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Guidelines for Ritza’s technical editors

Ritza’s editors are usually the final stop for our content before it’s delivered to the client.

The editor is responsible for ensuring all Ritza’s texts meet our minimum internal standards.

The writing we edit varies in style, tone, and technique, so the Ritza editor role is quite a particular one. To ensure consistency, our work encompasses proofreading, copy-editing, and some elements of mechanical and substantive editing.

Production timelines can be unpredictable, so our editors are likely to work under some pressure to meet deadlines.

Expectations

The Ritza brand depends on an editorial approach that is more heavy-handed than many other publishers. In addition to the standard expectations of technical editors (outlined below), our editors must:

  • Work fast.
  • Delete without fear: Be ruthless with fluff phrases, empty adjectives, and repetition.
  • Tighten and shorten wording; replace phrases with single words wherever possible.
  • Rewrite cumbersome, unclear, or ambiguous sentences. This may require checking in with the writer.
  • Focus on clarity and ease of reading as much as grammatical accuracy.

Ritza editors are expected to restructure sentences, paragraphs, or sections of a text when necessary.

The Ritza editor’s proofreading cheat sheet

These are the basics that need to be checked in every text:

  • Punctuation
    • Inline code in backticks
    • Always add a comma after an introductory clause
    • Always use an Oxford comma
    • Use double quotation marks
  • Abbreviations
    • Always replace Latin abbreviations with the appropriate English phrases
  • Brand names
    • Check brand names with unusual capitalization conventions
    • Make sure brand names are used correctly
  • Links
    • Check all internal and external links

Standard expectations of editors

Here's an outline of our standard expectations of the technical editor:

  • Familiarize yourself with the requirements of the client the content is produced for. If the client has a style guide, we’ll do our best to provide a link to it. In the absence of a style guide, visit the client’s website to establish what their style preferences are. Pay particular attention to:
    • Whether content is produced in American English (AE) or British English (BE). If there is no style guide or the website doesn’t give clarity, default to AE.
    • How titles, headings, and subheadings are capitalized.
    • Whether or not they use the Oxford comma.
    • Whether they use ~ise or ~ize – this isn’t as straightforward as it should be. Content produced in AE will consistently use ~ize, but content produced in BE could use either.
    • The Ritza style guide will also help you make editorial choices.
  • Double-check all brand names mentioned in the text and ensure that they are capitalized according to that brand’s specifications.
    • Ritza has a list of brand names that use unconventional capitalization practices, but it is by no means exhaustive. Please feel free to add to it if you’d like to.
  • Ensure spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, presentation of lists and tables, spacing, and heading styles are consistent.
  • Correct all grammatical errors and incorrect word use.
  • Remove tautological or filler words and phrases.
  • Fix repetitions.
  • Correct expressions used incorrectly.