Proofreading or editing? This is probably the largest debate for writers. Many people get conflicted on what should they choose for their document. Most of them don’t fully understand what each of these two imply. What happens in editing and what does a proofreader do? All of these are questions that sprout in their minds and make it difficult for them to decide: what sort of service would work best for them. To be of help we will explain to you all that there is to know about editing and proofreading. After reading the blog you will surely be able to decide what you must choose for your script.
What Is Editing?
Editing is known to be a difficult job. Editing is the act of studying a document deeply and trying to identify all sorts of mistakes in it. That may sound simple but there is a lot of action going on underneath. Editors spend a lot of their time doing several things in the name of editing. Editing is not just a single phenomenon there are different types of editing that that editors offer according to the needs of the document. But the main aim of editing is the correction of grammar follies, spelling errors, structural mistakes and improvement of the content quality. Let’s take a closer look at all the different types of editing:
Developmental Editing
This type of editing is best suited for books or for extensive research papers. In this type the editor is there with you from day one. They work simultaneously with you, while you write. They perform many different actions such as they help you make a lay out of the document, gather ideas and arrange them in a chronological order as per the demands of your script. The developmental editors edit your work holistically. They observe whether you have made your arguments properly or if you have left out important details. In this type of editing the editor focuses on the bigger picture and makes sure that all the different segments work well with each other. If not then they make the necessary corrections to make sure it does.
Evaluation Editing
In this form of editing, the editor evaluates your work. They check the quality of the content along with the structure and flow of the script. These types of editors do not make any major changes but highlight all the issues that they see in the flow. They give you suggestions about the editing type that you should use. It is difficult for people to identify what sort of editing they need so the evaluation editor provides you with a summary of all the mistakes in your work and suggests the steps you should take next.
Substantive Editing
Substantive editing is a bit more detailed. This type of editing reads you work from paragraph to paragraph and scrutinizes if they are linked to each other and make sense. Many a time authors do not transition properly from one paragraph to the other, they just jump. Substantive editors make sure that the transition is smooth. Furthermore they also check if there are any missing paragraphs.
Line Editing
This type of editing is an even more detailed version of editing. It edits your document line by line. They focus on each and every word and see if it used appropriately or not. Furthermore, it also checks for all the other issues such as grammar mistakes, typographical errors and redundancy. Because of the detailed editing, this type of editing is called micro editing. All the linguistic aspects are checked here. For example, sentence structure, jargon or even wordiness.
Copy Editing
This is the final stage of editing. This happens when everything is finalized. The copy editor keenly reads each and every word to make sure that no errors pass by. They dive deep into the text and look for the mistakes that are difficult to identify such as improper words used or, typing errors that are correct otherwise. These errors can only be identified by a copy editor. Copy editors also check the format of your document and check it to see if it is written according to the instructions given. They also keenly observe the citation style and correct them if wrongly used.
Many Online Editing Services offer all of these types, be sure to realize what sort of editing you want or if you want your document to be proofread.
What Is Proofreading?
Let’s first establish this fact that Proofreading is not the same a editing. As discussed editing offers a complete takeover of the editor on the document and they make the changes as they please. That’s not the case with proofreading. Proofreading is the final reading of a completed document that identifies errors in grammar, spelling, punctuations and the format. The main difference between editing and proofreading is that proofreaders only highlight the mistakes but they do not correct them the corrections are your responsibility as the writer. It is the last screening that the paper goes through before it is approved for publication or submission if it is an academic document. Proofreading is usually a step that comes after editing. Many people who are very confident in the content they have written skip the editing and directly jump to the proofreading. But if you are not so sure about your writing skills and know that you are prone to making mistakes then you should not skip the editing part. Proofreading highlights mistakes such as grammar inaccuracies, people and specially students are not very apt at using grammar properly make very foolish mistakes. Similarly most people are not good at understanding punctuation rules and keep misusing punctuations left right and centre. Proofreaders identify all the improper usage and highlight them for you. Many a times when a document is filled with lots and lots of errors even proofreaders suggest you to take help from an editor as there are many things that cannot be fixed by correcting a few words here and there. Weak language skills can result in a poorly written paper. Proofreading does not work well enough for people with English as a second language as they in most cases need more help than a proofreader can provide.
Now before deciding on what kind of service you should choose, first read your document properly. Spend a good amount of time and read it properly. It will help you judge the quality of content and you will be able to decide what kind of service you need. If it is full of awkward sentences and you’re not too sure about the grammar then your best bet would be to get your document edited. On the other hand if you feel that your paper is very well written and there won’t be many mistakes, just a few occasional mistakes then you should hire a proofreader to make it even more perfect. The key is to identify your writing skills and the quality of content you have written. There are many companies that will provide you both of these services at a very reasonable price. However, editing is pricier than proofreading because it is more extensive.
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