When we discuss writing and editing, there lies a difference that not many grasp: the distinction between line editing and copy editing. For a small business owner like yourself, understanding the two can make the difference between saving your online business (even helping it thrive) and losing in the business arena. It’s also a difference that can help you clearly develop your writing skills if you decide to write and edit your own content.
To understand the differences between line editing and copy editing, and why they are important, we should first discuss editing in general and why it matters.
Editing: The Way to Improve Your Writing Skills
The Internet is already flooded with too many grammatical, typographical, factual, punctuation errors, etc. Don’t allow your small online business to add more to this issue. How can you do that? Hire an editor or become one yourself. In this article, you will discover a couple of differences that will help you offer your customers error-free offers, regardless of whether you edit the pieces yourself or not.
Copy editing and line editing are two distinct styles of editing. But what is editing, and why is it so important for you to improve your writing skills? To put it simply, editing is a process in which you improve a piece of writing. It is any action you take when modifying a piece of written text.
Let’s say that you run a blog for your small online business, and a friend tells you that your latest blog post contains a lot of grammatical errors. You don’t believe him, so you copy-paste the text into your Grammarly. Indeed, the app shows you a lot of errors that you must fix.
How could this happen? You aren’t sure. Probably, you don’t master the English grammar that well, or maybe you don’t pay attention enough. What we are certain of now is that your text was improved by simply correcting these grammatical errors. By copying the text into the Grammarly app and making the suggested corrections, you did the process called editing.
In another case, you may not be satisfied with your company’s sales. You don’t understand why people aren’t buying from you as much as you’d hoped for. That’s why you hire a copywriter to analyze your text and make some recommendations to improve engagement.
For example, you didn’t use a lot of the personal pronoun ‘you’ in your posts. This makes your content less engaging, says the copywriter. He suggests changing a couple of stiff sentences by using the more engaging ‘you.’
Besides that, he notices that you have been using a lot of jargon. These specialized words are not that popular for those who don’t work in your industry, so the copywriter suggests humanizing your content. He suggests using more concrete language, simpler words, and avoiding jargon at all costs.
What the copywriter did was to play the role of an editor. He noticed some concerning patterns—patterns that affected your sales—and suggested a different language to help you win the hearts and wallets of your customers.
The two examples illustrate two different styles of editing. These examples highlight the main differences between line editing and copy editing—two ways of fixing your writing, the two ways of improving your writing skills.
If the two examples are not enough to grasp the difference between line editing and copy editing, we can discuss the two styles of editing further.
Copy Editing—Technical Examination of Your Writing
In the first example, in which a friend warns you of the many grammatical errors found in the text, we were dealing with a case of copy editing. While some call this style simply ‘editing’, it is best to call it ‘copy editing’ to distinguish it from the other type.
Unlike line editing, copy editing focuses more on correctness and consistency. If your text has grammatical errors, a copy editor will fix them. Regarding consistency, different style manuals recommend different spelling and punctuation rules. It is important to be consistent in how you choose to spell.
What does a copy editor check for?
> Grammar: Your text must follow strict grammatical rules. A copy editor will make sure that your text is free of errors.
> Punctuation: The text must have no missing commas, no run-on sentences, or no clumsy capitalizations.
> Spelling: Sometimes, people spell words incorrectly. Other times, they don’t keep consistency between American and British spelling. Copy editors ensure that consistency is followed.
> Typographical errors: Typos are part of the writing process. We all make mistakes, and the job of a copy editor is to spot and correct them.
> Syntax issues: If wording sounds wrong, it can be because of a syntax issue. Check the word order to be safe.
> Basic fact accuracy: In a world of fake news, checking sentences for accuracy is more important than ever. This is also part of the copy editor’s job.
> Style consistency: Follow guidelines consistently, whether we are talking about APA, Chicago, brand style guide, or something else.
In other words, the copy editor’s goal is to make your text correct, clean, and professional.
Copy editing is more technical and rule-focused. The rewriting is not done for style or impact but simply to correct the work. When copy editing, you rarely change the meaning of a sentence. You just correct errors that affect clarity and correctness.
On the other hand, line editing does something completely different.
Click here if you want to find out what the best free tools for editing and proofreading are.
Line Editing—When Corrections Impact Meaning and Style
In our other example, in which the copywriter took up the role of an editor, the purpose of editing was to impact sales. This meant that the editor didn’t just correct grammatical and punctuation errors—that is copy editing—but made changes so that the message can be understood more easily and faster by the target audience.
Here, we aren’t talking about technical correctness; we are dealing with improving a piece of text to generate more sales, in other words, doing copywriting, or to impress the public, in other words doing content writing.
A line editor looks for several things. Some of them include:
> Flow and clarity: Your ideas should move smoothly from one to the next, so the reader never gets confused.
> Tone and voice: The writing should sound consistent and match the mood or personality you want to express.
> Sentence rhythm: Your sentences should feel natural and pleasant to read, not choppy or monotonous.
> Word choice and conciseness: Every word should feel intentional, and nothing should be unnecessarily long or repetitive.
> Emotional impact: The writing should make the reader feel something, e.g., interest, excitement, urgency, trust.
> Meaning and logic: Your ideas should make sense together, with no contradictions or unclear reasoning.
A line editor doesn’t just correct your text as a copy editor would. No, the line editor vows to make your writing stronger, smoother, and more engaging.
In copywriting, grammatical and spelling errors are allowed. However, if the text is not strong or engaging, the piece of copy will not have its desired effect. That’s why the copywriter in our example was a good line editor—because his craft depends on line editing a text well.
Line editing goes deeper, is more stylistic, and requires creative judgment. It doesn’t focus on correctness as much as on effectiveness.
Line Editing vs Copy Editing
Now, we hope that you understand the difference between the two styles of editing. If copy editing is all about having a clear and correct text, line editing is desirable for better communication.
Both are important for your small online business, and both help you improve your writing skills by practicing editing on your own materials.
For your business, you need copy editing because content that is full of grammatical, punctuation, or factual errors is not appealing. With incorrect writing, many prospects decide to simply look at what your competitors have to offer. For you, personally, you need such copy to improve your writing skills. By practicing, you develop a better understanding of how grammar works and what correct punctuation is.
Line editing, of course, is more crucial for your small online business. You need line editing to have more impactful pieces. Better writing often means more sales, and it is something that you look forward to. For yourself, you should practice line editing because it teaches you the art of writing well and the psychology of selling.
Editing is a vital part of a small online business. You always have to look over and review your blog posts, online articles, social media posts, and other forms of content. You should never post anything online without going through the rigorous process of editing. Of course, you need to understand that there are two different ways of doing editing work: line editing and copy editing. Knowing the difference will help you choose the right actions and hopefully help your business become more impactful.
To find out more about the importance of editing and how to do it properly, we recommend reading this article on our blog, at ThumosWriting.com. Also, please check out our article on the best books for learning grammar. If you wish to copy edit your content, studying grammar helps.
