Carets and moving text

I know we're not suppose to post, but I consistently run into this problem when copy editing: moving a piece of a sentence after striking something. I usually need to add a word or two, so where do I insert it? Do I insert it in the text that is moving or where the text is going to move?

Images, Charts, Graphs

I just finished reading a book that featured numerous image figures. How do copy editors usually handle figures, charts, diagrams, illustrations, etc.? Is this normally a text editor's responsibility? Or do images fall in the bailiwick of the layout artist or graphic designer?

List formats

So I have another question about list formats. While doing the test, it had occurred to me that the list in the email was set off from the body text whereas test one flushed them left. I retained the authors' page setup. I also resorted to Pat's boldface and period scheme. The boldface I can understand (I use it in my assignment design and have been advised to use it by several professors, including Jim Henry, a technical writing guru). But why periodize the list instead of the double hyphen? Is there a rule in some ur-style text like the Chicago Manual? Is it an in-house rule? Is it up to the editor's discretion? Are the periods clearer than the double hyphen? I think they are, but the authors clearly didn't think so (of course, I don't know how much credence I would give them at this point).
I should have asked this last week, before I handed in the exam, because it has been bothering me.

"For" as a Coordinating Conjunction

What are the stylistic conventions of using "for" as a coordinating conjunction:

I left early, for I felt sick.

They hired him, for his application was superior to the other applicants.


I ask this because I used to employ this technique a lot when I was younger. I stopped for three reasons: it did not see like a commonly used; it seemed like a cheap transition; it stilted the prose in some cases. I am wondering what copy editors or editors think about this construction?

Another "that" question

This question represents the opposite of the "that that" topic. I am wondering about the disappearance of "that" in certain clauses.

For example:
He said I had to meet him later

As opposed to

He said that I had to meet him later.

(Better examples abound, but I think [that] you get the idea)

I was always under the impression [that] the second example was correct, or at least, more formal. My Latin professor always obliged us to use that in our translations, even though colloquial usage said otherwise.

Is this variability a question of style--standard versus formal--or is the second typology obsolete?

Question on diction . . .

I've been thinking a lot about diction lately, especially after the last assignment. I found myself excising nearly everything. I am assuming that few manuscripts would need such a profound overhaul, but what if a manuscript has a lot of annoying passive constructions. Perhaps these constructions do not read awkwardly, but do stick out. Could a copyeditor justifiably fix them? I suppose a better question: would a copyeditor spend the time?

Em-dashes

My question is kind of niggling, actually. I believe I may have missed it in class: For an em-dash, is it always necessary to indicate with the appropriate mark (1/M, my best approximation)? Or does it only apply when the word processing program fails to convert the -- into a long dash? Or have I reversed this dilemma? It actually would seem easier to me if the author or editor left the m-dash as a --.

(from Ryan)