At the same time, only that information that corresponded to the needs of the collective and did not run counter to its experience could be included in the collective communication chain.

When starting to edit the text, it is important to clearly understand what goals are set for you. Editing can be either purely stylistic (that is, not affecting the content) or semantic. In the first case, the editor must first of all have impeccable literacy, a subtle sense of the word. In the second, along with this, a thorough knowledge of the essence of the issue, possession of factual material. There are, however, also general principles. The general scheme of the editor's work looks like this:

Perception - criticism - adjustments;

Checking the actual material;

Identification of compositional defects;

Identification of stylistic errors and errors;

Identification of spelling and punctuation errors.

It is important to remember that the first stage of editing - the perception of the text - is extremely great importance. Only an inexperienced employee, after reading the first few lines of the document, takes up a pencil and begins to make corrections. Before you change anything, you should read the document as a whole. At the same time, you can make notes in the margins or extracts (especially if it is a large text). Some of the questions can usually be removed in the course of reading. In addition, only with a holistic perception, the editor is able to evaluate the composition of the text, detect contradictions, logical errors, disproportion of parts, etc.

It is most convenient, after analyzing the text, to start reading it from the beginning, gradually and consistently eliminating the noted shortcomings.

After you have carefully read the document, evaluated it, noted errors and points of doubt, you have to solve the most difficult and delicate issue that always confronts the editor. This is a question about permissible degree of interference in the text . The originality of the editorial work lies in the fact that corrections are made to someone else's text. In the end, the signature of another person should appear under the document. Therefore, you take on additional responsibility: you have the right to change the form, but not the content; otherwise, it will turn out that you are imposing your thoughts on the addressee on behalf of someone else.

One of the main "commandments of the editor" can be formulated as follows: do not add or subtract. Whatever the impact on the text (replacement of words, grammatical constructions, rearrangement of parts) - the meaning of the statement should remain the same. In the event that it is required to change the content (for example, to eliminate a factual error), this must certainly be agreed with the author.

Far from always the question of the permissible limits of interference in the text is solved simply. First of all, this refers to the problem of verbal repetitions.

The official business style has its own specifics. One of the fundamental requirements for the language of documents is the accuracy, unambiguity of the statement. In this regard, the author and editor sometimes have to act at the expense of the beauty of style, taking care of the clarity of meaning. Usually, the repetition of the same word (or words of the same root) within a small text is considered a stylistic error. But the situation cannot be assessed so definitely if we are talking about the repetition of terms. Special vocabulary has a number of features that must be taken into account. The meaning of the term is specific, it most often does not have absolute synonyms and cannot be replaced by another word without changing the essence of the statement. Therefore, it is often necessary to make an exception for texts rich in terminology, and to preserve verbal repetitions for the sake of accuracy of meaning.

For example, the general department of a higher educational institution instructs deans' employees: After the end of the work of the SAC, the deans, on the basis of the protocols of the SAC, draw up an order on graduation from the university, which is submitted to the educational department within five days from the end of the work of the SAC.

SAC - State Attestation Commission (the abbreviation may not be deciphered in a document that is in circulation within the institution; for university employees this is a generally understood term). The name cannot be replaced by a word-combination that is close in meaning. To avoid a triple repetition, you can use the word "commission" instead of the abbreviation once. At the same time, it is necessary to abandon the threefold repetition of the word "end". The editor makes the text look like this: After the end of the work of the SAC, the deans, on the basis of the protocols of the commission, draw up an order on graduation from the university, which is submitted to the educational department within five days from the date of completion of the activities of the SAC.

Consider also examples from special texts related to the gas industry.

1. Please note that, according to safety conditions, it is necessary to ground the neutral wire, i.e. securely connect it to the ground through a special ground electrode, for example, a metal sheet buried in the ground. In the absence of such grounding and when one of the line wires is connected to the ground, the second line wire will be under double voltage with respect to the ground.

2. In order to use automatic submerged arc welding for welding pipeline joints, which ensures high quality and higher productivity of welding work, the institute developed three options for organizing assembly and welding work on the pipeline construction route.

In the first fragment, the same-root words “ground”, “earth”, “grounding”, “grounding” are used. In addition, the phrase "linear wire" is used twice. Undoubtedly, this makes the proposals heavy, makes it difficult to perceive. Nevertheless, the editor is unlikely to be able to completely avoid repetition. So, the terminological phrase "linear wire" cannot be replaced by another, close in meaning.

Before editing, you should clarify to whom the text is addressed. Unless it's an excerpt from a schoolbook, you can safely refrain from explaining what the verb "ground" means.

