Editing or proofreading? Which service do you need?

There’s a lot more to editing than you might think.

Editing is often confused with proofreading so it’s important to know the difference between the two. 

Your written work may go through several rounds of editing before it’s ready to be proofread.

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 So what's the difference between an editor and a proofreader?
The Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading has set out the core elements of each service, as follows:

​What is Editing?
* working on raw or draft text 
* checking spelling, punctuation and grammar 
* making changes for flow, tone and intended readership
* applying a house style/ensuring consistency in spelling, capital letters, date format, numbers 
* marking up the structure for the designer (headings, boxed text, quotes, tables, etc)
* formatting references and citations into chosen style 
* numbering tables, figures and illustrations, checking content against text and captions 
* querying obvious factual inaccuracies 
* flagging potential legal issues

What is Proofreading?
* working on edited text in final layout 
* checking for essential errors in spelling, grammar and punctuation 
* making minor changes for sense 
* ensuring all page elements are consistent and correctly placed and style decisions are applied
* checking that tables and illustrations are consecutively numbered and placed correctly 
* checking that references and citations are correctly formatted 
* checking that an index is formatted consistently

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Proofreading is just one part of a much bigger quality check that takes place after editors have worked on a text, usually for several rounds, and is the final stage in the process.
​Copyediting takes longer than proofreading and will cost more but after editing, rest assured your text will be structurally sound and coherent, consistent in style and format and free from spelling, punctuation and grammar errors.