Copyediting
The cleanup pass: grammar, punctuation, clarity, and consistency fixed without changing the author's argument or voice.
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What it is
Copyediting is the pass that makes a draft correct, clear, and consistent with house style without substantially changing the author's argument or voice. Grammar, punctuation, spelling, agreement, usage, capitalization, number style, product names, cross-references, plus concision and light recasting where a sentence is genuinely confusing. The classic shorthand is the four Cs: correct, clear, concise, consistent. How far the recasting goes depends on the agreed editing level, from a light pass to a heavy one, so settle that before anyone opens the file.
It sits between two neighbors people confuse it with. Line editing comes before and works on sentence rhythm, voice, and flabby construction. Proofreading comes after layout and catches only surface errors in the final artifact: a broken hyphen, a widow, a wrong page number. Copyediting is the middle pass, and it is the one that needs the style guide open.
Gotcha: a copyeditor who starts reworking voice and rhythm has slid into line editing, and the author will feel it. Fixing a muddled sentence is in scope; restyling a clear one is not. Query, do not silently rewrite. Also, do not copyedit your own draft on the same day you wrote it; you will read what you meant instead of what is on the page.
Ask AI for it
Copyedit the text below. Fix grammar, punctuation, spelling, subject verb agreement, number style, and capitalization, and make product terms, heading case, and serial commas consistent throughout. Follow these house rules: [rules]. Recast a sentence only when it is genuinely unclear or redundant, do not restyle sentences that already work, do not change the author's voice or argument, and do not add or remove claims. Return two things: (1) the edited text, (2) a numbered list of every change with a one-line reason, plus any queries where you need the author to decide.