How to use Checklists to help with copy-editing

21/3/2021

How to use Checklists to help with copy-editing

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Sue Littleford recently wrote about using checklists in editing for The CIEP blog. I use OneNote for my checklists: it’s handy as it’s available on all my devices and I get to tick jobs off as I do them. I have a folder for each of my clients with a client-specific checklist in each, and I add a new page for each job.

I have a checklist for each editing job, that is specific to that client and, sometimes, specific to the particular job for that client. When a job arrives, I just copy and paste the latest list onto a new "page", clear the check-boxes and start working through them.

Items frequently appear on the checklist because of something that I forget to do, or didn't do well enough, in a previous job – see "Alphabetical order for refs", which is something that I frequently forget to check! Consequently, the lists for clients who I have worked with for a long time can be quite long ...

Checklists are also useful for keeping track of jobs that have many stages and involve other people – but only if you remember to keep ticking off the stages as you do them!

Author

Andrea at Yours Truleigh Editing.
www.yourstruleighediting.com