Editing & Proofreading: What’s the difference?
Firstly, let’s clear the air about the different hats we editors wear – Editing & Proofreading can each be broken down into two sub-tasks:
Editing:
- ‘substantive editing’ for structure and substance; and
- ‘copyediting’ to improve grammar, punctuation, factualness and formatting
Proofreading:
- correcting mistakes in text
- comparative proofreading
Often freelance editors / proofreaders are employed by publishing houses or corporate entities to perform a “full job”, which is often ‘copyediting’ and ‘proofreading’ with a little ‘substantive editing’ thrown in for good measure.
The proofreader that doesn’t provide a checking service with the added inclusions of suggestions to the body copy and ensuring the consistency within the formatting / layout of a document isn’t providing a “full job”.
Why should I invest in a Proofreader?
This is, of course, only my opinion, but I truly believe that the Number One reason to invest in proofreading services is for your reputation.
Not only does your blog / article / writing represent your business and the quality of services that you provide, it also speaks volumes when it comes to your knowledge, experience and expertise on your topic / in your field.
Imagine if your favourite magazine or newspaper printed articles that were full of spelling errors, grammar problems, factual inconsistencies and a general feel of “untidiness”…Imagine you bought the next issue in a comic series you’d been collecting – up until now there was little doubt of the care they took in presenting the cleanest, most awesome stories to their readers. Now you realise that all the writing is off; there’s spelling errors in all the speech bubbles, there’s no consistency between one page and the next when it comes to font size or type…it is just a real letdown, a great disappointment: Here is the latest in an awesome series that has obviously not been proofed before it was sent to print.
Now imagine that you’re reading your favourite blog. The author is someone you greatly admire and is considered one of the top authorities in their field. This latest blog post, however, reads like a ten year old’s book report. There’s plot holes, no coherency, spelling and grammar errors everywhere…it’s a nightmare. You get a sick feeling as you read, like you know what should be written here but knowing that there’s nothing you can do about it. This is when it begins to effect your professional reputation, your credibility and your overall readership. People will stop reading because of this, not because of the mistakes made, but because it’s just too hard to read articles full of distracting errors like that…
Why can’t I do it myself?
To be fair, you probably could do it yourself quite successfully up to a certain point.
It is a well known fact, however, that the longer we spend looking at our own work the less likely we are to pick up on minor errors (things like swapped letters, misspellings, etc.). This could mean that, while you’re saving time and money you’re also potentially missing some critical errors that could change the entire tone or meaning of your article.
One of the reasons professional editors / proofreaders exist is because they’ve gone through specific training to spot these little niggly errors with ease; training in areas of our language that is otherwise not taught in schools these days.
The real question to ask yourself is: Do you have the time?
Why should I pay someone to do it?
Much like any other job, proofreaders need to be compensated for the work they do.
No, I’m kidding, I’m not that pretentious! But there is a little bit of truth in it – proofreading is a service provided by someone qualified in that skill, much like a plumber goes through his apprenticeship before being able to go out and work for his/her own clients.
An editor / proofreader has undertaken the necessary training to hone the skills required to review, amend and rewrite (if necessary) their clients’ documents. There is a lot of trust involved in a writer handing their work over to a stranger to pull apart and put back together. Part of the reason this trust is given is that it is given over to a professional contracted to perform a specific task in exchange for monetary compensation – as is the custom in modern business engagements.
In addition to being trained and highly skilled at fixing up errata in documents, many proofreaders actually enjoy reviewing documents and picking out errors and fixing them up – there’s a strange fascination in the task that draws us in and doesn’t ever let us go, to the point where reading anything for leisure can become a challenge as we are ever vigilant, always searching, our eyes never resting until every last “i” is dotted and every “t” crossed!
How long should it take?
This really depends on a number of factors:
- Deadline
- Budget, and whether you’re paying by the word or time-based
- How long you expect to wait
- How long you’re willing to wait
- Whether the proofreader is available as soon as you need them
- Whether or not the document will be altered and need to be reviewed again…
- et al
The time it takes can vary greatly, depending upon the above and a whole range of other reasons. It is really hard to determine, up front, how long a document will take to thoroughly review and accurately report / fix any errors included in the document.