The editor should remember: if you have to save repetitions, you need to think about other ways to "lighten" the text. In particular, you can refuse long, cumbersome sentences. More often difficult sentence easy to turn into a few simple ones. After corrections, the first fragment takes the following form:

Please note that for safety reasons, the neutral wire must be grounded. As a grounding conductor, for example, a metal sheet buried in the ground can be used. Otherwise, when one of the line wires is connected to the ground, the second one will be under double voltage.

The second fragment repeats the noun "welding" (2 p.) and uses close phrases " welding work” and “assembly and welding work”; the definition of “high” is used twice (“high quality”, “high performance”).

Editing can be minimal: the term "welding" does not allow synonymous substitutions. It is only necessary to abandon the adjective "welding" when it comes to the productivity of work, since it does not introduce new information into the text. It is also possible to confine ourselves to a single use of the adjective “high”: when it comes to quality assurance, it goes without saying that it is high quality that is meant. A certain dynamism of the text will be given by the replacement of the participial turnover by the attributive clause. The final version might look like this:

In order to use automatic submerged arc welding at the joints of the pipeline, which ensures the quality and higher productivity of work, the institute developed three options for organizing assembly and welding operations along the pipeline construction route.

Summarizing the above, we can determine the most important editorial principles:

keeping the content of the document unchanged;

Possibility to prove that interference with the text is necessary;

Integrity and consistency (all shortcomings are noted and corrected immediately, since one change may lead to another);

Clarity and accuracy.

The latter seems obvious. However, it is not uncommon for the editor to edit by hand, and some words turn out to be “unreadable”. In the future, someone who types on a computer may unwittingly introduce a new error into the document.

It is absolutely unacceptable to leave question marks or other notes in the margins after finishing the editorial work.

Editorial functions are considered completed after all doubts are resolved and only notes intended for corrections remain in the margins of the document.

Types of editing

There are four main types of editing:

editing-proofreading;

editing-reduction;

editing-processing;

editing-alteration.

Editing-Proofreading as close as possible to proofreading work. It is a correction of spelling and punctuation errors and typos. Such corrections usually do not require the agreement of the person signing the document.

Modern computer technology has freed document workers from a large part of the proofreading burden: text editors allow you to check spelling and make corrections directly while typing. But this should not be the basis for complete carelessness. In this matter, as in many others, man has no right to rely entirely on technology.

You have to keep in mind that computer text editors "do not know" many proper names. Surnames, initials, geographical names, names of enterprises and institutions must be verified with particular care.

In addition, the computer is not able to detect all typos. He "does not notice", for example, the transformation of the preposition "on" into the preposition "for", the particle "not" into "neither": for him all these are equally correct words. Automatic verification will fail if you mistakenly type "1897" instead of "1997". Only a person who understands the meaning of the statement is able to detect such errors.

Neglect of editing-proofreading often leads to curiosities. It is not difficult to imagine the reaction of a leader who receives a document called not “Protocol No. 5”, but “Protocol No. 5”. If a text containing such a typographical error goes beyond the institution, the authority of the company will certainly suffer from this.

Edit-cut produced in two main cases:

When it is necessary to make the document shorter by any means (then you can go for some reduction in the volume of content);

When the text contains redundant information - repetitions and "common places".

The editor is obliged to eliminate well-known facts, common truths, unnecessary introductory words and constructions from the document. As noted above, verbal repetitions are also among the stylistic flaws, but sometimes it is not possible to avoid them. It is important that the editor is well versed in the material and is able to determine whether the repetition of the same words is justified and whether their replacement with synonyms is acceptable.

Editing-Processing represents an improvement in the style of the document. Errors and shortcomings associated with the violation of the compatibility of words, the indistinguishability of paronyms, the use of cumbersome syntactic constructions, etc. are eliminated.

Consider a fragment of an order that requires reduction and processing.

HR departments of subsidiaries and subsidiaries

1.1. In order to further develop the human resources of enterprises in accordance with the production tasks facing us, from 01.01.1999, to begin and during the current year to implement the implementation of a system of continuous individual training for managers, specialists and workers of industry enterprises and organizations.

1.2. To expand work on attracting young people to creative activities and to adopt Active participation in conducting the Industry scientific and practical conference young scientists and specialists.

1.3. Bring the structure and number of personnel services of enterprises in line with the tasks they face in managing and developing personnel, adopting necessary measures to the consistent improvement of their qualitative composition.

1.4 During 1999-2000 bring the material base educational institutions industry in accordance with modern requirements for personnel training, based on current industry standards.

