While many people are familiar with the work of copy editors or even acquisition editors, fewer have experience with manuscript development. Developmental editing focuses on the rhetorical challenges of presenting information to particular audiences and often involves the following, sometimes overlapping, issues. In both commercial and scholarly publishing today, developmental editing is scarce. We read chapters, whole book manuscripts, query letters, and book proposals. Some topics that frequently arise include:

Accessibility / Interdisciplinarity. Many authors we work with are writing from several disciplines to readers in various disciplines. So we work on clarifying terminology, avoiding jargon when possible, and making the text more accessible to a somewhat broader readership than many academic books have sought in the past.

Concision. Eliminating redundancy and helping writers express their ideas as concisely as possible is especially important in today’s publishing climate.

Narrative Coherence. The issues listed above help to support coherence in the long manuscript, but authors frequently also need help in overtly articulating a narrative thread that helps their project cohere meaningfully. Deep in the forest of their research, teaching, and writing, book authors know each tree intimately but sometimes can use an editor’s perspective to help them see the forest as a whole.

Structure / Organization. We consider with the author whether the structure of the manuscripts best suits his or her purposes and how the overall organization of material or organization within chapters may be changed to better accomplish their goals.

Voice / Clarity. We work with authors to help them make the voice in the manuscript convey their argument well and reach their target audience clearly.

Writing Process. We address the process of writing for two reasons: to identify common problems and encourage scholars to see themselves as writers. Since an academic career includes such diverse activities, many professors are not in the habit of seeing themselves as writers. Yet, thriving in academia often depends upon successfully communicating research in prose. Learning about the routine writing processes of scholarly and other kinds of writers can help professors make a more productive space in their work lives for writing.

Social Support and Accountability. Authors tell us how valuable it is to them just to have an ear they know is waiting to hear how their work is going. Several set up regular meetings with us as a way of keeping themselves accountable for accomplishing their goals according to their own timetable. And we encourage the formation of writer’s groups and networks for the exchange of manuscripts among colleagues.