Copy editing and proofreading are the final two of the six different types of editing. They’re like peanut butter and jelly — they go great together, but each has its merits and is delicious on its own.
What Is the Difference between Proofreading and Copy Editing?
Copy editing ensures that content follows style guides, including proper punctuation, tone, and clarity. Proofreading is the final step of editing, looking for errors and inconsistencies in copy and layout just before the document is published.
In most publishing processes, copy editing and proofreading are done simultaneously. Most editors proofread a piece before copy editing to catch as many errors as possible and avoid distractions while copy editing to bring the document in line with brand guidelines, but a final proofread is always a good idea.
What Is Copy Editing?
Copy editing is a trained skill that involves editing content to fit a specified style or brief. Companies will create a style guide for their content that specifies how it should sound, look, and feel.
Copy editing in traditional publishing or academic writing ensures the document aligns with provided editorial guidelines. These guidelines can be extremely in-depth or broad, but most commonly include at a minimum:
- grammar,
- tone,
- logo usage,
- colors,
- visuals,
- word usage,
- point of view,
- capitalization and punctuation,
- and more.
Copy editors review a document for adherence to guidelines before it is published (or sent to publishing in a more traditional publishing house).
In the digital world, where most of EditorNinja’s customers exist and do business, copy editing tends to be more fluid. For example, correcting for capitalization in headings is less critical when content is published online, as website stylesheets typically handle this automatically. That said, agencies sending content to clients via Google Docs (or similar cloud-based systems) often want to clean up their documents so that internal stakeholders at the client are more likely to approve it with fewer substantial revision requests.
Are you producing content for clients or working with internal stakeholders to sign off on content and need help editing and finalizing it? Schedule an Intro call to learn more about how EditorNinja works.
What Is Proofreading?
Proofreading is often the final editing step in a publishing process. However, as mentioned above, it often happens a few times throughout the entire process so that editors can focus on the substance of their editing and not be distracted by errors.
While seemingly easy, proofreading is a time-consuming process that can’t be ignored. When customers hire EditorNinja to proofread their documents, they admit that their time is too valuable to spend proofreading.
Proofreading is best thought of as a final read-through of a document to catch any remaining typos or grammatical errors. A misplaced comma can cost a business a lot of money (for example, 59% of people say they wouldn’t buy from a company that publishes content with errors in it), so it is important to catch and correct these errors.
Proofreading’s history goes back to the beginning of mass publishing when a machine was typeset using wooden blocks with metal letters. A “proof” was created and then read so that errors could be caught before mass production started.
Photo by Ally Griffin on Unsplash
In our digital age, proofreading is simply used to catch errors before content is published. The proofreading step is much more important for digital documents that are more permanent, such as press releases sent via a newswire or marketing materials downloaded by prospects and customers. Studies show that at least 59% of respondents to a UK poll would be less likely to buy from a brand whose product copy has errors.
Proofreading may seem like a luxury, but skipping this step can cost your business very real money.
Copy Editing vs Proofreading – What Do They Have In Common?
While copy editing and proofreading differ, they also have similarities. The main differences are when they occur in the creation process and the depth at which they examine the subject and content.
Both copy editing and proofreading contain these as well:
- Consistency
- Cross-references
- Spelling
- Punctuation
- Capitalization
- Typos
Every document returned to you through EditorNinja will have been scanned for each.
Copy Editing vs. Proofreading Examples
Let’s take a passage from our document editing services page and compare copy edits to proofreads of the same passage. A good editor will do both because they care about the overall quality of the content and not just checking boxes. Showing the differences between the two can help us understand each of them better.
Copy Edits
Sales are lost every day because of mistakes in presentations and broken links on pages. Broken links on pages and mistakes in presentations cost companies sales every day. Conversions are lost every day because of errors on sales pages. Errors on sales pages cost conversions. Trust is hurt every day because of avoidable typos in blog posts. Avoidable typos in blog posts hurt trust with potential customers. Hours are wasted every day because cCompanies who don’t hire a qualified editor, and instead rely on unreliable in-house untrained editors who take days to review a documentwaste hours of time every week.
Proofread
Sales are lost every day daily because of mistakes in presentations and broken links on pages. Conversions are lost every day because of errors on sales pages. Trust is hurt every day because of avoidable typos in blog posts. Hours are wasted every day because companies don’t hire a qualified editor, and instead rely on in-house untrained editors who take days to review a document.
Is A Copy Editor A Proofreader?
Copy editors can be proofreaders, and they often are when they edit content. Copy editing looks at the more technical aspects of grammar, writing, and style while proofreading looks for typos and correct spelling.
Think about it like this: not all copy editors are proofreaders, and not all proofreaders are copy editors, but one person can do both.
Copy editors will also usually proofread a document after all copy edits have been made and accepted.
Need Copy Editing and Proofreading?
Here at EditorNinja, we’re a team of professional editors who love making great copy and ensuring it’s as well-positioned as possible to convert website visitors to leads and customers.