Editing versus Proofreading: What’s the Difference?

The terms “editing” and “proofreading” are often used interchangeably. But really, they serve very distinct purposes and occur at different times during the writing process.

Editing happens continuously during copy drafting to improve overall quality and to ensure accuracy, clarity, consistency, and completeness. We check for English language and content issues, including verifying that your materials are written at an appropriate reading level for the audience.

Proofreading is the very last stage of the writing process; its purpose is to eliminate any errors.

What Our Editors Do

Our experienced editors have worked on a variety of documents, from websites to white papers, across a variety of industries, including oil and gas, finance, marketing, medical, and construction. We generally use the Associated Press Stylebook for basic rules and guidance on grammar, punctuation, word usage, style, and accurate writing. If you have an in-house style guide, we’ll follow it; we can also help you create one to ensure consistency across your documents.

The editing process starts with the basics:

• Correcting any spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors.
• Ensuring the word count adheres to the publisher’s or other requirements.
• Making sure the meaning of the text is clear.
• Ensuring the style is appropriate for the intended audience.
• Checking for legal issues like libel or breach of copyright.

Then we’ll move on to the more advanced editing stage, where we polish the copy with meticulous attention to detail. This phase includes:

• Ensuring consistency of tone, messaging, context, and nuance.
• Verifying information.
• Eliminating awkward phrasing.
• Rewriting and restructuring sentences and paragraphs to improve overall flow.
• Localizing your text with appropriate cultural references, idiomatic expressions, and spelling.

What Our Proofreaders Do

At The Writers For Hire, we know that human error has a way of sneaking in everywhere.

Once our editors have polished your text, our proofreaders will look at your copy with a  fresh pair of eyes. They’ll check for:

• Spelling and syntax errors.
• Complex errors such as misplaced modifiers, subject-verb agreement, and parallelism.
• Confusing words.
• Spelling inconsistencies where there is more than one way to spell a word.
• Punctuation errors.
• Poor word breaks or word divisions at the end of a sentence.
• Any text that is not in the right order (including page numbers).
• Errors in chapter titles, headers, and subheads.
• The accuracy of tables, graphs, or visual elements.

We Work on Large, Complex Editing and Proofreading Projects

At The Writers For Hire, we help businesses across a wide range of industries with their editing and proofreading requirements, no matter how complex or urgent. Past projects include editing and proofreading:

• Stakeholder engagement plans.
• Crisis communications materials.
• Annual reports.
• Investor presentations.
• ESG reports.
• Executive communications.
• External stakeholder communications.
• Public and policy outreach campaign copy.
• Regulatory and compliance communications copy.
• Speeches and presentations.
• Entire websites and blog copy.
• Op-Eds.
• Case studies.
• White papers.
• Trade editorials.
• RFPs.
• SOPs.
• Recruitment and training materials.
• Employee benefits materials.