When you are embarking on your career as a proofreader, a copy editor, a developmental editor or a ghostwriter, one of the first things you need to know is the difference between these terms and what each one means. Which one of these animals are you?
A proofreader is concerned with writing English correctly, so everyone who reads your stuff understands exactly what you are writing about. Thus, he/she needs to know how to write grammatically correct English, what tenses are and how to use them, what active and passive voice means and how to apply these two categories, what the difference is between them, how to spell English words correctly, what syntax means and so on.
Proofreaders need to have an extensive vocabulary, so they are able to select or correct word choices; particularly as English is an intensely difficult and complex language, with many shades of meaning, so accurate word choices are vital. That is why reading extensively is so important because the more you read, the better your word choices will become. These are the basic rules that govern the use of English.
Copy editors go a lot deeper into how the English language works. They need to know about the emotions that run below the surface of English writing. They also need to understand that every English writer has a particylar style and know how to recognise that style and respect it, because it is unique and precious. Copy editors need to have an extensive knowledge about many different subjects, professions, fields of endeavour and belief systems because a copy editor has to be able to write about and correct anything under the sun, including politics, religion, philosophy,engineering, medicine, for example. Good copy editors should be able to adapt to whatever the author whose work they are editing wants; particularly in our modern world, where everything is changing all the time.
Only a few decades ago, who would have thought that flying cars, driverless transport and tourists on their way to holiday in Mars would become a reality. It took an Aldous Huxley and a George Orwell to foretell such things in their books Brave New World and 1984, respectively. The first computer appeared in 1981, and look how far we have become in the computer technology field since then!
Ghostwriting is another story altogether. A ghostwriter is someone who has the ability to transform ideas communicated verbally or in writing into an intriguing story that people will want to read. A ghostwriter's services become necessary when a writer needs to produce an acceptable manuscript becaure the author, perhaps because of language difficulties, is unable to write effectively in English, but has something worthwhile to say and needs someone to transform his/her ideas into English.
As editors, we did not realise that we had been doing ghostwriting for years before we recognised it as such; and could then add it to the services we offer to our customers.
Finally, we come to developmental editing.
Brenda and I have never done developmental editing and thus we do not have extensive knowledge on the subject; and therefore, we are now offering it as a service. We plan to develop it as a growing area of expertise.
What we didn't realise was that we have been doing developmental editing for some time; as part of the copy-editing process; but now we are offering it as an optional additional service for our clients.
Developmental editing is when an editor makes structural suggestions about things like the sequence of sections of a story or non-fiction manuscript, stylistic improvements or amplification or de-emphasising of certain aspects of a piece of writing. In other words, developmental editing is when an editor takes an overall view of a manuscript and suggests structural improvements to it. It normally happens as a first step in the writing process.
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