First of all, the editor will find in this text a verbal repetition: “subsidiaries” and “subsidiaries”. The norms of Russian grammar allow not to repeat the definition for each of the homogeneous members of the sentence. It is enough to agree (coincidence of gender, number and case) for the definition to be perceived as referring to all members of the sentence included in the homogeneous group. By writing:

"HR departments of subsidiaries and joint-stock companies", we will make it clear that we are referring to subsidiaries.

In addition, the document under consideration is distinguished by verbal redundancy. Should not be specified: "the production challenges ahead of us"(clause 1.1): it is understood that the order refers to the problems of the sphere in which it was created. "Accept necessary measures” (clause 1.3) is also a redundant phrase. It is quite obvious that the measures that are necessary to achieve the goal are listed. Deprived of meaning and use of the sacrament "active" in paragraph 1.4. No one will doubt the fact that the executors of the order must be guided by the current, and not canceled or not yet adopted standards.

The processing of this text includes changing the word order in paragraphs. 1.1 and 1.3, as well as fixing bugs related to selection case form noun. It is necessary to swap the predicate “begin” and the adverb of time “since 01/01/1999”. Otherwise, the terms named in the sentence are associated in the mind of the reader not with the beginning of the action, but with a mention of production tasks. Section 1.3 uses the construction "bring something in line with something", requiring a certain word order.

Finally, the text twice contains an error caused by ignorance of the norms of management (the choice of the case of the noun included in the phrase). In Russian, constructions “correspondence of something to something” are possible (compliance of the law with the Constitution),"bring something in line with something" (bring the law in line with the Constitution) and "according to something" (act in accordance with the law). Therefore, the analyzed text should use instrumental forms with the preposition “s”: “to bring the structure and number of personnel services in line with the tasks we are facing”, “to bring the material base in line with modern requirements».

Language always provides the speaker and writer with many synonymous possibilities. The same can be expressed different ways choosing words and grammatical constructions. That is why the content of the considered order can be transmitted by other means.

Personnel departments of subsidiaries and joint-stock companies

1.1 In order to further develop the human resources of enterprises in accordance with the production tasks facing the industry, start from 01.01.1999 the introduction of a system of continuous individual training for managers, specialists and workers.

1.2 To expand the work on attracting young people to creative activities and take an active part in holding the Industry Scientific and Practical Conference of Young Scientists and Specialists.

1.3 Bring the structure and number of personnel services of enterprises in line with the tasks facing the industry for the management and development of personnel; take steps to improve their quality.

1.4 During 1999-2000 bring the material base of educational institutions in line with modern requirements for personnel training, based on industry standards.

Thus, the document, corrected by a qualified editor:

Does not contain factual errors and typos;

Perfectly literate in terms of spelling and punctuation;

Has an optimal volume;

It is built according to the laws of logic;

Corresponds to the stylistic norms of the Russian literary language.

P The concept of editing comes from the Latin word redastus - put in order. This value perfectly reflects the essence of editing, which is always aimed at making a single text or an entire edition more adequate for perception, in order to ensure their compliance with certain standards, and also to ensure that the text or edition is presented as a complete system.

Speaking of editing, they mean the most different complexes works. First of all - activity in spheres of mass communications. It covers the management of the content side of the work of publishing houses, editorial offices of newspapers, magazines, studios and includes the preparation of publications, television and radio programs, work with the texts of films and performances. Editing is also used in management, marketing and management systems in the preparation of management, statistical, legal documentation.

In publishing, editing contributes to the satisfaction of the population's need for a book. It is implemented by the system of forms and methods of work of the editor and involves the implementation of the editorial and publishing process, which ensures the publication of works of literature.

The editor in his work relies on specially book science knowledge in the field of publishing and editing, the theoretical substantiation of the book and literary work as objects of editing, takes into account the experience of major editors of the past and present.

The tasks of the editor include the preparation of a specific publication, the formation of the repertoire of the publishing house, the organization of the editorial and publishing process. We can say that he is the organizer, leader, manager of the book publishing business.

The scope of his tasks is extremely wide. The editor is engaged in literary, methodical, informational, organizational, creative activities.

When preparing a specific publication, the main task of the editor is to evaluate the manuscript submitted by the author, determine the tasks and ways of its improvement, and prepare the original for publication. The editor gathers a creative team capable of taking part in preparing a literary work for publication. Such a team may include an artist who illustrates and designs a book, literary critics, art historians, bibliographers, specialists in various fields of knowledge - they create a reference apparatus for the publication, reviewers and consultants, art and technical editors. The editor must ensure the coherence of the work of the creative team, "connect" certain specialists to work on the publication at various stages of the editorial and publishing process.

