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Editing
by Stylus means reviewing text for content, including macro-level aspects such as completeness, overall success in
getting one’s point across, organization, flow, transitions,
paragraphing, appropriately worded headers, tangential information,
relevance to the intended audience, or tone. On a micro level, text is
reviewed for aspects such as word choice, sentence
structure and effectiveness, or need for footnotes or endnotes.
Proofreading
by Stylus means reviewing a nearly finalized document or web site for
format, including macro-level aspects such as patterns of error,
numbering (pages, footnotes, endnotes, figures, lists), proper
documentation for research, layout, bullets, or consistency, and on a
micro level such as punctuation, grammar, subject–verb agreement, and
spelling.
Scenarios
A confident and polished writer might simply want another person to review work that is ready for publication or dissemination. At this
level, when a writer is deeply involved in his or her topic, or has worked and reworked the text, minor errors and omissions often go unnoticed. Proofreading by a neutral additional pair of eyes
is most useful at this point.
A writer who knows he or she often has errors with apostrophes,
homonyms, or American English grammar may request a proofreader to
review text only in these specific areas. This type of writer might
also request individual instruction (see Writing and Instruction) in a specific area to learn to self-proofread when needed.
A busy writer, or a busy person without enough time to write, may
request an editor to identify areas of text which need more (or less)
detail, need to be documented, or might alienate potential readers.
This type of writer may also have a feeling that something is missing,
not clear, or not quite right organizationally; he or she may have
been told to whittle the document down to a certain length. In these
cases, editing the content is most helpful.
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