"Can You Just Proof This Real Quick?"

A huge project came up this week at work: The tech people (who really have run of the company because the company I work for is Internet-based) put together an extensive project to create an interactive CD for our clients. Cool, huh? It will have scads of info on our company, its services, and so on. Our clients have been hearing about this for ages and now it seems the production wheels are in motion.

However, the techies neglected to include me-the editorial director-in the earlier stages of the production planning when they excitedly came up with dates they expected the new CD to be in our clients' hot little hands.

The general thought was "We'll just run all this info by Barb so she can proof it before the CD is burned and then we can distribute it."

Ah: "Proof." As in "proofread"-something they thought would be my only contribution to this huge undertaking.

They did not know that the undertaking on my part would be huge on its own. I wouldn't be proofing their content, I'd be copy editing it. They are two different things, and since their similarities were taken for granted, this super project will take a bit longer to impress the masses.

Proofreading involves correcting errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and the like. This can usually be done quickly by an experienced person, who needs only to scan the page(s).

Copy editing does all of the above, plus examines the bigger picture: Is the writing clear? Does it make sense? Are there sentence fragments? Are there redundancies? It is not merely skimming and marking off with a red pen; it often entails deconstructing, reorganizing, rewriting, making sentences parallel, changing verb tense, etc.

Because the massive amount of CD content was written by our tech folks, who are gifted in their field but who often need editorial assistance on documents, simple proofing is out of the question for this project. But I did take the opportunity to explain the difference, not just to them but to the other departments in the office (since all the departments run their written work by me before it's published).

I'd be willing to bet that most people aren't familiar with the difference between proofreading and copy editing. Most don't need to know. If this applies to you, I'm hoping that this is one more bit of trivia you can carry under your belt. If you do rely on grammar nerds such as myself, though, please note the difference. It will save them aggravation and it can save you time on a project!