When you write your document, article or any paper to publish, you have to make many processes such as editing process and proofreading process for your document. Now, what of these processes come first? Proofreading process or editing process?

In this article, you will differentiate between proofreading process and editing process in a written document. And what steps needed to follow to proofread your written document or editing written document? And also, what process do you need for publishing your written document?

 What is the editing process? 

Editing process is a process which may occur many times for a written article/document. Editing process dealing and focusing with the deeply means and ideas of the required article/ document. So that, in editing process some updates may need to make the article/ document more understandable, organized and meaningful for the readers. It’s important to know that the editing process performed at the first draft of the written document/ article and the editing process may continuous until the final draft of written document/ article is finished.

 What is the proofreading process? 

Proofreading process and editing process are two different processes and each of them have its own steps and time to do for required written document/ article. In the above paragraph, you identify the editing process and, in this paragraph, you will define the meaning of proofreading process. The proofreading process is a surface-level check process which concern to find if the written article/ document contains any grammatical errors, misspelling, inconstancies (numbers or texts) and incorrect punctuations. The proofreading process done on the final draft of the written article/ document before it printed or published. You can say that the proofreading process is the final step in writing a document or an article before it going to publish or to print your final written document/ article.

 When can you choose proofreading process or editing process? 

The proofreading process and editing process are two different processes and used in different need.

Choose proofreading process in these cases:

1. Use proofreading process when your written document/ article requires basic grammar check to eliminate misspelling and errors. Here you are Suring of the structure and language of your document/ article.
2. Use proofreading process when your written document/ article has been edited and just need final check before publishing.

Choose editing process in these cases:

1. You have to chooses editing process when you need essential revisions and modification for your written document/ article to be more clearly, understandable and readability.
2. Choose editing process when you need to collaborate with the editor to refine your written document/ article.

 Basic strategies for effective editing process and proofreading process 

Here are some basic strategies you can use to make your editing process and proofreading process more effective for your written document/ article.

1. Set your written document/ article aside: when you come back to your written document/ article after time break, you may see your writing with renew attention
2. Make reviewing your work in stages: try to do one task at a time. But if you do many tasks at once you may lose focus and your review will be little effective.
3. Reading aloud your written document/ article: to help you discern when something does not sound right.
4. Taking regular time breaks: that will help you to focus more on your written document/ article.
5. Interacting with your written document/ article: for example, by making circles the certain punctuations.
6. Isolating texts that you are not reviewed from your document/ article
7. Changing text up to make your writing different and unfamiliar
8. Separately, reviewing the headings from the whole written text in your document/ article.
9. Start backward review for your document/ article: for example, review one paraph at a time in reverse order
10. Use CTRL+F to search for errors or frequently repeated words in your document/ article

Difference between editing process and proofreading process

Firstly, for the editing process

Editing process concerned with these major points when writing document/ article:

• Enhancement of the language that used in writing document/ article (for example, English language)
• Improvement of the written document/ article structure to be clearer and readability
• Handling the basic and core features of writing document/ article
• Improvement the quality of the whole writing document/ article
• Somewhat, editing need longer time to finish that’s because the amount of editing work is more.

Secondly, for the proofreading process

Proofreading process concerned with these points after writing document/ article:

• Performing on the final draft of written document/ article before publishing or printing
• Eliminating and correcting errors on your document/ article like grammatical errors, misspelling, punctuation errors, inconsistences and formatting errors
• In the other side, proofreading process is cheaper than editing process and also proofreading process does not need long time to be done.

 Which process do you need, proofreading process or editing process? 

The choosing for one of these two processes depends on the quality of your writing of the document/ article. So, if you are Suring that the quality of your writing is perfect the proofreading process is the best for you. But if you did not sure about the structure and the language of your writing then editing process is the best choice for you.

The editing process and proofreading process are two different stages for revising the writing. Editing process is doing first to give you a chance to make your writing better and to enhance the language and structure of writing. On the other hand, proofreading process is doing as a final stage of writing before publishing or printing to ensure of the perfection of your writing.

 What types of writing that need editing process and proofreading process? 

You can do editing process and/or proofreading process for these types:

• Academic books, dissertation, reports, proposals
• Self-published books like: life stories, memoir, history, poems and different genres of novels
• Newspapers, conference programs, policies, newsletters, manuals
• Academic publications  
• The content of websites and blog pf articles

 Techniques to follow when start editing process? 

There are some techniques and strategies you can follow and look out to get the best result of editing process:

• Be sure that the sentences of your written document/ article are make sense. Look for if there are any wrong tenses or inaccurate wordings.
• The structure and syntax of the sentences must be easy to follow and understand. Use punctuations to arrange and simplify sentences because here punctuations are the best friend for you.
• Eliminating any words that make lessen impact. That means you have to delete any unnecessary words and trying to change the construction of the sentence.
• Catch the attention of your reader.
• Deleting any phrases or terms that convey unintended meaning
• Using a dictionary because it is a useful tool to avoid repeating words. But it does not mean to change every word to obscure one.
• Save your voice and be sure to remind yourself of the main attributes of your voice.
• Removing any phrases that you have heard or read it many times. Make your writing your own.
• If you are not sure about words and facts that you used then make double check on it.
• Get an online help. If you are still in training stage you use an online application to help you in editing your writing. Or you can take an online course about how to edit your writing? 

 video: What is the Difference b/w Editing and Proofreading (With Examples) | Editing v/s Proofreading 

With greetings: Al - Manara Consulting to help researchers and graduate students