About

What is radical copyediting?

The concept of radical copyediting is based on the fact that language is not neutral. Through language we communicate values, maintain norms, and dictate what’s possible. Words matter: they can be used to harm or to heal; to perpetuate prejudice or imagine a different world; to oppress or to liberate.

Copyeditors help authors and publishers ensure that their work is clear, consistent, and understandable, using grammar rules, dictionaries, style manuals, and other tools. A radical copyeditor does all that and also helps people align their words with their values, bringing forward awareness and sensitivity in terms of how norms around race, class, ability, gender, sexuality, age, and more show up in language.

Radical copyediting helps language live up to its most radical potential—serving the ends of access, inclusion, and liberation, rather than maintaining oppression and the status quo.

My story

Hi! My name is Alex Kapitan and I am a radical copyeditor.

I was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the same year as the Macintosh personal computer, putting me at the tail end of the Xennials—a cultural cohort that bridges Generation X and Millennials—meaning I have misplaced nostalgia for things like typewriters and card catalogs, which I learned to use but never learned to loathe.

As a genderqueer person, I have had to quite literally write and speak myself into existence—forcing language to make room for me within a culture that does not want to admit that there are people who are neither male nor female. As a queer person, I’ve experienced the versatility and mutability of language firsthand, marveling as a single word changes shape and meaning depending on who says it, who hears it, and the context in which it is spoken.

My love of copyediting began in the early 2000s during an internship with South End Press, a majority women of color–run book publishing collective that is sadly now defunct, where I came to believe that publishing could be a form of activism. Since then I have endeavored to use my nerdy word powers to create positive change in the world.

My values

I believe that language matters, and that those of us who are working to manifest a better, more just world have a responsibility to use language in ways that describe the world we are working to create, rather than unconsciously perpetuating bias and prejudice.

Some words are intentionally used in ways that add more violence to the world and/or maintain oppression. Other words are used without any active awareness, and maintain the status quo by unconsciously promoting mainstream values and norms. Still others are used in intentional ways that foster awareness, equity, and liberation. This is the way that I strive to help others utilize language.

Learn more about radical copyediting and what I do!

Support my work

All of the content on this site is available free of charge because I want to help as many people as possible use language in liberatory ways, and I also value the chance to learn from those who comment on my blog posts. If you find my work helpful, please consider supporting me!