The role of a subeditor, or sub, is to check content prior to publishing. This includes grammar, spelling, tone, style and, where possible, facts.
In essence, these vital cogs in the communication machine make copy readable and reliable, and contribute to Flow’s reputation for producing quality content.
Knowing that we have a strong backstop in our subs doesn’t mean, however, that writers should become careless or lazy. To help iron out common copy flaws, here are 10 simple checks that will improve your writing and ensure that it is as clean as possible before it goes for subbing.
1. Spellcheck
Always spellcheck all copy before uploading or sending to subs. This is why it’s never a good idea to write directly to website back ends, as there is no spellcheck facility and errors creep in.
However, a spellchecker is a tool – and nothing more. It can’t vet grammar and punctuation, or meaning. A good writer will never rely solely on a spellchecker to ensure that his or her copy is clean.
2. Quotes
When quoting someone else, double quotation marks are used to indicate this to the reader: “It is hot today,” said Mary. If you are quoting part of a quote, the full stop goes outside of the quotation marks: Mary said it was “hot today”. If you need to put something in inverted commas within a quote, you use single quote marks: Mary said, “It is the hottest day since ‘Deadly Summer 2014’ in Australia.”
3. Image captions and credits
Publications and many organisations have their own style guide for captions and credits. Know what the style/format is and stick to it.
4. Style guide
Each client’s content follows a specific style guide, which dictates the way in which certain words, terms or names are always written. To non-writers this often seems pedantic and unnecessary, but the purpose it serves is to standardise content across print and online, reinforce brand identity and promote professionalism. If you are going to be writing a lot for a specific client, you need to familiarise yourself with their style guide. If content is ad hoc, the sub will ensure that it conforms.
5. American spelling
Most computers default to US spelling (color, realize, aluminum) so it’s important to check your spelling by setting language to English UK/South Africa and take a few seconds to run a spellcheck. Quite a large proportion of work sent through to subs is littered with spelling mistakes and typos – that is what spellchecks can eliminate.
6. Lose the capitals
There is an inexplicable desire among many organisations to unnecessarily use capital letters that verges on a “when in doubt, capitalise” mentality. For the record, capital letters are used for: starting a sentence, proper nouns such as names, surnames or names of places, and full designations (Professor Ernest Smith, Dean of Humanities, Free State University – NOT John Jones, Head of the Fireworks Committee).
7. Check names and places
Get all names correct. People’s names, names of organisations and names of events are often misspelled or incorrectly attributed – and nothing undermines a piece’s credibility like an incorrect name. All you need to do is Google the person or organisation or event, or search for the original website to make sure the name/place is correctly spelled. The same applies to government departments and designations.
8. Headlines
Flow style is to use sentence case for headlines (Maropeng celebrates a new fossil find) rather than title case (Man Bites Dog) or capitals (TABLE MOUNTAIN WINS AWARD). Although some websites are formatted to show headlines in capitals, that shouldn’t stop you from using sentence case on the back end (BE); in fact, it’s good practice to do so – if the organisation ever rebrands, or gets a new website, it may want sentence case. In which case, all past pieces will already be in style. CSS style sheets take care of this (formatted to show headlines), not the writer.
9. Paragraph spacing
Another simple, seemingly obvious one, but often there are extra lines between paragraphs, or no space at all between paragraphs that have to be fixed, and they mess with the formatting on upload. It’s all about attention to detail.
10. Check facts
Don’t believe all you hear or read, and make a point of checking facts or claims made by clients. A typical example might be, “We are the best insurance company in South Africa” – according to whom? Based on what fact or empirical study? What does “best” even mean? Best service? Best premiums? If such a claim is made, for example, “The Edward is one of Durban’s top-five hotels,” then you need to qualify the claim by saying “according to a March 2016 TripAdvisor survey” and link back to the source. As you can see, this adds credibility to the claim, as it has been backed up.