Proofreading or revision?

Last changed: 11 July 2023

If your text is going to be published, will have a long shelf life or be distributed to a wide audience, you may want to consider having the text revised.

Shorter texts for in-house use can often be revised in-house. For longer texts, you can order revision under the coordinated national framework agreement for language services. In both cases, you need to know what kind of revision your text needs.

The framework agreement provides for four revision levels:

  • Proofreading. The reviser checks spelling, grammar and punctuation. This is normally the last step of the writing process, a final check of the text.

  • The reviser proofreads the text and in addition checks style, sentence structure and cohesion.

  • A level 3 revision includes levels 1-2, and in addition, the reviser may suggest changes to the document structure and to headings.

  • A level 4 revision involves making substantial edits to a text, e.g. to adapt it to a new target group.

If you are ordering a revision, take a minute to think about how substantial you want it to be. Is it just the last check, or do you want the reviser to look at other aspects of the text as well?

Published June 2017.