Preparing Copy

When preparing text to turn over to an editor or a designer, the following steps will expedite the process:

• Make sure there are no double spaces after punctuation marks or anywhere else.
• Make sure all quotation marks and apostrophes are "smart" (curly).
• Flush left the first paragraphs following headlines (our house style).
• If the publication is a newsletter or one of a series, follow the style of previous ones about whether other paragraphs are indented or block style.
• Indicate headline levels with the tags a-head, b-head, c-head, etc. If there is only one level, boldface the headlines.
• Label captions and copy that will be called out from the text.
• Insert boilerplate statements (see "statements to include in University publications").
• With newsletters, mark up a copy of the previous printing to show what needs to be picked up. Corrections don't have to be marked in boilerplate text (can be done at the galleys stage) unless they will affect space significantly.
• Code notes to the editor or designer, if any, in such a way that they will not be mistaken for text.
• If a document has Greek symbols and other special characters that may not translate in converting software, highlight these on a hard copy.