Copy-Editing Corner observes that a core skill for a copyeditor is that she should be able to quickly grasp the total meaning of the piece being edited.

“If there is to be any editing beyond simple punctuation and grammar fixes,” the blog observes, “the copy editor has to grasp what is happening in the article.”

This is obvious enough (and no less important for that); but it is related to an underlying point which might be less obvious. This underlying point is that understanding a text requires breaking out of the hermeneutic circle: that is, we have to navigate the interdependence of the meaning of the whole and meaning of the parts.

To understand the whole we must understand the parts (obviously); but to interpret the parts correctly we also have to have understood the whole.

The mass of unstated knowledge that is shared by reader and author is what bridges this gap. But when the quality of a draft text is such that it doesn’t allow the reader or editor to apply this shared knowledge – then things get interesting . . . .