Article Vault
These articles cover the parts of writing and editing that have published answers: what a press asks for, what a style manual settles, what a journal requires before it will read a submission, and what an editor may and may not do. Every checkable claim carries a source, and where nobody has published an answer, the article says so.
Manuscripts and books
What publishers ask for, in what order, and how a book is assembled before anyone reads the prose.
- How to Structure Your Manuscript for Maximum Impact The proposal, the order of the parts, and what has to be complete before a press begins.
- Common Editing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them The costly errors are about order and scope, not about commas.
- What an Editorial Letter Actually Says, and How to Read One Three kinds of finding, and why treating them all as instructions costs a draft.
- Why a Memoir Needs a Fact-Check and a Novel Does Not The warranty an author signs, and the three inventories an editor can build against it.
Academic and student work
What an institution permits, what a committee checks, and where a proofreader's authority ends.
- Proofreading Tips for Academic Papers Who decides what a proofreader may touch, and how that permission is recorded.
- What Your University Actually Permits an Editor to Do to Your Dissertation The rules are local, published, and not the same at any two institutions.
- Where Language Editing Ends and Authorship Begins Four criteria, why editing meets none of them, and what has to be recorded instead.
Craft and style
Sentences, dialogue, and clarity, and where the published conventions end and a decision begins.
- Polishing Dialogue in Fiction Where the published conventions govern, and where the author decides.
- Improving Clarity and Flow in Nonfiction Writing Two federal definitions of clear writing, and what they make checkable.
- Which Style Manual to Use, and What Actually Changes If You Pick the Other One Six places the manuals disagree, and who chooses between them.
Accuracy and correctness
Grammar, punctuation, and the errors that survive every automated check.
- Grammar and Punctuation Checklist What a checklist can settle, and what it cannot.
- Common Typos and How to Catch Them Why a spell checker cannot see the errors that matter most.
- Why Your Word Processor's Grammar Checker Disagrees With Your Publisher The software was never the authority. It was standing in for one.
Business and regulated documents
Documents whose wording, order, and format are set by a regulator rather than by a house style.
- Plain English Is a Legal Requirement in American Finance, and This Is the Exact List Six requirements, three covered sections, and a rule in force since 1998.
- A Product Label Is a Regulated Document, and Editing One Is Not Copywriting Fixed wording, fixed order, fixed type size, and what is left to edit.
- Engineering Reports That an Expert Witness Will Have to Defend What a document review finds that a technical review cannot.
- Regulatory Submissions Fail on Format More Often Than on Science Sixty days, a required order, and a comprehensive index that has to match.
- Insurance Policy Wording and the Doctrine That Punishes the Drafter Four faults that create uncertainty, all checkable without a coverage opinion.
- Real Estate Listings, Fair Housing Language, and the Words That Are Not Allowed The famous word list stopped being a regulation thirty years ago.
- Writing a Procedure Someone Can Follow at Two in the Morning Four faults that make a procedure unusable, all visible on the page.
- What the FTC Considers a Claim, and How Marketing Copy Becomes One by Accident Three ways ordinary copy becomes a regulated claim.
Preparing to submit
The last pass before a manuscript goes to a journal, a press, a committee, or a competition.
- Final Proofreading Before Submission The final pass is measured against someone else's published requirements.
What editing costs
Published rates, what each level of work buys, and how a quotation is put together.
- What Editing Costs in the United States, by Level, by the Word, and by the Hour The published rates, level by level, and how to read them.
EditFast charges by the word: 3¢ to proofread, 3.5¢ for a light edit, 4¢ for a medium edit and 5¢ for a heavy edit, with a $50 minimum. What each level covers and what a full manuscript costs, or estimate your own.
Looking for a specific answer instead? Questions, answered groups the common ones by who is asking.