Editing analysis constitutes a description of what copy editors do in their professional role (cf. Crystal, 1981, p. 18). Editors focus on language options. Changes they make in the original result from a focussed choice, rejecting the alternatives taken by the author. It seems justified to impute considerable significance to social factors which may correlate with an editor's choices - more than when the choice is among open alternatives, as it was for the original author.