Of the ~150 Professional Editorial Standards, only about 6 have to do with spelling & grammar (in yellow). We can even include homonyms and mondegreens (in beige), to raise that count to 10. Still, that’s not even 0.1% of the standards!
Here is the wording of those standards highlighted in yellow & beige:
- E2.1 Query, or correct if authorized to do so, inconsistencies and errors
(e.g., in spelling, punctuation, facts, visual elements, navigation elements, metadata). Use judgment about the degree to which such queries and corrections are called for
(e.g., different browsers format text differently, so there is no point in marking hard word breaks or table column measures in web content). - A3.1.d Copy editor: Copy editing corrects spelling, usage, grammar, and punctuation, and maintains consistency within the text.
- A13. As an editor, you are expected to have a strong knowledge of grammar, spelling, punctuation and usage.
- C1.4 Resolve ambiguity (e.g., misplaced modifiers).
- D1.1 Correct errors in grammar (e.g., lack of subject–verb agreement, incorrect pronoun case).
- D1.2 Correct errors in punctuation (e.g., comma splices, misplaced colons, incorrect apostrophes). Know when exceptions can be made
(e.g., in fiction or advertising copy). - D1.3 Correct errors in spelling
(e.g., typographical errors, errors arising from homonyms). - D1.4 Correct errors in usage
(e.g., words commonly confused, such as imply/infer; incorrect idioms and phrases, such as doggy-dog world for dog-eat-dog world). - D2.3 Resolve variations in terminology, logic and mechanics
(e.g., spelling, numbers, abbreviations). - D3.4 Identify and query any spelling or grammar errors within quotations to ascertain whether they were errors in the original text.
AIs (GPTs) are getting better at correcting spelling and grammar. Can they tackle any of the remaining 99.93% of editing concerns? Read the full standards at Editors Canada.