The editor's work on the text of a literary work includes a critical reading of the manuscript, which makes it possible to evaluate the topic and problem, the connection of factual material with the topic and problem. This assessment is important for determining the significance of the content of a literary work. In addition, the editor evaluates the form of presentation of the material, analyzing the composition of the work and the linguistic and stylistic means used by the author. The editor works together with the author on preparing the work for publication, discussing with him all his comments. If previously published works of literature are selected for publication, the editor must be prepared for the fact that he will have to carry out textological work, which is carried out either by himself or by a specialist in the field of textual criticism.

To work on the language and style of a work, it is very important to have a good knowledge of the language in which it is written, the basics of practical and functional stylistics.

But this is not enough to prepare the publication. It is necessary to know the typological features of publications, the basic requirements for them. First of all, this group of questions is important in the formation of the publishing repertoire. It often happens that before selecting a work for publication, the editor develops the concept of a future book. This concept is based on marketing research needs in certain publications, the ability of readers to purchase them, as well as the ability to offer the reader material that meets his needs.

Focusing on the concept of the book, the editor selects a work from previously published ones or orders the author to new job, having received which he develops a model of the future edition. It was then that the creative team of the creators of the book was formed, the leader and organizer of which was the editor. He also ensures the passage of the manuscript in the publishing house and in the printing house - the so-called editorial and publishing process, the result of which is the finished publication.

When developing the concept and model, the editor draws on the typology of the book, which allows you to determine the type and type of publication, based on the specifics of the subject, reader's address and intended purpose of the future publication. These features determine the requirements for a literary work, taking into account the characteristics of the types of literature and genres of works. When working on a literary work, the editor uses editorial analysis as one of the main methods, which involves not only an assessment of various aspects and elements of the manuscript, but also includes determining areas for finalizing the work, taking into account how the editor plans to publish it.

When preparing a publication for publication, editing is the main component of the editorial and publishing process. Often the editor has to work together with the author on the plan-prospect of a literary work, he is engaged in finalizing the text, determines the principles of illustration and design, as well as the creation of a reference apparatus for the future edition.

As an independent activity in the book publishing business, editing did not take shape immediately. This type of activity took shape as book publishing developed due to the need to provide certain operations, processes, and solve specific problems of publishing literature.

In Russia, editing did not have independent significance until the beginning of the 19th century. However, during the 17th-18th centuries, the preconditions for the allocation of this kind of activity were formed. The 19th century can be considered as a time when editing gradually acquires its own status, becomes an independent field of activity with its own goals, objectives, methods, and forms of work. This does not happen immediately, but in stages - in connection with the development of publishing and the complication of the repertoire of publications, the problem-thematic and organizational-functional structure of the publication of literature, as well as changes in the needs and interests of readers.

At that time, editorial and publishing activities were closely intertwined with the main directions of the social and national liberation movement in Russia and Europe, with the processes of formation and development of Russian culture.

But the experience of editing at that time was not yet generalized, and editors were not specially trained. Only in the middle of the 20th century, special knowledge in the field of editing begins to form, and many aspects of this knowledge are based on an analysis of the actual editing practice of the 19th century, and this century can be called a kind of factual base. modern theory editing. When substantiating the forms and methods of this activity, the variants of the editorial work of individual writers, editors, publishers are studied, and on this basis the theory and methodology of the activity itself is created.

The well-known historian of the book E.A. Dinerstein showed that during the 19th century the quantitative and qualitative composition readers. Until the 1950s, noblemen predominated in the total mass of consumers; in the post-reform period, the raznochintsy intelligentsia occupied a leading place among readers, and by the end of the century a new layer of readers from the peasant and working environment was sharply identified. This determines the attitude of publishers and editors to the published literature - they begin to take into account the specifics of the reader's perception.

It should be kept in mind that editing is a personalized activity. The personality of the editor determines his work on the work and introduces his own individual beginning into someone else's work. This is clearly seen in the materials that have preserved the edits of writers working on other people's manuscripts. For example, this becomes clear when analyzing Chekhov's revisions of several works by the authors.

All these aspects determined the selection of material to show the features of the development of editing in the publishing industry in Russia. The textbook discusses general issues and specific experience in preparing publications, editorial practice of publishers, writers, editors, which are important for characterizing the formation and development of editing as an independent field of activity. In addition, given general characteristics the work of a modern editor.

The structure of the material is not determined by the history of the development of the book business. The sequence of presentation is connected with the development of the actual editorial activity.

At the end of the 30s of the XX century, when the system of branch publishing houses that needed specialist editors was actively developing, the Moscow Polygraphic Institute (now the Moscow State University of Printing Arts) opened an editorial and publishing department. From that time on, the training of professional editors began. The theory of editing is also developing, including a system of knowledge about the regularities of the publishing process, preparation of publications, work on the text, etc.

