It’s 2025, and everything is about efficiency – having as few people as possible doing as much as possible to streamline workflows and reduce spending. Writing and editing have fallen victim to this somewhat in that many employers expect writers to be editors and editors to be writers.

If you’re neither a writer nor an editor, it can be challenging to understand the roles and what sets them apart. So, let’s clear things up. What is the difference between copywriting and copyediting? And can you be both a copywriter and a copyeditor?

What is copywriting?

Most people know what copywriting is, as they may have done it themselves at some point. If you’ve ever written anything for marketing or advertising purposes, then you’ve written copy. A copywriter is an experienced professional whose job is to write copy according to specific briefs.

What a copywriter aims to achieve with their texts depends on the specific project and target audience, but they usually aim to persuade, inform and engage.

Here are some examples of things a copywriter might produce:

  • Copy to appear on a website
  • Articles and blog posts
  • Sales funnel copy
  • Ebooks and guides
  • Newsletters
  • Emails
  • Fundraising campaigns
  • Social media posts

Before getting started, a copywriter typically receives a brief from their client with information about the project, product/service offered, target audience, aims, tone of voice and, of course, the brand itself. Note that some copywriters operate in-house.

Communication is a key skill for any good copywriter. They must understand their audience’s needs, desires and pain points to write messages that resonate. The success of their work is often measured in relation to key performance indicators (KPIs), like time on page, bounce rate and click-through rate.

Whether writing for an ad or a blog post, copywriters need a combination of creativity, strategic thinking and research skills. Understanding the target market, product and competition is essential for creating content that stands out and does the job.

These days, a copywriter’s role often involves search engine optimisation (SEO), ensuring that their writing is discoverable through search engines. They need to know how to incorporate relevant keywords and phrases to improve a website’s ranking. Sometimes, a copywriter or client will hire an SEO specialist to handle this for them.

Copywriters might do some editing and proofreading as they go to make their writing the best it can be and avoid submitting a piece full of typos. It’s helpful if they have a reasonable understanding of grammar, spelling, punctuation and style rules to create good copy, but these things aren’t their priority.

What is copyediting?

Copyediting is technically a specific type of editing. However, to keep things simple, I’ll treat “editing” and “copyediting” as interchangeable terms, as many people do.

Here’s how the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP) answers the question, “What is editing?”:

Editing is professional help to make a text ready for publication or use by ensuring that it is clear, consistent, correct and complete.

Here are some of the things an editor (or copyeditor) does:

  • Corrects grammar, spelling and punctuation errors
  • Improves clarity and readability
  • Removes redundancies and repetition
  • Checks for consistency in the language and formatting
  • Sense-checks (and, in some cases, fact-checks) the content for accuracy, helping to prevent errors and contradictions

That’s a broad list, as there are different types and stages of editing. Some editors specialise in different things and, sometimes, depending on the text, they will do multiple types of editing at once.

Can you be a copywriter and a copyeditor?

“Copywriter” and “copyeditor” might sound similar, but they are different professions. I strongly believe you cannot be both and offer both services at the same time.

Writing and editing are different processes and skill sets. “You either create or you polish” is how I’ve seen someone explain this before. Unfortunately, I can’t remember where I saw this, so I can’t give credit.

I’m a polisher. I’m not a creator. I leave the creating to you or your copywriter.

There is a degree of crossover between the two roles. For instance, you can’t be a good copyeditor if you’re not a reasonably good writer. You can’t be a good copywriter if you can’t, to a certain extent, edit and proofread your own work.

However, I strongly encourage anyone to treat these two processes separately and hire an editor to review a copywriter’s work – even if they are a good copywriter. It’s always worth having a fresh set of eyes to independently assess a writer’s work with a specific focus on grammar, punctuation, spelling and formatting.

Is there a difference between editing and copyediting?

I call myself a copyeditor because, in my mind, I’m an editor who edits copy.

Think about it like this: “editor” can apply to many different professions. You could be a video editor, which is very different. Or, you could be a publication editor who is responsible for setting the agenda and compiling stories. For example, Anna Wintour is Vogue’s editor-in-chief. As a copyeditor, I definitely don’t do what she does!

But… copyediting also happens to be a specific type of editing. It’s stage three of the editing pyramid, coming after developmental editing and line editing and before proofreading. Find out about copyediting here.