Is It Editing or Proofreading?

Recently a writer contacted me and asked very specifically about editing and proofreading services. I replied with a description of my editing services (mostly copyediting, though I do help with developmental editing from time to time) and explained that proofreading (checking proofs against the edited manuscript) isn’t my area of expertise.

The distinction between editing and proofreading was obvious to me; it was something I learned early in my career. But was my explanation the right one?

A day or two later, I came across another editor’s explanation: “editing” refers to developmental work, and “proofreading” refers to checking for errors in spelling, punctuation, etc.

Okay, now I’m confused, and I know I’m not alone. Every week I see job postings that are titled “Proofreading” but whose job descriptions clearly ask for copyediting. So what is the difference between editing and proofreading?

“A copyeditor is not a proofreader.” So says Karen Judd in Copyediting: A Practical Guide. Copyeditors edit the raw manuscript to spruce up the writer’s work; proofreaders read the prettified, formatted proof against the edited manuscript to make sure nothing weird happened during layout. That’s the simplified distinction as I understand it, but lots of people use “proofread” in the more general sense of “to check for errors in a piece of written work.”

Come to think of it, before I became an editor I “proofed” everything I wrote (except for that one Greek archaeology paper I didn’t have time to proof—sorry, Dr. K). I don’t remember “editing” anything until I started working on our college newspaper. Even then, I edited news stories and proofed term papers, despite the fact that there was really no difference between the two activities. Maybe the difference is that “proof” sounds easy and informal (almost like “Poof!”) and “edit” sounds hard and professional. If you tell an author you’re going to proof their work, they’ll expect you to fix their spelling and add a comma here and there; tell the same author you’re going to edit their work, and they might ask for anesthesia before you begin the surgery.

Professionally, there is a clear distinction between editing and proofreading. But common usage often has very little to do with professional usage. Lots of writers will ask for proofreading when what they really want is copyediting. The message is, editors—and writers—have to spell out exactly what they’re offering—or asking for—regardless of what they call it.