Bibliological knowledge in the field of editing makes the first shakgi in the 20s of the twentieth century. Appear individual works, summarizing the experience of preparing the publication, discusses issues of language and style, and studies editorial and publishing activities. By the end of the 1950s and into the 1960s, an independent branch of book science was taking shape - the theory of editing. The composition, structure, goals, tasks, subject, object of science are justified. She is primarily associated with the names of N.M. Sikorsky, A.V. Zapadova, R.G. Abdullina, L.N. Kastrulina, E.A. Lazarevich, A.E. Milchin, K.M. Nakoryakova, V.I. Svintsova, B.G. Tyapkina, M.D. Feller, E.V. Schluper. In the 1970s and 1990s, certain areas of the scientific foundations of editing were developed. The features of the works are studied certain types literature, types and types of publications, considers the elements of publications and forms, methods, methods of their preparation, finds justification for the specific perception of the content of works and the possibility of activating this process, considers the problems of reading and the peculiarities of their satisfaction. In addition, they are studying Computer techologies in relation to the editorial and publishing process, the specifics of their use in the publishing business.

The discipline "Editing. General course" is an introduction to the system of disciplines of the editorial complex. Its task is to show how editing was formed during the development of book publishing, to reveal the directions of the editor's work, to identify the main milestones in the process of becoming editorial activity, to characterize the experience of the most famous figures science, culture, book business that contributed to this process.

This textbook was prepared at the Department of Publishing and Editing of the Moscow State University of Printing Arts. The textbook was prepared by a team of authors: Dr. philol. sciences, prof. S.G. Antonova (introduction, ch. 2-8), Ph.D. philol. sciences, prof. IN AND. Solovyov (Ch. 1, 11), Dr. philol. sciences, prof. K.T. Yamchuk (Ch. 9, 10).

Editorial work is most directly related to journalism. And even if the finished material in the future will pass through the hands of the editor of any publication or website, the author is simply obliged to pre-check it himself in order to exclude errors, typos, discrepancies, etc. That is why it will always be an advantage for a competent journalist to know the newspaper or publishing business, the features of turning a manuscript into a publication, the basics of modern printing technologies and techniques, and the economics of publishing. Based on this, we will talk about a journalist in this lesson as an editor. As a matter of fact, the lesson itself will be useful not only for journalists, but also for editors.

The editor is a person who is impeccably literate, knows the literary language perfectly, knows how to use all the abundance of lexical and stylistic means to make the text bright, understandable and interesting for the reader. The very concept of "editing" can be considered from the standpoint of its three main meanings:

Checking, correcting and processing text
Managing the publication of something (for example, editing and publishing a magazine)
Precise verbal formulation and expression of a particular concept or thought

Below we will talk in detail specifically about the literary editing of text materials.

Literary editing

Literary editing is a multifaceted process of working on text material that is being prepared for publication. It includes an assessment of the topic, checking and correcting the presentation, checking and correcting the development of the topic, and literary processing of the text. Let's dive a little deeper and understand the details of each of the components.

Topic rating

When evaluating a topic, it is necessary to get acquainted with the text and give a general assessment of the need for its publication. Here it is necessary to take into account the specifics of the publication or web resource where the text will subsequently be published, and the compliance of the text with the task solved by the author.

Theme Development

Under the development of the topic, one should understand the establishment of how comprehensively and objectively the facts, phenomena and events are considered in the text, how logical the presentation of the material is. It is very important to determine the solidity of conclusions, conclusions, generalizations and scientific provisions, as well as to understand whether it was possible to convey not only the appearance of the phenomenon or event under consideration, but also its inner essence. If the editor is not the author, he must check all quotations, figures and facts for accuracy. As a rule, this is quite enough to form a correct idea of the truth of the scientific and factual components.

Literary processing

Literary processing involves an assessment of the structure of the material, its volume, the nature of presentation, language and style. When evaluating the text, you should always pay attention to the composition of the text and the ratio of its individual blocks; check the text for exaggerations of secondary data, repetitions, complex lexical constructions; evaluate the sequence of material, etc. You also need to match the amount of material to the chosen topic, and, if necessary, reduce it. A huge role is played by the style and language of the work: only such works that are written in precise and clear literary language can be published.

The main stage of the process of literary editing begins when all the shortcomings mentioned above are eliminated. At the first test reading, the text, as a rule, is not corrected. In the margins of sheets or files, notes are simply made on the topic of the most gross lexical, stylistic, logical and semantic errors. At the first reading, it is convenient to determine the type of subsequent editing (we will talk about the types of editing later).

