What is substantive editing?

Source: Indiamart

In substantive editing (also known as developmental editing and comprehensive editing), the editor considers a document’s concept and intended use, content, organization, design, and style. The purpose is to make the document functional for its readers, not just to make it correct and consistent.

Substantive editing is almost entirely analysis-based, whether at the document level or at the paragraph, sentence, or word level. Decisions require judgement, not just the application of rules, and therefore should be negotiable with the writer.

Contrast this work with copyediting, most of which is rules-based and concerned with grammar, spelling, punctuation, and other mechanics of style and the internal consistency of facts and presentation. Both types of edit are essential; they just focus on different issues. (See also my article on classifying editorial tasks.)

A substantive edit deals with the overall structure of the publication:

~Does it all fit together into a coherent whole?

~Is the order of presentation logical (from the target audience’s point of view)?

~Is all the necessary information included, and unnecessary information deleted?

~Are the retrieval aids (table of contents, internal headings, index) useful? Do they contain terms that are useful to the target audience?

~For online materials (such as CD-ROM or Web sites), are the navigation aids logical and useful in context? Can users easily find the links they want?

Substantive editing may involve restructuring or rewriting part or all of a document.

A related edit is the language edit, which is concerned with how ideas are expressed. For example:

~Sentence complexity and use of active or passive verbs

~Conciseness

~Clear, logical development of ideas

~Use of jargon or technical terms appropriate for the intended audience

(Much of the language edit is a subset of work generally considered to be copy editing, but it may also be done as part of substantive editing.)

(Source: jeanweber.com)