The Expert Editor has been editing academic papers, books and business documents since 2012, and we have been writing here since 2013. The blog answers practical questions writers face before and during an edit: What is the difference between copyediting and proofreading? What does a manuscript assessment look at? Which kind of edit does a draft need? We explain these things as we would to a client—plainly, specifically and with the needs of the draft in mind.
Every article is reviewed and approved by our editors before publication. You can read more about how we work in our Editorial Standards.
An Australian writer sits down to write for an international audience and immediately hits a decision most people never consciously make: which English? The manuscripts we edit are full of the evidence that this decision is usually made by accident — organise in one paragraph and organize in ...Read More
I marked mathematics papers for the better part of four decades — first as a teacher, later as an assistant principal who still couldn’t leave a red pen alone. When I moved into editing other people’s writing, colleagues assumed I was starting over. I wasn’t. Marking a proof ...Read More
Most people who ask us for "a proofread" don't want a proofread. They want their writing to be good, and proofreading is the word they reach for because it's the one they know. Often the draft in front of us has a structural problem — an argument that ...Read More
Updated 23 September 2026: clarified what the research shows about different kinds of perfectionism. Every editor knows the manuscript. It arrives with an apology attached: the author has been working on it for four years, has rewritten the opening chapter eleven times, and wants "one more pass" before anyone ...Read More
The email that accompanies a first thesis draft is a genre of its own. It apologises for the draft’s existence before describing it. It explains that the writing is "probably not at the level you usually work with." It asks, somewhere near the end, a question the sender ...Read More
Editor's note: This article was reviewed and updated in July 2026 to focus on how these words work in writing. See our corrections policy. Editors develop a particular relationship with vocabulary. Not the spelling-bee kind — the working kind. When you spend your days fixing other people's sentences, you ...Read More