The words ‘proofreading’ and ‘editing’ are usually fleshing before the eyes, when it comes to finding and fixing mistakes in academic assignments. Many students and other academic community representatives often use them in the similar meaning and generally consider as interchangeable. Indeed, proofreading and editing are like a pair of twins that are almost undistinguishable in their appearance, but have completely different inward habits. In many cases, such terminological printer's pie around these two finger-and-thumb-style best friends often causes a lot of confusion for students trying to choose between editing and proofreading service in order to secure their essays and other academic papers against bad feedbacks and low grades. The accurate understanding of difference between proofreading and editing often helps not only to save a lot of time for both potential customer and support team specialists discussing the details of future order, but also to clear up and better understand your own needs and requirements in order to choose the service that better suits exactly for your particular case. Although our earlier ‘How to’ section posts were mainly dedicated to various grammar nuances (refer to our previous posts on Future Perfect and Future Perfect Continuous) and lifehack-style tips and tricks for teachers and beginner editors (see our post on how to determine plagiarism in written assignments), today our expert editing team decided to slightly diverge from our usual pattern and dedicate this blogpost to the perennial topic that will never lose its relevance. So now let us immerse ourselves into the exciting world of terminological intricacies and niceties to finally shed some light on the key differences between the editing and proofreading concepts, so you, our dear readers, could ultimately understand why these two are apples and oranges not six and two threes and choose the most appropriate service for your cherished writings.
Different as Chalk and Cheese
When your paper is finally written, the reliable editing and proofreading company is chosen and everything is generally ready to turn your writing into the flawless masterpiece, the last thing you have to do before rest on the laurels of imminent academic success is to choose between editing and proofreading. These two services are usually different in rates and in output product you will receive from an editor. Now let’s consider these two services in more details.
Proofreading or Sprucing your Paper Up
The ancient Romans believed that perfection angered the gods, but unfortunately for many students we live in the modern world, not in the Roman Empire, so such a classy excuse won’t actually work, especially when it comes to the mistakes and blunders in academic assignment. In fact, the proofreading is like a cosmetic procedure or a minor visible repair for your writing. It’s generally focused on finding and fixing minor blunders of grammar, spelling, punctuation or formatting nature. The proofreading usually takes place at the end of the writing process and is an inherent final step before submission of any written content whatsoever. Unlike editing it doesn’t imply any in-deep revision of the paper content, verification of data, logical structure of text, et cetera, so often proofreading alone may not be enough for guaranteed academic success of the paper.
In general, proofreading alone without editing is usually required by English non-native speakers, who want to ensure that their papers are written to the highest standards of modern English, or by those students who are one hundred percent sure that the structure and general presentation of content correspond to the supervisor’s requirements. The practice shows that the pure proofreading is usually ordered in cases, when the writing isn’t supposed to be ‘life-changing’ for author, or when requirements to the paper structure are relatively loose and flexible. It means that proofreading will be a suitable solution for college essays and similar writing assignments, commercial websites, et cetera, but probably won’t work for more serious publications, such as articles submitted to the peer-review journals.
By ordering proofreading services offered by your company you will receive your writing 100% polished out of the grammar, spelling, lexical, syntax and punctuation mistakes with short comments on the obviously poorly composed paragraphs, where you may consider revision.
Editing – Brain Surgery for your Paper
Marty Rubin once said: “Only the blank page needs no editing”. Indeed, editing is a mandatory stage of working on any written content whatsoever from the college essay on hot topic of the day to the three hundred pages novel nominated for Pulitzer Prize. Editing usually implies a deeper look at the writing in general including revision of how the author’s thoughts and ideas are presented. Editing as an essential part of any writing process that helps to make sure that paper is properly organized, well understandable and suitable for audience. Besides proofreading that is usually included into editing process the later also implies editor’s recommendations on text structure and general presentation, as well as other useful feedbacks according the field of research. Most commonly editing also includes reduction of any extraneous and irrelevant parts, as well as verification of sources used and revision against check list of requirements.
Editing is usually required for rather important academic publication, where the proper delivery of information, thoughts, ideas and research results is of utmost importance for success of the paper. The good examples of writings requiring accurate and in-deep editing are senior grade term papers, dissertations, PhD theses, publications for peer-review journals and periodicals, et cetera.
By ordering editing services offered by our online company you receive:
Two-In-One Almighty Service
Our online editing company offers both proofreading and editing services for all kinds of writing and papers, including college essays, term papers, dissertations, articles, official documents and even the whole websites. The price of service usually depends on the deadline, number of words, number of sources, et cetera, and is agreed under the specific order. In order to get more info on editing and proofreading services we offer, you may always contact our round-the-clock support team and ask all the questions you have regarding our ‘editing clinic’ for your assignments. Don’t be shy, choose your service!