Editing and Proofreading

What’s the difference?  Quite a lot actually!

Editing is the process of looking at a work with a critical (but, one hopes, kindly) eye and making suggestions regarding the document.  The work itself could be a report, a thesis, a paper, a novel, a memoir and so on.

Editing includes making sure that the facts contained therein are correct, so it might be an idea to find an editor with knowledge of your subject.  I wouldn’t, for example, wish to have a brilliant historian specialising in Baroque music look over something I had written concerning Pink, Lady Gaga or Rihanna.  I might get a slightly skewed view.

The editor will look for consistency in the work and will also be correcting the grammar, spelling and punctuation.  The editor will look at the work to ensure that the target audience is catered for.  As you will see, the fans of the ladies mentioned above probably wouldn’t want to know much about Baroque music…

If the publishing house has a ‘style’, the editor will impose that style on your work.  Of course there is a difference between the teen magazine style and that of a serious Baroque-music-related publishing house.

There may be some major re-writing to be done.  This is the editor’s job, in conjunction with you.

Your editor will mark up copy for the designer and typesetter and, in the final review, will correct the proofs.

Proofreaders should also check for spelling, grammar and punctuation – but generally their role comes after that of the editor’s, just before the work goes to press.  If working for a publishing house they will also check for the house style.  They should also check for sequence e.g. regarding tables, figures and such like.

The proofreader will 'mark up' the copy and make corrections to spelling, grammar etc.  They will also check for hyphenation and other pesky little things like line- and page-breaks which, if incorrect, we may subconsciously notice as an irritation, but can’t necessarily put our finger on.  These days the use of the proofreading marks has largely been superseded by word processing packages, and this means that you don’t have to know all the arcane signs too!  (Phew, what a relief!)

The proofreader also makes sure that there is consistency relating to dates, times (of concerts for the ladies mentioned above), capitalisation (of Baroque), etc.