When I describe myself as a copyeditor, I literally mean I’m an editor who edits copy (as opposed to being a video editor or sound editor). I use this term for simplicity’s sake. I do other types of editing besides copyediting.

But what is copyediting? It’s a step in the editing process involving certain tasks, responsibilities and priorities.

In this post, I’ll share my take on what copyediting does and doesn’t involve. My views are inspired by the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading’s official definition of copyediting and my own real-life experiences of helping clients with their writing.

What does copyediting involve?

The traditional editing process, as it is widely accepted, has four stages. Copyediting is stage three.

  1. Developmental editing
  2. Line editing
  3. Copyediting
  4. Proofreading

I say “the traditional editing process” because editors don’t necessarily follow this sequence of steps for every text. For a book, I would. For a blog post, my approach would be more hybrid and less sequential. Requirements and practicalities differ greatly from one writing project to the next.

But let’s think about copyediting in the traditional sense.

When copyediting, I focus on:

  • Reviewing and correcting problems with grammar, spelling and punctuation
  • Ensuring that everything is where it should be (including pictures, graphs, tables and footnotes)
  • Optimising the document for effective layout and design by addressing things like headings and paragraph length
  • Ensuring consistent style:
    • Formatting: checking elements like headings, page numbers and indentation. For example, you don’t want to have left-aligned text on one page and justified text on another. I’ll make sure you don’t.
    • Language: checking spelling and punctuation. For example, I check that you haven’t written the name “Megan” at the start and “Meghan” at the end and that you haven’t used an en dash (–) in one paragraph and an em dash (—) in another.
  • Checking consistency in facts, opinions and descriptions – for example, checking that you haven’t said April is the best time to visit Langkawi in one paragraph and that it’s October in another
  • Querying facts and statistics that seem incorrect

If line editing is opinionated and stylistic, copyediting is technical and mechanical. It’s the stage that focuses on style and formatting to ensure accuracy and consistency. It gives your writing a professional and tidy finish.

What does copyediting not involve?

Copyediting does not involve the following:

  • Reviewing syntax and word choice to make your writing “sound better”
  • Giving you advice on structure and the sequence of information
  • Writing or rewriting large sections of text
  • Overhauling the writer’s tone, structure or argument
  • Fact-checking (unless otherwise agreed)

Copyediting’s place in the editing process

Now that you know what copyediting is, let’s look at when it should take place.

What happens before copyediting?

  1. Developmental editing
  2. Line editing
  3. Copyediting
  4. Proofreading

Developmental/structural editing and line editing are the two steps that come before copyediting. I wanted to focus on copyediting in this post, so I’ll only give a brief overview of what these stages involve.

  • Developmental editing (some people like to call it structural editing) involves a broad, big-picture focus. The minutiae of how you’ve written something don’t really matter here; what matters is what you’ve written and where you’ve written it. During this phase, an editor assesses the text’s content, structure and flow, suggesting improvements. They might suggest a more logical chapter order, highlight where detail is sparse or flag inconsistencies with the heading structure within chapters.
  • Line editing involves making edits to make your writing sound better and achieve its goal more effectively. Here, the focus is word choice, tone and sentence structure. It involves a lot of rearranging and tweaking. When I line edit, I don’t deal with spelling, punctuation or formatting; I would handle these issues when copyediting. For shorter texts, I combine line editing and copyediting as a joint service.

What happens after copyediting?

  1. Developmental editing
  2. Line editing
  3. Copyediting
  4. Proofreading

After copyediting, the text should be finished. No further edits should be made after this point. However, that’s not to say the text is perfect and ready to publish. There might be some typos you have missed. This is where proofreading comes in.

Proofreading is the final error check that all writers need to invest in. It’s dedicated quality control of text and layout to guarantee perfection and give you peace of mind.

If you have written something like a book or report, you’d have your text typeset after copyediting. Typesetting is the process of arranging the content into its final format. After this has been done, you need to hire a proofreader to flag and remove all remaining typographical errors.

Benefits of having your text copyedited

Here are some quick benefits of having your text copyedited:

  • It makes your text as clear as possible so that it communicates your message without distracting or confusing your reader.
  • It gives your text/document a consistent and tidy finish, making you or your business seem professional and detail-oriented.
  • It helps ensure there are no factual errors in your text due to inconsistency, i.e., it flags inconsistent terminology and spelling.

Copyediting FAQs

Does copyediting remove every single error?

Your copyeditor should catch a high percentage of errors. After they have finished their work, you can confidently send your text to your designer or typesetter.

However, when the designer has finished their work, it’s time for another vital step: proofreading.

Here are some points to bear in mind:

  • Don’t assume that your copyeditor caught everything. It’s their job to focus on many things – not just spelling, grammar and punctuation. During their review, they are still suggesting changes to your text that will enhance it. Editing naturally introduces the risk of errors.
  • Your designer may introduce errors while transferring your text from Microsoft Word or Google Docs.
  • Your copyeditor can only control what they see. Their responsibility ends when you send the text to your designer. Past that point, quality control is categorised as proofreading and handled by a proofreader.
  • A proofreader is a specialist who checks your text in its publishing-ready format, so they see different elements to your copyeditor (such as images and other design elements). As a result, they may identify unique errors.

Can you copyedit and proofread at the same time?

No. If you have made edits to a piece of writing, you need to proofread it separately in another sweep.

Copyediting naturally involves proofreading for mistakes, but it’s not the sole focus. When I proofread, 100% of my attention is on finding and fixing typographical or design-related errors.

Is there a difference between copyediting, copy-editing and copy editing?

Copyediting, copy-editing and copy editing are three different ways to write the same word.

I’ve chosen to use “copyediting” in my business as it’s the simplest version, and others are just as acceptable.

What does copyediting cost?

As of March 2025, CIEP’s suggested minimum rate for copyeditors in the UK is £35.75 per hour.

I follow this suggested rate, but I offer discounts for large volumes of text and often prefer to charge a fixed-price fee.

Are you working on a writing project and want a quote for copyediting? Or do you just need some advice on what your text needs to improve it? Send me a message here or via email to discuss prices and timeframes!