Obviously the longer a proofreader has to review and edit a document, the better, however time is not always something we have in abundance – rushed jobs can often result in … well, rushed jobs. Things could be missed or mistakes made (things fixed that otherwise didn’t need fixing…)
It’s important for you to determine how much time you have to invest in this stage of the document creation process. It’s also really important for you to assess each document / article separately and not expect the same turn-around for every job; some will take longer, others less time. Some will require more in-depth reviewing techniques while others will be fairly light on – the factors change depending upon the job, so it really depends on whether you’re willing to hear that it could take longer than you’d anticipated.
How much should it cost?
Again, this depends on several major factors:
- Budget
- How much you can spend Vs. How much you’re willing to spend
- The time it takes to review (unless charging on a per-word basis)
- The style of document (very big difference between a blog post and a corporate document, especially legal!)
- Whether or not the document will be altered and need to be reviewed again…
- Whether the proofreader is trying to rip you off or not
Little can be done unless you’re willing to pay for it – this is the way our society is run and it is the same with proofreading. You are engaging a professional in their craft to review your document and ensure it is the best it can be; to engage a service, there must be a monetary transaction as compensation for time and service rendered.
This is not to say that you have to pay ‘a lot’ for proofreading services either – comparatively, proofreading services should cost less than you would pay the author to write the article. For example:
Jeffrey Way, the site manager of NetTuts+, will pay somewhere around $150 USD for an article that meets the NetTuts+ standard. They have a general length and expectation for the content they would want involved, and their authors know what is required of them.
If Jeffrey was to employ me to proof those articles, I would not expect him to pay more than $50 USD, so long as all I was doing was proofreading for spelling / grammar errors. If I was fact checking or editing the copy to help ’round it out’ a little, it would cost more – so it really depends on the job being done.
Using that example above is quite a loose example of how fee structures in proofreading would work – as I mentioned earlier, ideally I’d charge on a time basis. The time I took to review the article would depend on the job I was doing, so it is really important to understand the task required – both the client and the editor.
Of course, the above example is by no means an accurate portrayal of what is or might be considered a fair rate for payment for someone to proofread a blog article – of course it depends on what is being done, so the above fees would probably be more along the lines of copyediting, if not copyediting as well as running through the article to ensure all tutorials (if any) do result in the desired outcome.
Once it’s been proofed, should I review it?
Definitely! While you may not have to look over the whole document with an extremely critical eye, one should always get into the habit of double-checking the document once it’s back from the proofreader before pushing the little blue “Publish” button (or whatever colour it is if you don’t use WordPress ;))
I’d recommend three stages (if you have the time) to all proofreading cycles:
- Author / Site Owner proofreads article once, then passes it to the proofreader / editor for critical revision.
- Proofreader / editor reviews article, makes amendments / adjustments / takes notes as necessary and passes back to Author / Site Owner.
- Author / Site Owner re-reads one last time (and employs or discards changes as required) then publishes to their blog.
What happens if I find errors afterwards?
Depending upon whether you have time for a second review, I would recommend contacting the proofreader / editor and asking them to review the article again at no cost.
If you’ve paid for a professional service, you would expect that it is done to the absolute best possible ability of the person doing it! (At least, that is what I expect when I employ the services of someone expecting to get paid for doing the job…)
That being said, however, there is never a guarantee that every error will be found / updated / amended. Human beings are fallible; we are perfectly capable of making mistakes.
I am currently still studying proofreading and editing and my tutor has said to me that a proofreader should never be expected or expect of themselves perfection in their reviewing a document – often is a case that <1% of errors are missed in substantial documents. One could imagine how hard it is to accurately (and quickly) edit a 100,000 word manuscript, yet when you break that down, that’s a potential 1,000 errors left in the text. Anything from spelling and punctuation to grammar or improper sentence construction.
Now. Blog posts are a LOT shorter than the manuscript for a book, however the same rule applies – there is a potential for 1% of the errors to be left behind. In a 3,000 post, that’s 3 errors.
Unfortunately that can often be 3 errors too many, as they are often in the most unfortunate of places, so easy to miss. A critical eye is needed to find 99% of errors – re-reading it after several hours often reveals things you didn’t catch the first time around, especially if you’re the author!
Will I try a proofreading service for my next blog article?
This is for you to answer in the comments – Will you think about employing the services of an editor or proofreader for your next major blog article?
