Judith Butcher (September 18, 1927 – October 6, 2015) was an editor and writer. She is best known as the author of ''Copy-editing: The Cambridge Handbook for Editors, Copy-editors and Proofreaders'', referred to throughout the English-speaking world as ‘''the'' definitive handbook on the subject’. She played a role in developing the emerging craft of

copy-editing Copy editing (also known as copyediting and manuscript editing) is the process of revising written material (" copy") to improve quality and readability, as well as ensuring that a text is free of errors in grammar, style, and accuracy. ''The Ch ...

into a fully fledged discipline and establishing it as an essential stage in the publishing process.

Cambridge University Press

For 20 years Butcher was 'chief subeditor' at the academic publishing house

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

(CUP). She set up and managed what CUP's former chief executive Dr Jeremy Mynott has called ‘the best subediting department of any in the English-speaking world’. The unreliable and costly tradition of trusting the printer's readers to pick up errors after typesetting was replaced by a methodical system of preparing manuscripts for typesetting and eliminating errors in advance. By personal example and using the growing file of notes that eventually became ''Copy-editing'', she trained scores of copyeditors, many of whom subsequently carried her principles and standards to other publishing houses and organisations in the UK and overseas.

Copy-editing: The Cambridge Handbook

Butcher turned her training notes into a house manual for CUP's copy-editors and later into the book published in 1975 by CUP as ''Copy-editing: The Cambridge Handbook''. It was the first copy-editing manual in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

and has remained the authority in its field for over 40 years. It has since been renamed ''Butcher's Copy-editing'' and is now in its fourth edition. When she retired from employment Butcher kept the book up to date, making extensive revisions to keep abreast of changes in publishing technology and procedures. However, the fundamental principles that she set out remain unchanged. The book set the standard for good editing practice and disseminated it throughout the UK, the English-speaking world and beyond: it has been translated into several languages. ''Copy-editing'' enabled standards to be maintained during the structural changes of the 1970s and 1980s, as publishing houses shed staff and turned increasingly to freelance copy-editors. Copy-editing is now predominantly a freelance occupation, and the book has provided guidance to generations of freelances without access to in-house training.

The Society for Editors and Proofreaders

It was to support the growing number of freelances that the Society of Freelance Editors and Proofreaders (now the

Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading Chartered may refer to: * Charter, a legal document conferring rights or privileges ** University charter ** Chartered company * Chartered (professional), a professional credential * Charter (shipping) * Charter (airlines) * Charter (typeface) * Cha ...

) was founded in 1988, and Butcher became its first honorary president. She attended almost every annual conference of the society and continued to nurture new copy-editors and proofreaders.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Butcher, Judith 20th-century English writers English editors 1927 births 2015 deaths