At the second reading stage, you can make edits, make corrections to the composition and eliminate logical inconsistencies, as well as analyze the title - evaluate its expressiveness and relevance to the content (the more the title matches the content, the better).

Text editing is creative work, and to a large extent it is determined by the individual style of the editor. However, such things as working on composition and text, eliminating semantic errors, checking factual material and choosing a title do not depend on individual style. The main task in the editing process is to improve the content and form of the text. And the point is to come to their unity.

Types of editing

High-quality editing will eliminate errors, achieve clarity and clarity of wording, check the factual data and eliminate inaccuracies, rid the text of the roughness of style and language. At the same time, changes should be made only if they are really needed.

Based on what changes the text undergoes during editing, four main types of editing can be distinguished:

Editing-Proofreading
Edit-cut
Editing-Processing
Edit-remake

Learn more about each type.

Editing-Proofreading

The meaning of proofreading is to compare the text with a more perfect original, identify technical errors and eliminate them. Editing-proofreading will be applied when editing:

Official materials (reports, resolutions, agreements, etc.)
Works of literary classics
Editions of historical documents
Reprints of books published without revision
Definitive (finally established) materials

If documentary or definitive texts are being prepared for publication or edition, the first thing to do is to make sure that they correspond exactly to the original or previous edition.

As for corrections specifically, they are subject to typos, spelling errors, typos without a semantic load (if necessary, you can make footnotes and give comments in them). Unfinished words are also added, abbreviations are deciphered. If texts of historical works or documents come across, they are given the features of modern graphics, however, the features of the environment or era (style, phraseological units, specific expressions, etc.) present in the text remain unchanged.

Edit-cut

When editing-reduction, the main task of the editor is to reduce the text, but without prejudice to its content. Reduction may be necessary for several reasons:

It is necessary to meet a specific volume (number of sheets, lines or characters). To effectively compress the volume, it is useful to use abbreviations of words, terms, names. In some cases (when the volume is limited to sheets or lines), you can simply use fonts of smaller sizes.
It is necessary to correspond to certain tasks facing the author or publisher. Thus, it is customary to reduce the volumes when publishing popular science, journalistic and artistic works, which are republished “under the requests” of a specific audience (children, students, non-specialists, etc.). The same technique is used in the publication of anthologies and collections (not all material is published, but the most important, interesting and useful for readers from the standpoint of the compilers).
There are shortcomings in the text, such as unnecessary details, repetitions, long lengths, lengthiness, a large number of examples or data of the same type, etc. The reduction here is a necessity, because a clearer and more rigorous compositional construction is achieved.

Editing-Processing

Editing-processing is used in editorial practice more often than other types. In this case, the editor corrects unsuccessful phrases and words, clarifies the wording and phrases, makes the construction of the work logical, adds more convincing arguments, and eliminates any signs of confusion. However, the subtlety of the author's style and style must be preserved, and if the author is not an editor, any changes must be approved. Any amendment must be scientifically and logically justified.

Edit-remake

Editing-alteration is relevant in cases where the editor is working on the work of authors who have poor command of the literary language. This type of editing is widely used in practice. newspaper work, and is also used in the publication of articles, memoirs, brochures. As in the previous case, the author's style should be preserved.

But, while working on the elimination of errors, the editor should not only make changes, but also constantly monitor the consistency of the presentation of the material, because the main provisions put forward by the author must be logically connected, and all transitions from one part to another must be regular and consistent. For this reason, it is important to have an understanding of the logical foundations of text editing.

Logical Foundations of Text Editing

As we said, the editor is obliged to pay attention to the consistency of the presentation of the material being prepared for publication. This suggests that the main theses in the text must be proved without fail, and the evidence itself must be reliable, substantiated and beyond doubt. Of course, formal logic will not rid the text of shortcomings and errors, but you will fully contribute to the systematization of the presentation, give it credibility and eliminate contradictions.

In some cases, the editor needs to check the set of evidence available in the text, strengthen it, get rid of unnecessary arguments, and also eliminate the substitution of theses if the text does not prove what was originally intended. Simply put, the editor needs to evaluate the consistency of the logical proof. The latter should be understood as the establishment of the reliability of one judgment through the presentation of other judgments, the truth of which cannot be doubted and from which the reliability of the original judgment being verified follows.

A logical proof takes place if three conditions are met:

There is a thesis - something that needs to be proven
There are arguments - judgments that prove the thesis at the proper level (before the thesis is proved)
There is a demonstration - judgments showing how the thesis is justified by the given arguments

If at least one of these conditions is not met, the proof will be inconsistent, because it will not be clear why, how and what is being proved at all. This topic requires a more detailed consideration, but taking into account the specifics of our course (after all, it is more intended for journalists than for editors), we will not delve into it, but move on to the more important part - the types of errors found in text materials.

