Welcome to Expression, my proofreading, copy-editing and copywriting blog! Thanks for stopping by.

I set up my business to follow my love of language, particularly written English. I thought I’d create a niche doing proofreading and copy-editing, with a sideline in writing. Guarding the gates of good grammar is something I do well, but while it’s often the case that editors and proofreaders aren’t writers – and many that I’ve encountered actively despise writing – I appear to be one of the few that can accomplish both tasks, a veritable Janus in the profession, and I’m thankful that choosing a career as a freelance wordsmith has allowed me this outlet.

For this first blog I’m musing on a couple of differences between writing and editing. The duality is a strange one, as the former is a creative output, while the latter requires a mechanical rigour that is quite the opposite. How do I get through the day with a foot (half a brain?) in both these camps?

Proofreading and copy-editing comes naturally to me. It’s an analytical process that is actually quite soothing, in an odd way, picking up errors and correcting them. Occasionally a phrase jars, and then the editing instinct kicks in to tidy up the English prose so that it flows in a more natural way to sit easier with the reader. It’s this aspect that sets the human proofreader or copy-editor apart from any computer spellchecking function or grammar programme algorithm – we read with a real voice in our heads.

Writing, on the other hand, requires a bit of a run-up before anything gets committed to paper or, more commonly these days, a screen. I have to get the kernel of an idea, then another, then type them in and expand them out to full-blown paragraphs. These then get cut and pasted around until they make the bones of a piece. Once it looks as if it has a natural progression, it’s fleshed out to the chosen word limit, something which depends on target audience, subject and a whole host of other variables. That’s when writing becomes editing once more, and I have to cull words, replace duplicates, and check for repetition of phrases. A quick aside - Microsoft Word is telling me that last sentence is a fragment that needs revision – I know it isn’t which is why I edit rather than let my computer tell me what is right!

So writing moves seamlessly into editing for me. There’s a multitude of Style Manuals to assist in the process – weighty tomes that list the rules that I and my fellow editors should follow to stitch together any written piece so that it conforms. When we follow a particular style (New Hart’s Rules, usually, for my clients, as part of the Oxford Style Manual), we can produce words that make sense to everybody; words that look good and read well. As is often the case, people can ignore this and write their own copy - usually very well - but if you think writing as following a recipe, without the underlying rules being followed, the words lose some of their intensity and flavour. Without editorial seasoning, it’s often blander, sometimes disappointing, and occasionally unreadable.

I’ll leave you with that analogy. As a writer I produce copy. As an editor or proofreader I then polish that copy, or your copy, to make a finished piece that has the right seasoning. Like recipes, the seasoning is different for every piece of writing, and using it in the right proportions is what I do.