How We Edit: The Palimpsest Editorial Process

Every essay we publish goes through two full edits, a fact-check, and a final proof before it reaches subscribers. This post describes that process. We publish it because a reader-funded magazine depends on trust, and trust is easier to give when you can see how the work is made.

A typical piece takes three to five weeks from commission to publication. Here is what happens in that time.

The structural edit

The first edit looks at the piece as a whole: the argument, the structure, the evidence. The editor and the writer agree on what the essay claims and whether the draft earns that claim.

Questions we ask at this stage:

• What is the piece arguing, in one sentence?
• Does every section serve that argument, or is some of it a different essay?
• Where does a general reader need more context, and where are we over-explaining?
• What does the piece assert that we have not yet verified?

The line edit and fact-check

The second pass works sentence by sentence: cutting repetition, replacing jargon, tightening transitions. In parallel, a fact-checker verifies every date, name, quotation, and statistic against a primary source.

We do the line edit in a different format from the draft — printed out, or read aloud. A familiar page hides its own errors; changing the format makes them visible again.

What we cut

Most editing is cutting. Our working rules:

1. Cut the opening paragraph and check whether the piece still works. It usually does.
2. Cut every sentence that restates the sentence before it.
3. Cut any claim the writer cannot source. If the claim matters, we find the source; if it does not, the claim goes.

Corrections

When we get something wrong, we correct the piece, date the correction, and note it at the bottom of the page. We do not silently edit published work.

We keep every draft of every essay. The record of what changed between versions is how we hold ourselves to the standard above.

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For how pieces are formatted on the page, see our guide to formatting conventions. For how the archive is organized, see our guide to tags.