What’s the difference between editing and proofreading?
Editing is a big picture process. When I am editing a document, I ask questions such as:
- does that paragraph really belong there?
- does this page confuse the reader?
- is the writing is too corporate for the audience?
- what are you really trying to say here?
- that bit contradicts what was said earlier?
- is that fact true? where’s the research?
On the other hand, proofreading simply looks for spelling, punctuation and grammar errors. Proofreading also looks for consistency of writing style, formatting and other issues. Proofreading is the final step before you publish your document or website.