Edit-Work.com: How To Create Editorial Procedures

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Create Editorial Procedures For A Web Site

What you need is a clear picture of the editorial production path, from assignment, to editing, to final posting.

Some of the questions that need to be answered: Who does the first edit? Who formats copy for the producer? How much or how little formatting is desired? Who's in charge of getting the various parties — writer, editor, management — signed off on pages, and at what stage do they each sign off? Who's in charge of the final QC approval?

Figure out all this and more, and write it down. Here and with the style guide, you'll most certainly deviate from the established procedures at times. But believe it or not, it's better to have a standard from which you're deviating!

Obviously, the editorial path is going to need fine-tuning and will vary immensely according to the site, especially for sites that use database content management. Here’s a basic standard from which many, many variations are possible.

First-level edit — Focus is on the piece as a whole. Does it work? Does it fit the assignment? Does it fit the site? Does it have a solid lead, a good conclusion, a workable structure, enough reporting, enough examples? Does it need cutting? Usually the assigning editor makes these determinations. If the piece needs rewriting or cutting, decide whether the editor will do it, or whether the writer will.
Rewrite edit — Not always necessary, obviously.
Copyedit — Now the focus narrows to the sentence and word level. Here you are shooting for consistent style, both within the piece and within the site. Add HTML coding for hyperlinks and for necessary text styles such as bold and italics. Keep a style sheet during this edit. You can spell-check the files as a way of checking for typos, but do not rely on the spellchecker. It will only catch words that are spelled wrong, and not words that are spelled correctly but are out of context. Do not use an electronic grammar checker. Use a real human copy editor, if you are not clear on grammar. If this is a new page, also add microcontent to the file.
Submit copy — The goal is to submit to the HTML producer exactly what he or she needs to produce the page as correctly as possible. In most cases you’ll likely submit a .TXT file that includes all the content that will show up on the page. Or, if the HTML page has a lot of copy on it, you might submit one file for each story, then another file for the microcontent. It is important to discuss this with the HTML producer and work out with him or her a procedure for copy submission that’s efficient, does not require extra work on anyone’s part, and is not likely to introduce errors.
Pages produced and posted on development site — This is important because the next edit level, essentially proofreading, needs to be done on the piece as it will appear to a reader. For this edit level, the copy editor can either look at the site and make change notations on a printed copy of the page, or he or she can have access to the HTML page and simply make changes on the computer. If you do it this way, though, there won't be any way to reconsider changes and there won't be any way to check and make sure all changes got made.
Proofread pages on the development site — Check marked-up hard copies against the Web pages to make sure all changes got made. Hand-check all links. Note: the first copyedit and the proofread are sometimes combined at this level into an editorial proofread. This works if the copy is short, or for copy updates, and may be the best way to make efficient use of a freelance copyeditor's time. If you go this route, it is critical that the editorial proofread take place before the site is made live.
User testing — If possible, this is a great time to get user feedback on how well the site performs and communicates. Check the usability section on the links page for more information on how to structure user tests.
Site goes live — Hopefully, everything's clean, but it doesn't hurt to take another look just in case something goes wrong with copy or links in the move from dev server to live server.