Comprehensive Guide: Difference Between Editing and Proofreading Services

Proofreading and copy-editing or editing are two distinct jobs with the same goal. Both of them target making written content as much readable and errorless as possible. However, Proofreading Services often confuse brands with their close connection to editing. In simple words - the editing or copy editing team takes the first lead in editing content. After they finish working, the proofreading team gives the final call before finalizing it.

So, editing and proofreading go side by side because they are the two different stages of document preparation. While editing is a core-level check, proofreading is a surface-level one. Therefore, while editing changes the content structure and clarity, proofreading looks for content inconsistencies. 

Generally, brands hire a professional editing and proofreading company after finishing documents. Through editing and proofreading solutions, companies help brands in expressing their message in an errorless manner. Editors ensure that the content stays true to the subject matter. On the contrary, proofreaders ensure that the content does not leave room for any kind of errors. 

Both of these services check your brands content to maintain its clarity and coherence. Editing and proofreading companies also have Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). They help brands in subject-specific conventions.

Now that we have provided a basic idea about the two let's dive deep into the differences. But, before that, we should first have a clearer idea about the two services.

Editing And Proofreading Services - Taking A Deeper Look At Them

What is Editing?

Editing services require professional editors who can provide necessary suggestions to content. The changes that they make ensure that it improves the content quality. It makes sure that the expression and language do not deviate from the subject. 

Quality editing is just like Proofreading Services. Both of them pave the gateway to bringing maximum readability to the content. By enhancing the readability, it also enriches the writing style and overall clarity. A fantastic editing job will make content that gives a positive impression to the audience. It gives a consistent shape to writings by tweaking lines, words or changing its structure, as needed.

Importance of Editing Services in your Brands Content

Quality editing brings in scopes for quality content. Professional copy editors have the capabilities to make such content. 

Quality content is important for a variety of reasons, including -

• The quality of the content can be the deciding factor between its success and failure.
• Higher quality writings usually lead to a more persuasive and lucid form of argument. 
• If the writing pattern is not fluent, consistent and error-free, even the most brilliant content fails to impact.
• In specialized content like academic writings, proper editing is important to ensure that it meets specific conventions. 
• Quality content is free of all types of grammatical, spelling, structural, syntax, and punctuation errors.
• A properly edited content has proper capitalization, fonts, numerals, hyphenation, and other things.
• Professional editing services take care of spellings according to language variations. 
• A well-edited content is also the one that has less frequent loose ends.
• In the case of manuscripts, the edited ones have accurate dates and facts.
• Professionally edited copies also ensure that your brands manuscript does not libel others.

So, a copy editors task is not only about removing grammatical errors or correct spellings. They ensure that the story element stays competent, cohesive, and complete.

On average, copy editors are able to deliver precise, in-depth, and grammar-ready content. Hiring the right editing company can change the fate of your brands content permanently. 

What is Proofreading?

Proofreading is like the final polish that content gets before the brand publishes it. In comparison with editing, proofreading is quite a cheaper service. Nevertheless, it still has a definite role to play in correcting errors of various types.

Sometimes, brands assume that they can skip proofreading using any free online tool. However, that still leaves in chances for issues in the content quality. That is probably because professional proofreaders are experts in the field. 

Moreover, every content has a particular genre and a target market or audience. Now, it is crucial from the proofreaders end to stay true to the specific requirements. Any professional proofreader understands the different conventions and nuances of the language. They have the skills to find and delete inconsistent terminologies, spellings, formatting issues, etc.

Importance of Proofreading Services in your Brands Content

Proofreading is important because it is like a last-minute check before any content goes out for publication. Although it is not specifically a last-minute job, it requires quite some time and concentration. 

Here are some of the things proofreaders contribute to a content -

• Proofreaders ensure that the content communicates its message clearly to the target audience. 
• They ensure that the content does not have even a single error or language inconsistency. 
• Proofreaders pay special attention to examine the content and pick mistakes that were left unchecked by the editors.
• Their services make sure that their clients content gets full credibility.
• They check incorrect numbering of pages and make them organized.
• Proofreading services also check for inaccurate indexes or misaligned texts.
• Correcting incorrect paragraphs is also something that they do.
• If there is more than one space between two words or no space at all, they correct them.

It is not that hiring proofreading solutions will be a waste of money. A proofreader has a long list of responsibilities, just like an editor. Besides the ones mentioned earlier, proofreaders also provide fact-checking services for manuscripts.

Interesting Read: What is Fact-Checking and Why is It Important?

Five Major Differences Between Editing And Proofreading Services 

From corporate brands to institutions and publication houses, editing and proofreading confuse them all. While there are different responsibilities and task variations, they are still quite similar to each other.

