The difference between copyediting and proofreading
Obvious perhaps, but as times have changed from print to digital so has the role of an editor. Once the domain of print publications (magazines, newspapers, books and journals), now jump on Seek or LinkedIn and you’ll find all manner of media editors, including content, audience and social media editors.
So, when you’re outsourcing a content project, what services do you need and how do you tap into the right level of editorial expertise?
For business content, Red Pony focuses on 3 stages of editing, of which copyediting and proofreading are the final stages. (An additional stage is line editing, often associated with booking publishing, because it focuses on linguistic fluency, nuance and tonality.) Here’s a quick refresher:
1. Structural editing (aka developmental or substantive editing) is big-picture content editing, which considers everything from narrative to perspective and structure to style. It might involve revising an early draft of a text, reworking the macro structure or making significant content changes.
2. Copyediting concentrates on clarity of meaning in sentences and paragraphs. A copyeditor checks for spelling and grammatical errors, repetition and style inconsistencies, while optimising syntax and adhering to agreed style guides.
3. Proofreading is a meticulous check of the final draft of a text for any remaining errors, misplaced punctuation, spelling mistakes and typos. It’s also the final review of formatting, such as tables, line spacing, footnotes and page numbers.
Copyediting and proofreading are the polishing and buffing stages in the editing process for gold-standard readability.
Copyediting checks for errors in grammar, spelling and punctuation, but also the following:
technical consistency with an agreed style guide
factual accuracy
legal liability
narrative inconsistencies or repetition.
Proofreading is the last review before a piece of content is considered complete. Where possible, proofreaders should not copyedit the same document, instead providing a fresh set of eyes to check for inaccuracies. A proofreader’s role can also be enhanced but never replaced by using editorial software like PerfectIt which runs a series of checks for common errors and inconsistencies for an additional level of quality assurance.