The writing process starts with brainstorming and discussion to generate an idea which leads to the selection of the topic and the objective for writing the topic and deciding the audience to whom it targets. This is called the pre-writing stage. Thereafter, the draft is created, which may not be absolutely perfect or final as it may contain a few mistakes or even errors. The next stage is the revision, where the primary emphasis is laid on the content and the organization of the idea, to improve the same and make it more clear.
Next, we edit the content by correcting and improving the spelling, grammar and punctuation, correcting mistakes and checking the clarity of the text. Lastly, the final draft is created for presenting it to the target audience, after making all the required changes and removing all the mistakes, which is called as publishing the content.
Revising and Editing are the two very important stages in the process of writing, in which the writer or editor seeks to improve the accuracy and readability of the material. Let’s take a look at the article to understand the difference between revising and editing.
Content: Revising Vs Editing
Comparison Chart
| Basis for Comparison | Revising | Editing |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning | Revising means to re-read the entire peice of writing and elucidating data or adding factual information wherever required. | Editing implies the analyses of the entire material by making additions, deletions and re-framing the sentences to make it better. |
| Performed by | Writer | Editor |
| Involves | Clarifying ideas and doubts. | Looking for mistakes and correcting them. |
| Follows | Drafting | Revision |
Definition of Revising
Revision is the second stage in the process of writing, in which the writer reviews the entire piece again, but this time with a careful and critical perspective. It is nothing but carefully verifying the material prepared previously to check what you have written is correct and appropriate.
Revising is a continuous process of reassessing the material and the arguments as well, along with reviewing the facts or evidence, recasting the sentences, substituting words, removing unnecessary details, and reorganizing the presentation, so as to make it more suitable for the specified purpose.
Some revisions take place as you write the content, and some take place after you draft your content finally and then read the whole piece of writing, to see whether it is conveying the intended message, as desired or not.
Definition of Editing
Editing is a crucial and challenging task, wherein writing, video, audio, image or any other material is made perfect, by modifying it. In writing, editing can be defined as the careful analysis of the piece of writing prior to its publication and suggesting the required changes to correct, condense, organize and alter it so as to make it more readable, accurate, precise and understandable.
It aims at removing the unnecessary data, improving the essential and adding whatever is needed to increase the clarity of the material. It identifies and removes all the grammatical and spelling errors, elucidate the ambiguous paragraphs, removing unnecessary information and properly arranging it. Basically, there are three levels of editing:
- Substantive Editing: Otherwise called as structural editing, when the editing process targets to improve the content, language, writing style, sentence structure and coherence of paragraphs, to make it appropriate is called substantive editing.
- Copyediting: The second stage of the editing process is copyediting, whose objective is to make the content more accurate, and consistent, by checking its grammar, spelling and punctuation. Along with that, it capitalizes, hyphenates and italicizes the text in the material wherever required.
- Proofreading: It is the verification stage in which the entire work is examined. It is like a final check on what is written, to make it ready for publishing. It aims at verifying that all the necessary details and evidence that support your argument are added to the document, without making it wordy. It looks for surface errors, if any, in the document such as grammatical mistakes, spelling errors, etc.
Key Differences Between Revising and Editing
The difference between editing and revising can be drawn clearly on the following grounds:
- Revision means to re-read and examine the entire content once again, to make necessary changes in the material, such as word choice, sentence structure, details, so as to make it better. On the other hand, Editing is a process that refines your material and polish your writing by making suitable changes in the written material. It is possible carefully reading and examining all the little and major mistakes in the document and suggesting the same to the writer, so as to make the material ready for publishing.
- The writer himself performs the revision of the document, wherein the author reviews the content with a critical perspective and alters the same, if required, for smoothly communicating the message. As against, editing is performed by a team of experts called as editors, wherein they check all the surface errors, removes the excess information and refine the necessary information.
- Revision focuses on extending or narrowing the ideas and clarifying the doubts. On the contrary, editing stresses on identifying all the mistakes and errors in the document and correcting the same and giving suggestions to the writer for improving the document.
- After drafting the content, revision is performed, which is followed by editing. Once editing is done, after that the content ready to publish.
Conclusion
To sum up, revising and editing are two different levels in the writing process, wherein revising is all about re-reading the whole piece of writing, so as to expand and clarify ideas, adding new thoughts, simplifying the statements, eliminating irrelevant information and updating the same with facts to date, and present them systematically.
On the other hand, editing is nothing but scrutinizing the material to identify mistakes related to spelling, grammar, punctuation, word choice, sentence construction, etc. and correcting them. It tends to highlight the main points and give the suggestions, to enhance the effectiveness of the material by making it crisp, precise and easy to understand.
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