In my experience, proofreading is often misunderstood. It’s perceived by some as a magical process by which an un-fact-checked, poorly structured first draft can be transformed into a literary masterpiece in a couple of hours.
I’m afraid that’s not what proofreading is. Strictly speaking, proofreading is (or should be) the final stage of an overall editing process. A complex piece of writing may undergo several stages of editorial intervention before it’s ready for proofreading: substantive editing, structural editing, copyediting, and finally proofreading. We’ll explore these.
To be clear, I’m not suggesting that you skip proofreading, of course. But think of it like decorating a house – you don’t start painting the walls before the plastering is done. Proofreading is the final polish, not the fix for deeper structural issues. A complex piece of writing often needs various levels of editing first – substantive editing, structural editing, copyediting – before it’s ready for that final check.
We’ll get to those different editorial stages later – but first, let’s take a step back and look at where proofreading comes from and what the term really means.
Why is it called proofreading?
The term “proofreading” comes from the printing industry. Traditionally, after a manuscript was typeset (arranged into print-ready format), a test copy – known as a proof – was produced. A proofreader would then read the proof against the original manuscript, marking any errors for correction before final printing.
The word proof in this context comes from an older meaning of the verb to prove, which originally meant to test or check something for accuracy or quality – as in the phrase “the proof of the pudding is in the eating”. It originates from the Latin word probare, meaning to test or probe – proofreading, at its core, is about putting a text to the test before it goes out into the world.
The proofreading process dates back to the early days of the printing press in the 15th century, when printers needed a way to catch mistakes before mass production. England’s first printer, William Caxton, must have been the first person to face this challenge in the English language. In those days English spelling was even more wildly inconsistent than it is now, and Caxton would have had to decide how words should be standardised. But I digress.
What is proofreading?
Today, “proofreading” refers to the final stage in the editing process and it doesn’t necessarily refer to a comparison of one version of a text with another from which it was copied.
According to the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP), “Proofreading is the stage in the workflow that comes after copyediting – once the text is in layout and before publication.”
A proofreader helps to ensure that a text is ready to be published. You can think of it as the final quality check.
—CIEP
Or to paraphrase the Chicago Manual of Style: Proofreading is the meticulous examination of a final draft (or “proof”) to identify and correct minor errors in spelling, punctuation, and typography before a piece is published; essentially, it’s the last stage of the editing process – focused on surface-level accuracy.
However, as the CIEP points out, “Often the word ‘proofreading’ is used more loosely – to describe almost any editorial intervention and correction to a text.” We’ll look at the various forms of editorial intervention in a moment.
What needs to happen before proofreading?
There can be several stages to editing before a document is ready for the proofreader to check. It depends on the document. The more complex it is, the more rigorous the process will need to be – especially if it’s intended for widespread publication or if multiple authors have contributed. Or simply if you want to do it justice by making sure it’s as polished as possible.
If you’re an experienced author writing about a subject you know well, it’s likely that you can do the whole thing unaided and just get a trusted second pair of eyes on it before you publish.
But if you’re pulling together sections and chapters from multiple writers and various sources, you’ll probably need some more substantial editorial support.
Forms of editorial intervention
So, you’ve got a piece of writing in draft form – now what? The next steps depend on the state of your draft. You might need some or all of the following forms of editorial intervention, listed here in reverse order of complexity (i.e. starting with the most basic). This is my take, but I don’t claim originality. I’ve borrowed from good authorities. In practice, the boundaries between these forms of editing aren’t always clear-cut; they tend to blur and overlap. But it’s useful to categorise them. I think in terms of five levels of editorial intervention:
- Proofreading
- Proof-editing
- Copyediting
- Structural editing
- Deep editing
A piece of writing work might in theory proceed through all the stages from deep editing to proofreading. In reality, it generally won’t be that rigid and complicated; stages can be combined. This is a guide to help you understand where you’re starting from.
Proofreading
What is it?
Proofreading is a final once-over of already-edited copy. The proofreader is presented with text written by a single author, or by a number of authors following a consistent style. The content is assumed to have been fact-checked. It will already have been reviewed and edited at least once by a second person besides the author.
How long does it take?
These things always depend – but if it’s in good shape it may be possible to proofread about 2,000 words per hour. That’s 4 pages per hour if we assume 500 words per page.
- Quicker if: few errors, non-technical content, few cross-references, few tables or figures, single Microsoft Word document.
- Slower if: many errors, technical content, many cross-references, many tables or figures, more than one file, any file format other than Microsoft Word.
Proof-editing
What is it?
Proof-editing is a term used to describe a level of editing that sits between proofreading (above) and copyediting (below), and may combine the two into a single, final stage. It’s a relatively new term, which is why it’s still hyphenated (in case you were wondering about the inconsistency).
Think of proof-editing as a kind of ‘proofreading plus’. It applies to situations where the text may have already undergone several rounds of edits and now requires a final check for typos, grammatical errors, consistency of capitalisation and punctuation, ambiguities, company names, people’s names and place names, as well as consistency in layout, subheadings, and other stylistic elements. It’s assumed that few or no sentence structure changes are needed.
How long does it take?
As a rough guide, roughly 1,000 words (2 x 500-word pages) per hour.
Copyediting
What is it?
Copyediting, or subediting, is often the first form of editorial intervention applied to a text. The copyeditor will check for typos, grammar, sense, and any major style issues. It’s similar to proof-editing (above) – but in addition to the possible presence of typos, grammatical errors, misspelled names, etc., there may be issues with style or pitch and with the construction and length of sentences. There may be a need for minor structural changes.
How long does it take?
As a rough guide, say 500 words (1 page) per hour.
Structural editing
What is it?
Structural, or developmental, editing refers to a thorough review including consistency of voice and tone, and structure. It’s what’s needed when the basics are in place but the copy may have issues like non-standard spelling and grammar. The content may have been derived by copy-pasting or repurposing existing documents. It may have been written by a subject-matter expert for whom English is a second language. There may be issues with voice or tone and with sentence length and paragraph structure. The document flow may lack cohesion.
How long does it take?
As a very rough guide, we might say 250 words per hour – that’s 2 hours per page assuming 500 words per page.
Deep editing
What is it?
Substantive, or ‘deep’, editing is what you need when you’re working with draft content that needs a thorough review – helping to clarify its purpose, break it into key points, and ensure that each one is clear, relevant, and worthwhile. Paragraphs and sections may appear in a confusing order and need to be reorganised. The content may lack an angle. More work may be needed on the narrative structure – and on creating a good intro and a good conclusion. Deep editing is something between editing and original writing.
How long does it take?
The editor will need to review the source text and maybe talk with the author to understand what’s needed and arrive at a time estimate.
A style guide saves you time and money
Throughout the writing and editing process, few things can cause more delays and repeated revisions than inconsistency. Writers naturally have different styles – and even the most technically correct writing can be inconsistent. An author’s style may evolve, or different authors working on the same project may develop conflicting approaches. This can affect everything from voice and tone to the fundamentals of spelling, punctuation, and capitalisation rules. (English has lots of words with two or more correct spellings, and you need to stick to one otherwise it looks sloppy.)
The solution? A comprehensive editorial style guide. A style guide eliminates confusion, cuts out much of the “I wouldn’t have put it that way” debate, and reduces the editing effort, saving time and money.
It just so happens that I offer a style guide service. In case you’re interested.