Queries and comments: How to do them right
With a developmental or substantive edit of written material, you’ll likely be embedding queries. Industry jargon for “questions about something that seems unclear,” queries are comments you add to the document to obtain more context from the author, so that you can, in turn, decide what edit to make.
Here are three things to keep in mind when writing queries that yield more clarity and help maintain a positive relationship with the author.
Explain your question.
Believe it or not, I’ve been the second pair of eyes on documents where editors simply highlighted the text in question and added a comment bubble asking, “What does this mean?” or even, “This is confusing.”
This approach is abrupt, and it only compounds the confusion. The author, whose prose made perfect sense to them when they wrote it, may be puzzled or offended. What is the part you don’t understand? Don’t be a lazy editor. Explain the question in a way that is helpful and friendly.
For example:
“Did you mean [insert most likely interpretation] here? If so, how about [suggested rephrase for more clarity] to make it even clearer to the reader?”
“This is a subtle point, so I wanted to clarify whether it’s part of your first section, or transitioning to a new topic.”
“That’s a striking statistic. Do you have the original research report link?”
Don’t forget, as an editor you may be looking at copy all day, every day, but the writer may be a subject matter expert who doesn’t compose text very often. If the author is using AI tools as well, this can add a layer to the editor’s process of teasing out their meaning and clarifying their voice.
I’ve never worked with an author who wasn’t happy to have these types of questions asked politely, as it leads to their meaning being expressed more specifically for the reader.
Clarify style points.
Let’s say you’re working with a new author on an article for a trade publication (and you anticipate working with them again). There are probably a lot of house style edits you’ll be making, and if you feel it’s beneficial for the writer to file them some of them away for future reference, you can share that detail in a comment.
For example:
“This is great detail here, but the column has to come in under 700 words because of our layout. I’ve removed this paragraph, because I felt it was most important to keep your high-level description of the program.”
“FYI, our style is to always link to the sources of any statistics. Would you please add the links to where you found these, so the reader can click through?”
In addition, you shouldn’t be afraid to use a touch of humor when you’re querying or explaining why you made an edit. Everyone likes to know there’s a person behind the pedantry, which brings us to:
Know that it’s OK to be informal.
Well, it depends on who the author is. You probably want to keep it very professional if you are editing the CEO’s speech. But if it’s a writer with whom you have an existing relationship, queries are actually an opportunity to relax a little and to be pleasant and authentic with a fellow human.
I’ve worked on articles where I’ve commented things like, “This is so cool! I never knew that historic tidbit,” or “Putting this park on my weekend itinerary.”
While you don’t want to litter every manuscript with personal comments that will have to be individually deleted, popping a friendly note into the draft, if it feels natural to do so, adds a personal touch and is implicit praise to the author for bringing an interesting detail to the fore.
Queries are a conversation.
When you use queries and comments, you are obtaining or sharing information, but that’s not all. You are engaging in conversation with the author, and the rules of courtesy in conversation apply. Editors come up against frequent deadlines and can often feel rushed, but that’s no excuse for being curt or not providing sufficient context in your question.
Over the years, I’ve seen how much better my editor-author relationships are when I take the time to step back and consider how my comments will be read.
Little things can have a big impact—be kind to authors, and they will respond. The final product will be more polished for the reader, and your future projects with that author or topic will go more smoothly.