Description

Copyeditors are mostly words people. Even when we make extensive revisions to text, we often leave tables more or less intact. And yet it is tables that transform numbers into data and therefore matter a great deal to authors and readers. The heart of research is often in numbers. Scientists do not just observe: They measure and they count. If, as copyeditors, we are to do justice to our authors, we need put at least as much effort into tables as we do into text.

This 90-minute webinar will equip you to handle tables with confidence. The first step is to ascertain whether a table is indeed the best option. If it is, then you will learn how to copyedit each of its components, including the word table (or Table or TABLE), columns and rows, and footnotes and source notes. We’ll discuss how the major style manuals—Chicago, APA, AMA, and the CSE Manual—treat these components, as well as what they omit and what copyeditors can do in the absence of specific guidance.

Liberally illustrated with best practices and examples showing “before” and “after” versions of tables, the webinar will be useful to both seasoned copy editors and newcomers to the field. Once you’ve learned to convert tables from storage bins into display cases, you will never see them in the same light again.

Yateendra Joshi (he/him) has been copyediting technical documents, mainly research papers in the biological sciences, for more than 35 years and was a staff scientist for a decade before that. Yateen was certified as a Diplomate editor by BELS, the Board of Editors in the Life Sciences, St. Paul, MN, for displaying exceptional editorial proficiency. He writes often on topics related to copyediting and contributes regularly to Editage Insights on topics related to academic writing. Yateen also conducts training programs for researchers and academics and occasionally for copy editors and is a council member of EASE, the European Association of Science Editors; a member of the board of directors, BELS; and a member of the editorial board, Information Design Journal, the Netherlands. He has delivered several webinars as part of virtual conferences organized by ACES, the Society for Editing. Yateen was a reviewer for the chapter on tables and graphs in the 9th edition of the CSE Manual (2024).