This volume contains all the known manuscript works of Jane Austen's adulthood, with the exception of the cancelled chapters of Persuasion, which are reproduced as an Appendix in the volume of Persuasion in the Cambridge edition. The manuscripts exist in many forms, and each is described in detail at the appropriate point in the volume.With the exception of ‘Lady Susan’ and some of the poems, none exists in a fair copy in Austen's hand. Some survive only in draft form, some in versions written down by others; some have come down to us in multiple forms. Because of the ‘occasional’ nature of the poems in particular, where they exist in more than one version we have chosen to reproduce the earliest complete text, while noting variants between this and any other versions in Austen's handwriting.

With the exception of the reading texts of ‘The Watsons’ and ‘Sanditon’ (see below) we have not changed Jane Austen's spelling, capitalization, paragraphing or punctuation; her idiosyncrasies and inconsistencies, which form part of the texture of her work, have been carefully preserved. We have however made no attempt to represent graphic features of the manuscripts, such as lines drawn above or below titles and chapter numbers. Jane Austen occasionally uses the long ‘s’; throughout we have regularized this to the modern ‘s’. Her use of quotation marks differs from modern usage; we have followed her various systems but, when opening or closing quotation marks have been accidentally omitted, they have been inserted.

Jane Austen's handwriting is generally clear and legible, but some ambiguities in the manuscripts cause difficulties in transcription. Since her indentations are often extremely slight, it is not always clear where a new paragraph begins. Many initial letters of words fall somewhere between upper and lower case, while commas cannot always be distinguished from periods. In such cases we have used our best editorial judgement, taking into account Jane Austen's practice in other manuscripts. The insetting of ‘Lady Susan’ into larger pages has sometimes resulted in the extreme right hand margin of Austen's original manuscript being no longer visible; here, and on other occasions of obvious accidental omission, we have inserted missing letters within square brackets.