The main mistakes when writing texts

In total, there are five main categories of mistakes made by authors when writing text materials:

Logic errors
Lexical errors
Syntax errors
Spelling mistakes

Let's see what their features are.

Logic errors

Logic errors fall into several categories. They manifest themselves in the composition of the text, unsuccessful development of the topic, argumentation, etc. The most common logical fallacies include:

Mutually exclusive concepts (when one sentence says, for example, that the sea was calm and smooth, and the waves were breaking on stones - a calm sea and breaking waves are concepts that exclude each other).
Displacement of the plan of presentation (inconsistency of presentation, unnecessary repetitions of proper names, linguistic negligence, lack of important details and so on.).
Incorrect establishment of causal relationships (when the proposal says, for example, that the process of loading and unloading operations is not mechanized at the enterprise, but loaders work in harsh conditions, because mechanization issues are difficult to solve - cause and effect contradict each other).
Incorrect comparison of facts / comparison of incomparable facts (when the text says, for example, that students are excellent at picking potatoes in the field, because they strive to improve, or when, for example, the work of traffic police officers is considered only in terms of the number of accidents on the streets of the city - the given facts cannot be compared, because logically they belong to different categories).
Substitution of theses (when the text begins, for example, with a conversation about the need to improve the quality of roads on city streets, and ends with assurances from the responsible person that additional restrictive signs will be installed in problem areas - the original thesis at the end is replaced by another one that is not directly related to first).
The lack of correspondence in the details of the events described (when the text, for example, says that in the northern and southern regions of Russia, the harvesting of potatoes, cotton and cereals is in full swing - each of the crops is harvested in different time, each of the cultures grows in different regions - it turns out that these details cannot be combined into one picture).

Logical errors entail a huge number of semantic errors, but there are cases when logical inconsistencies are applied by the authors on purpose. This technique is typical for parodies, pamphlets and feuilletons.

Lexical errors

Lexical errors are another common category of errors. Their main reasons are inaccurate word usage, unsuccessful use of winged words, idioms and phraseological units, linguistic carelessness and oversaturation of textual material. special vocabulary and concepts that may not be known to the general public

Grammar and stylistic errors

Among the most common grammatical and stylistic errors are the misuse of pronouns, the unsuccessful replacement of the plural of nouns by the singular, and vice versa, the misuse of the gender of nouns.

Syntax errors

Syntax errors are expressed in the wrong word order, violations of contiguity, agreement and control, as well as in the incorrect use of participial and adverbial phrases.

Spelling mistakes

Spelling errors consist of the wrong spelling of words. Their main feature is that they are practically not perceived by ear, but the quality of the printed text noticeably suffers. The most "popular" spelling mistakes are considered:

"Russifier", not "Russifier"
"Official" not "official"
"Russian", not "Russian"
"Polyclinic", not "polyclinic"
"Rossia", not "Russia"
"Download", not "download"
"Schedule" not "schedule"
"Reviews", not "Reviews"
"program" not "program"
"calculate" not "calculate"
"Do" not "do"
"Agency" not "agency"
"Thailand" not "Thailand"
"Cute" not "pretty"
"One", not "One"

It is also not uncommon to find the incorrect spelling of the words “also” and “same”, “why” and “for what”, “company” and “campaign”, “why” and “for what”, “in general” and “generally” and etc.

Many mistakes, whatever they are, are easy to avoid, regularly. But, of course, not everyone can be 100% literate, and therefore, when editing a text, you always need to pay special attention to it, and, if necessary, check it several times. Remember that your success and how seriously you will be taken by customers and readers depend on how correctly and competently your text is written. And as an excellent help when checking materials, you can use special programs for editing texts.

And to make the process of checking and editing text faster and easier, we will give you one more useful recommendation - build your editing work in three stages:

The first stage is a fluent - purely introductory reading, during which you evaluate the integrity of the material, its content, idea and manner of presentation.
The second stage is a slower and more in-depth reading during which you focus on all the paragraphs, sentences, words and signs. Here you analyze individual units of the text, correlate its parts with each other, work on detailing, correct all kinds of errors.
The third stage is the control reading. The text is re-read again, the uniformity of presentation, the correct spelling of the most complex elements, proper names, numerical data and dates are analyzed.

This completes the check, and if everything was done correctly and with a head, the finished material will meet all the literacy requirements. But still, we remind you once again that in case of doubt, the text is better once again check, because, as they say: "measure seven times - cut once."

