Editing your work is key to making it the best that it can be before releasing it for public consumption. That being said, if you decide to edit your draft or hire someone else to edit for you, how do you know the extent to which your draft should be checked for errors? In this article, we're here to define as well as compare "proofreading" and "copyediting."
So you've finally finished writing something, and regardless of what you've written—from something as short and succinct as a work email to something as long and detailed as a novel manuscript—you've definitely considering giving it a once-over to check for mistakes. In terms of what can be improved, however, would you prefer something as simple as correcting grammatical errors, or would you be open to more comprehensive changes to your draft, such as paraphrasing, summarizing, and suggestions to improve your writing? These editing processes are what we define as "proofreading" and "copyediting," respectively.
As just mentioned, proofreading is the act of combing through a draft, checking for grammatical errors, and correcting these errors as needed. Such errors can touch on misspelling words, the lack or improper use of appropriate punctuation, not knowing whether to use uppercase or lowercase letters, and so on. This mode of editing is largely technical and non-intrusive, meaning that the author's tone is definitely retained after the draft has been proofread.
Consider the following sentence:
The libary is were she studied, four her exams
Corrections in spelling and punctuation applied to the above sentence would lead to the following proofread sentence:
The library is where she studied for her exams.
On the other hand, copyediting is a far more overarching editing process as it involves not only correcting grammatical errors but also changing full phrases and sentences to make them the best that they can be. This can go from rearranging certain words to make the phrase/sentence sound less awkward to full-on paraphrasing (i.e., rewording) and summarizing (i.e., shortening) the phrase/sentence in question.
Let's bring back the sample sentence from earlier:
The libary is were she studied, four her exams
Besides addressing mistakes in grammar, copyediting entails improving the above sentence to improve its tone, such as putting the subject ("she") before the predicate ("the library"). The copyedited sentence would thus be as follows:
She studied for her exams in the library.
Should the writer allow (assuming the writer and the editor are different people), the sentence can even be further shortened/simplified:
She studied in the library.
When it comes to copyediting, retaining the author's voice is just as important as it would be in proofreading. You wouldn't want to edit the draft to such extremes that no reader—not even the writer themselves—would recognize it as the writer's work anymore. This is why some wary writers hire or request close acquaintances who are already familiar with how they write or craft their manuscripts to copyedit their works. In cases where third-party services are hired to copyedit an author's draft, leaving comments to suggest changes might be a better idea than directly applying these changes without the author's permission.
In sum, knowing the difference between proofreading and copyediting goes a long way in helping a writer determine what can be improved with their draft or manuscript. The most important thing to remember is shaping the work into its best form—much like a potter would smooth out the imperfections of a clay vase—while maintaining the writer's signature style.
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