When writing a document such as an academic manuscript, a business plan, or a memo, several stages of editing and proofreading are involved. There are many choices for online editing and proofreading services, and it is important to understand a few definitions in order to make a good choice. Within the term “editing,” a variety of types of editing and proofreading are usually considered. The three main phases of the overall editing process are: (1) structural or developmental editing, (2) copy editing, and (3) proofreading. After you have written the first draft of a document, the document may need to undergo structural or developmental editing, particularly if the document is lengthy, such as a book manuscript or dissertation. To make things more confusing, structural and developmental editing can mean two different things depending on the type of document.

When writing a book, structural and/or developmental editing are generally required. For documents such as a research paper or article, structural and developmental editing may be combined into a larger category, or even eliminated, because time and budget do not allow for hiring a professional to provide both types of editing. With structural or developmental editing, online editing and proofreading services look at the “big picture” of the document. The focus in this type of editing is on overall consistency, structure, flow, and voice. The professional editor tries to make the voice consistent throughout the document and ensures that the structure and message of the document, whether a book, journal article, blog, or other written material, are clear to the reader.

Many online editing and proofreading services offer basic copy editing. While writers may do structural or developmental editing on their own, it is difficult to copy edit your own document. Copy editing is more detailed and focuses on readability, grammar, word usage, spelling, punctuation, consistency, and style. Professional online editing and proofreading services that focus on copy editing make corrections to any grammar or spelling errors, fix punctuation, and give suggestions when needed.

In the world of online editing and proofreading services, the final stage is proofreading. Many revisions may be made during a copy edit, and it is likely that a few minor details will be missed, such as an extra space between words, a few typos, or a letter that should be capitalized but is not. A copy editor is human and cannot be expected to spot every issue in a document in one round of editing, particularly for documents that require a substantial amount of revisions. During the final stage of editing, or proofreading, those last few issues in the document will be spotted and fixed. Proofreaders ensure consistency in spacing between sentences, removal of typos, and so on.

Editor World: Editing Services | Proofreading Services offers online editing and proofreading services for academic, business, personal, and other types of documents. If you have a written document, we can edit and proofread it! Editor World’s online editing and proofreading services offer more than 45 editors whose credentials have been verified. Our online editing and proofreading services are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We love helping you create error-free, professional documents by providing fast, high-quality online editing and proofreading services. If you have submitted your document for a round of editing with one of our professional editors and would like a final round of proofreading for the document (with the same editor), we offer a 50% discount. Please email us at info@editorworld.com for more information. We look forward to working with you!