Now we suggest you take a break from the practice of writing various journalistic materials and editing texts, and replenish your knowledge base interesting information. In the sixth lesson, we will again touch on the theory and talk about another very popular direction in our time - advertising journalism. The lesson will consider advertising journalism as a phenomenon, the main points of contact between journalism and advertising, as well as a brief classification of advertising journalism genres. But we will not bypass the practical component - the best formulas of advertising texts will be offered to your attention.

Test your knowledge

If you want to test your knowledge on the topic of this lesson, you can take a short test consisting of several questions. Only 1 option can be correct for each question. After you select one of the options, the system automatically moves on to the next question. The points you receive are affected by the correctness of your answers and the time spent on passing. Please note that the questions are different each time, and the options are shuffled.

In the world publishing practice, the concept of "editing" has taken root both as a scientific term and as the name of the subject of teaching at the relevant university faculties. At the special faculties of Soviet universities, "Literary Editing" was traditionally presented. For some reason, this name of the subject has been preserved to this day.

Domestic researchers of the theory and practice of publishing have started talking about the types of editing quite recently. Although there is no doubt that literary editing is only integral part universal editing.

IN scientific literature a whole range of editing options are now being considered. This, in particular, is general, literary, scientific, special, title. There is also linguistic, logical, compositional, psycholinguistic, computer, publishing, printing.

Let's highlight the main types of editing.

It is advisable to consider two main blocks of editing types:

general (universal);

special.

Consider the content of each of these blocks.

General (universal) editing

This type of editing provides for a holistic system of the editor's work on the original, which ensures its perfection in meaning, form and convenience for the reader (consumer).

The main components of this type of editing are:

1. Elimination of logical errors.

Typical logical errors:

a) mixing the order of presentation (It was raining and two students. One in the morning, and the other - to the university),

b) incorrect substantiation of the motivation for the action (At the all-Ukrainian conference of book publishers, the main issue was providing the city with new trolleybuses);

c) the presence in the sentence of concepts that mutually exclude each other (the gold medal was received by an outsider of the competition).

2. Elimination of factual errors.

a) historical nature (First World War started in 1924);

b) geographic nature (In the southern regions of Ukraine - Odessa, Kherson and Sumy regions - the collection of early grains began);

c) printed matter (the population of Ukraine today is about 48,000,000 million people);

d) "digital nature" (Out of 3,000 copies of books published, 2,500 were donated to libraries, 1,500 were transferred to higher educational institutions).

e) “visual” inconsistency (photograph by Alla Pugacheva with the caption “Kristina Orbakaite”).

The problems of subject matter, composition, author's position, and placement of political accents also belong to this editing block.

Special Editing

This block can be divided into the following subtypes of editing:

literary;

artistic and technical.

Literary editing.

The main purpose of this type of editing is the analysis, evaluation and correction of the literary part of the work. It is primarily about improving the language and style of the original, eliminating grammatical, syntactical and stylistic errors.

What criteria should an editor be guided by when choosing improvements to a work?

Criteria for choosing linguo-stylistic means:

Accessibility of the language to the appropriate group of readers;

Expressiveness, clarity of presentation;

Correspondence of the lexical series with the thoughts of the hero of the work or the author;

Correspondence of the style of presentation to the genre of a particular work.

Example. IN Lately publications of authors that were previously prohibited appeared on the book market. For the most part These are works that were written in the twenties and thirties. In the case of reprinting such works, the editor faces a difficult question: what spelling system to follow? Most publishers bring such texts into line with modern spelling, preserving the lexical, morphological and phonetic features of the author's language. Coordinating the punctuation of books with modern norms, however, the editors strive to preserve the basic character of the author's syntax.

4 Scientific editing

In some cases, given the complexity or archival importance of a publication that is being prepared for publication, it becomes necessary to invite a leading specialist in a particular field of science. Such a specialist in this case carries out scientific editing of the original. Its main task is to analyze, evaluate the work and correct inaccuracies from the scientific side.

The same is meant when some publications refer to title editing. The name of such an editor is put on the title page, which serves as a guarantee for the reader of the high quality and solidity of the publication.

According to the requirements of publishing standards, the name of the scientific editor is indicated on the title or on the back of the title page.

5 Artistic editing

Refers to varieties of special editing. It is carried out by publishers. The art editor in the publishing subsection, as a rule, is a specialist with a higher art and printing education.

The process of art editing includes: ordering the artwork for the publication, evaluation of sketches, test prints and elements of the artwork for the cover and content of the publication from the artistic and printing side.

Technical editing provides for a detailed embodiment of the artistic and graphic design of the publication in the material: technical parameters of typesetting and layout, typeface palette, font size, indents, descents, etc.

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