We have already discussed a lot about that in the previous part of this blog. Taking a quick recap, we see that editors look for insensible sentences and inconsistencies. They have the job of identifying errors and make the message as conveyable as possible.

While on the other hand, Proofreading Services sweep all sorts of grammatical and language errors. Even beyond that, proofreaders check on the overall content quality. 

Finding extreme differences between editing and proofreading services is somewhat impossible. It is because, at some point, their main motive matches with each other.

However, we have traced out some of the differences between the two services -

Editors Rework on Documents in Times of Need

It is an editors responsibility to fix unorganized paragraphs from content. Such paragraphs disrupt the natural flow of the content. It also hampers the message of the content from reaching the target audience.

What editors do is that they rewrite or rework the copy to satisfy the clients requirements. They do everything to ensure that the content has maximum structural integrity. 

Well, proofreaders do not need to face these challenges. They just need to check the overall quality, pick out grammatical issues and look for other errors. They do not deal with the chronological arrangements of the content.

Proofreaders have to Read Between the Lines to Look for Errors

Proofreaders perform both manual and automatic spell and grammar checks. It is crucial because every single mistake counts as a mistake. From grammar to punctuation, they must read in between the lines to figure out errors. 

As far as time goes, it takes an insane amount of time for proofreaders to do it. However, it isn't something that editors need to worry about. Because their focus lies primarily on the content subject and its structural arrangement. 

Editors Ensure that the content has Definite Clarity

Whether it is academic content or a corporate one, it must have definite clarity. To elaborate, the paragraphs of the content should have a clear meaning. They should be easy to understand for the audience. 

The editors job is to ensure that the readers do not struggle to grasp the content subject. Their task is to check the sentences and paragraphs to not confuse readers. 

Fortunately, the proofreaders do not need to do any of these. They are more concerned about spellings and punctuation errors and not about clarity.

Proofreaders Guarantee Zero Grammatical Mistakes

Proofreading Services do something that editors do not usually do. Yes, we are talking about spelling and grammar check solutions. Proofreaders are responsible for guaranteeing that there are absolutely zero grammatical and punctuation issues. Such mistakes often degrade the audiences reading experience. 

Trained and experienced proofreaders are capable of picking out errors that even online tools cannot find. It is a must in their job role to have an eye for errors and mistakes. Failing to do so ultimately ruins the content because editors do not have this responsibility. 

Editors Often Possess Sector-Specific Knowledge

Well, if we talk about what editors do besides checking content clarity and structure, then this is it. Qualified editors are often Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) on their own. It is important for editors to hold special qualifications because of their job. They are responsible for adding any missing information from the content.

Sometimes, they also inject extra relevant information into the content. Besides that, editors also check for errors in the mentioned facts in the content. All these things help your brand in having flawless content in terms of facts. Editors use their skills to fill in the gaps that prevail in every content. 

As far as a proofreader's job is concerned, they do not need to do such things. Of course, they need to have prominent qualifications too. But, they do not possess any responsibility of implementing them in the content.

Which One Does Your Brand Require - Editing Or Proofreading Services?

If your brand is looking to publish any content, the first thing that they will need is editing services. They need a professional team to look after and manage their manuscripts. For that, they need to look for qualified and expert editors in the industry. 

So, when does your brand need the services?

Look for Copy Editors after Drafting the Content

After making the first draft of the content, your brand will need copy editors. They will focus on the sentences and paragraphs of the manuscript. Based on your brands specified requirements, they will work on its structure. They will add new lines or paragraphs wherever required or shorten passages. Then, they will send back the edited content to you for approval. 

Hire Proofreaders Separately after the Editing Process

Yes, your brand will also need a proofreading team to catch and omit mistakes. While it is true that some copy editing companies provide proofreading services, brands can get them separately too. Proofreaders continue the work of polishing the content further. They search and find all types of mistakes and errors to leave no chance for a bad copy. After finalizing, they send back a separate draft version for approval.

The Conclusion: Editing And Proofreading Services Are Different But Have A Common Goal

Undoubtedly, editing and proofreading are different services and have different tasks to complete. In a nutshell, editing services provide your brand a better opportunity to present good content. While Proofreading Services do the final check to ensure the copy is all good for publication. 

So, as we can see, both of them have a common goal. But, brands need to ensure that they sequentially take both services. Because the process of editing has to come beforehand that of proofreading. 

Now, even though the services are different, they are common in increasing the readability of content. So, hiring a company that provides both solutions is a good idea.

Acadecraft is one such professional editing and proofreading company. They have a rich portfolio of serving some of the top US brands in recent years. Their services are backed by an expert and well-trained team of qualified professionals. Besides, their rates are quite affordable than the rest of the competition.