The short answer to the question of whether a difference exists between proofreading services and editing services is “Yes”. The main distinction between these two services, as offered by almost all service providers operating today, is that proofreading typically focuses on the surface-level, while editing a document is significantly more far-reaching.
Most of the companies that offer these services, including Proofessor.co.uk, recognise the key difference that exists between these services. This recognition is generally reflected in the way each company names the respective services (e.g., Proofessor.co.uk offers “proofreading” and “heavy editing” services), but is also reflected in the prices charged. Given that an editing service is generally more comprehensive than a proofreading service, customers typically pay significantly more for editing.
Since a crucial difference exists between proofreading and editing services, understanding – as a customer – which service is more in line with your requirements is crucial. If price is an issue for you, and if you are confident that the finer details of your writing are OK (e.g., your structure, style, and general tone), then it is unquestionable that a proofreading service will satisfy your needs, and thus represents the better choice between the two. However, if your needs are more in-depth, then you will need to think harder on the question of which of these services to choose.
At
Proofessor.co.uk, an editing service – or a “heavy editing” service, as the
company generally refers to it – is defined as a writing-related service that
takes your document (whether it be an essay, a piece of marketing content, a
short story, an e-book, a press release, or anything else) and corrects,
condenses, and improves the readability of it. This is significantly different compared to the standard proofreading
service offered at Proofessor.co.uk, which – as is common in the industry –
focuses in a fairly narrow way on surface features of your text.
While the short answer given above to the
question of whether editing and proofreading services differ in any meaningful
way is a definite yes, considering the differences of these services shows
that, depending on the provider, these differences may not be as large as you
initially think. Therefore, it is important to check how each company defines
editing and proofreading before ordering a service from them, as otherwise may
not receive what you expected. If you are working towards a tight deadline,
this can prove calamitous, and so it must be one of the first things you pay
attention to.
Company-specific differences aside, there
are a few similarities between editing and proofreading services that it is
worth knowing about before you order either one. For example, both editors and
proofreaders tend to leave comments in your document, which enable you to learn
from the mistakes they have spotted. The prices of both services, despite being
different in most cases, are also both affordable. Finally, the most important
similarity is that both involve proofreading; this may be surprising, but
editors, especially at Proofessor.co.uk, begin the editing process with a
comprehensive round of proofreading.
