Outside of editing/publishing circles, people usually use “proofreading” as a synonym for copyediting. They say they want someone to proof their paper or manuscript or memo, but what they really want is someone to correct their grammar and punctuation. Most of the time, the other person interprets it as copyediting, but this is not really proofreading.
When you ask an editor to proofread something for you, that’s a very specific form of editing that you are requesting.
So, exactly what is proofreading and why is it something I don’t generally do as an editor?
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