At Indiana University

Copyediting-L

Copyediting-L is a list for copy editors and other defenders of the English language who want to discuss anything related to editing: Sticky style issues; philosophy of editing; newspaper, technical, and other specialized editing; reference books; client relations; Internet resources; electronic editing and software; freelance issues; and so on. Carol Roberts started the list at Cornell University in December 1992 and passed ownership of the list to Beth Goelzer Lyons. Bill Blinn and Jane Lyle are the current list owners.

How to subscribe to Copyediting-L

• Create a message to listserv@listserv.indiana.edu.
• Leave the subject blank.
• In the message area type this message: subscribe copyediting-l Firstname Lastname, where
  -l is a dash and the lowercase letter "L", not the numeral "1".
  Firstname is your first name.
  Lastname is your last name.
• Delete any signature information. This is optional, but leaving the signature will cause the server to generate a somewhat perplexing error message.

Quick links

• Forget your password? Want to change your password? Here's how.
• The CE-L Welcome Message: How Copyediting-L Works.
• Indiana University maintains the CE-L archive.
• Copyediting-L maintains a directory of CE-L freelancers.
• The CE-L "Family Album" by Helen Glenn Court.
• Copyediting-L logos for use on your website.
• Many of us publish blogs.
• New subscribers receive two messages that are duplicated here for your convenience:
  General information from Indiana University.
  Copyediting-L-specific information from the list owners.
• Excessive quoting: Why it's a problem & how to edit
• On-line acronyms, smilies, and other such junk.
• Other useful information -- results of surveys conducted on-line.
• Memories of David Ibbetson -- Copyediting-L subscriber Jim Jones put together a short Powerpoint presentation about David Ibbetson. If you don't have Powerpoint, you'll need to download the free viewer from Microsoft's website.

Never send HTML or RTF e-mail to a list!

That's good advice. I would expand it to "never send HTML or RTF e-mail to anyone, period!" How can you turn off the junk? Follow the link to Gerald E. Boyd's explanation of why "pretty" e-mail is a bad thing and how you can keep your e-mail program from sending all that junk.

Editing & miscellaneous resources

• Diana Stirling's (2008) editing marks for PDF documents (Zip documents):
  Red set (with instructions; right-click and "save as")
  Black set (with instructions; right-click and "save as")
• View the style guides provided by subscribers.
• In July 2000, Kathy Frost put together a 24-page editing checklist "from my experience, a few friends, and the wonderful generosity of my CEL-mates." That file is now posted here in PDF format.
• Bryna Fischer's checklist form for writers and editors is here. (It's a tiny PDF.)
• MS Word macros that subscribers have found useful. (This takes you to a directory. Right click any file you want to save and choose "save target as". These are offered without warranty.)
• If you're annoyed by banner ads or you're concerned about "spyware" programs, here are some suggestions.
• The Copyeditors' Knowledge Base is available at www.kokedit.com/library.shtml. E-mail Katharine O'Moore-Klopf at editor@kokedit.com if you have information to be added to it.

Food for Thought and More Food for Thought

Now available for purchase from the CE-L store, Copyediting-L Gear: More Food for Thought, the second CE-L cookbook. A total of 96 editors from around the world contributed 225 recipes for this project. Want to know what recipes are in the book before you buy? Download a PDF of the recipe list here. (If you should find any errors in the cookbook after you purchase it, please e-mail CE-Lmate Katharine O'Moore-Klopf at editor@kokedit.com so that corrections can be made.)

More than 50 editors from around the world contributed their favorite recipes to Food for Thought, the first CE-L cookbook. CE-Lmates are working on making it available for sale through Copyediting-L Gear. Meanwhile, you may download the book, print it, and sell copies to raise money for any charity.

View this file for a quick review of the project:
Download fd4thot.txt -- the text file that contains information about how you may use Food for Thought. (7K)

Download these files for use with Adobe Acrobat:
Download cookfrnt.pdf -- the Food for Thought front matter Acrobat file. (100K)
Download cooktext.pdf -- the Food for Thought text Acrobat file. (589K)
NOTE: The two main files are in Adobe Acrobat format, version 2.1.

Download these files if you want the book in PostScript format:
Download cookfrnt.zip -- the Food for Thought front matter PostScript file. (ZIP - 318K)
Download cooktext.zip -- the Food for Thought text PostScript file. (ZIP - 1,560K)

Main page • General information from Indiana University
Copyediting-L information from the list owners
Blogs by CE-L subscribers • Directory of CE-L Freelancers
Style guides contributed by subscribers • Changing your password
How to kill spyware and ads • Other useful or interesting topics
MS Word macros

Except as noted, by William F. Blinn. All rights reserved.