Writing for Grammar: Editing K to R

Killing orphans and marking up roughs.

kerning
Tighten spacing between the letters of a word.

kill
To order deletion of text or an illustration.

line editing
Editing copy for clarity, logic, and flow.

linespacing
Space between lines of text. Also called leading.

mark up
To put composition or editing instructions on copy or layouts.

MLA style
Editing conventions recommended by the Modern Language Association in the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing--the primary style guide used for academic writing in languages and literature.

monograph
A document written by specialists for other specialists.

orphan
The first line of a paragraph that appears alone at the bottom of a page. Compare to widow (later).

pass
Read-through of a manuscript by a copyeditor.

pica
A printer's unit of measure: 12 picas equal one inch.

point
A typesetting unit of measure used to indicate font sizes.

query
An editor's question.

ragged right
Text aligned at the left margin but not the right.

redline
On-screen or hard-copy version of a manuscript that indicates which text has been added, deleted, or edited since the previous version.

rough
A preliminary page layout, not in finished form.

rule
A vertical or horizontal line on a page.

running head
One or two lines of copy, such as a chapter title, set at the top of each page of a document. Also called header.