Category Archives: Copy editing

First impressions or assumptions based on the words we use

Posted on January 18, 2016 by Michelle Corbin

I love the Nielsen Norman Group articles. Their tag line summarizes their style of writing well: “Evidence-Based User Experience Research, Training, and Consulting.” Their articles are focused, on a single topic, and they always include inline links to other articles … Continue reading →

Posted in Copy editing, Language, Terminology, Writing | 2 Comments

Standard English is built from agreed-upon conventions

Posted on January 15, 2016 by Michelle Corbin

I’m busily preparing a course for the UCSC Silicon Valley Extension Technical Communication certificate program. It is “Grammar and Style for Technical Communicators.” I’ve chosen three (yes, three!) textbooks, and I continue to find wonderful articles across the bloggersphere and … Continue reading →

Posted in Copy editing, Grammar | Comments Off on Standard English is built from agreed-upon conventions

The value of edit summaries

Posted on January 8, 2016 by Michelle Corbin

After you complete an edit, do you take the time to review your edits as a whole and write an edit summary for the author? Or, is this (or some part of this) just part of your email that you … Continue reading →

Posted in Copy editing, Substantive editing, Technical Editing | 2 Comments

Use strong headings to lead readers to your content

Posted on August 25, 2015 by Michelle Corbin

Listicles, articles or blog posts that include a numbered list of “things,” get more readers. People love lists. They are scannable, they are memorable, and they are sharable. Perhaps one reason people go to these listicles is because they often … Continue reading →

Posted in Copy editing, Information Architecture | Comments Off on Use strong headings to lead readers to your content

Receiving editing…it’s like love

Posted on August 12, 2015 by Michelle Corbin

The title of this blog post is a partial quote from the article, “The Better Angels of Our Writing: Good copy editors can save us from ourselves” by Rachel Toor. Here is the full quote (paragraph): My experience of receiving … Continue reading →

Posted in Copy editing | 2 Comments