Understanding the influence of artificial intelligence on copyediting and its process is pivotal. There is no denying that the addition of AI has revolutionized the entire process, quickening the pace at which text is produced and improving the quality of the text.

The evolution of content marketing has been widely appreciated. In 2024, the global worth of AI-powered content marketing is estimated to increase by 24% and reach three times more by 2027.

With the help of AI copyediting services, editors can embrace the tactical part of their jobs, such as focusing on the content strategy, tone, or voice, and leave the menial tasks and useful analytics behind.

In the subsequent views, we will explore how AI is changing the traditional image of a copyeditor and how it shapes the future of content creation.

Table of Contents:

What is Copyediting?

Copyediting is a process that takes place once the draft of a written document – be it a book, journal paper, article, or any other piece of writing – is complete. The process involves editing the draft so that it’s grammatically correct, factually accurate, and easy to understand.

A copyeditor is usually the one who carries out the process of copyediting. However, with technological advancements, the responsibility is slowly shifting to AI-based copyediting tools to ensure that the document is clear, consistent, coherent, and correct in context.

What are the 5 C’s of Copyediting?

Online copyediting is used to identify and correct grammatical, usage, syntax, and punctuation complications as well as mechanical and thematic inconsistencies in a piece of writing. A copyeditor’s main responsibility is to ensure these 5 C’s while editing the content.

  • Clear
  • Correct
  • Concise
  • Comprehensible
  • Consistency

Evolution of Copyediting

In the 19th century, copyediting was done manually by people known as copyeditors, who provided copyediting services for hand-written manuscripts. Copyeditors corrected grammar, punctuation, spelling, and syntax errors.

With the advent of desktop publishing, copyediting shifted to computers. Copyeditors took to editing the copies of typed or printed manuscripts for books or research papers on text processors like Microsoft Word.

As more advances took place, leading to the emergence of digital publishing, the responsibilities of copyeditors expanded. Now, they have to review content for different formats and channels, like web pages and social media, and even take care of aspects like hyperlinking, formatting, factual accuracy, and multimedia elements.

With the emergence of AI, advanced tools have emerged to streamline the copyediting process and help copyeditors ensure that the copies are clear, consistent, coherent, and correct in context.

Levels and Styles of Copyediting

There are multiple levels and styles of proofreading and copyediting, as explained below:

  1. Basic Copyediting: This style of copyediting focuses primarily on revising basic errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
  2. Medium Copyediting: As the name suggests, medium copyediting tasks include improving word choice, sentence structure, and more.
  3. Heavy Copyediting: This level of copyediting involves extensive rewriting and restructuring of text to improve flow and clarity.

Why is Copyediting Important?

Copyediting is an indispensable process, especially if you want your publication to be in the market. Good editing brings a logical flow to your content and polishes your draft for all errors so you can send it to a publisher.

Nowadays, automated copyediting helps produce a refined draft and significantly raises your odds of selection by the publisher, thus expediting your journey to becoming a published author.

5 Best Practices to Understand Copyediting Styles and Levels

Wondering how to improve your text by developing a better understanding of various types of copyediting styles and levels? Read on to know some of the best practices here:

1. Attention to Details

One key skill that copy editors need is attention to detail. They should have a keen eye for various types of copyediting, their levels, styles, and errors, such as a simple misplacement of an apostrophe or comma.

This kind of tedious and time-consuming work often requires copy editors to review the content thoroughly before it is fully proofread and polished. This means combing through a given work and checking to make sure that all the details mentioned are kept consistent, such as characters and descriptions of settings.

To navigate this better, here is the list of elements you need to check or audit to polish a piece of content:

  • Grammar: Replace all passive voice sentences with active voice, fix instances of sentence fragments, etc.
  • Typos: Find and fix all spelling mistakes.
  • Punctuation: Make sure that commas, periods, and other punctuation marks are used in order and correctly.
  • Transitions: Look for cases of poor transitions between sections and paragraphs that make reading them awkward.
  • Structure: Check if the sentences and paragraphs are of good length and are consistent throughout the content.
  • Vocabulary: Ensure that the vocabulary level used in the content remains consistent to prevent readings from being thrown off.

2. Format Errors

Another important priority for a copy editor is to highlight and suggest various errors and corrections, such as grammatical errors, punctuation errors, spelling errors, syntax errors, and more.

While a separate proofreader can tackle these areas easily, a copy editor still needs to monitor and address them as they arise, as they may impact the work’s content.

Likewise, to better understand the best practices in professional copyediting, an editor needs to do thorough research for fact-checking, especially if there is no fact-checker working on a publication dedicatedly. This allows the copy editor to verify the accuracy of dates and events.

3. Clarify and Know Your Role

When you are trying to understand the various levels and styles of copyediting, it is also crucial to know your role and determine the level of copyediting you’re providing.

For instance, if you’re just beginning, it’s best to stick to the more basic responsibilities, such as looking for grammatical, spelling, and syntax errors only.

Likewise, if you have some experience in copyediting and are familiar with the style guides already, it is better to choose a more substantive editing role.

4. Format the Text Appropriately

Once all the edits in the content copy are done, it is important to ensure that they comply with the required formatting standards. For instance, the preferred editing format for novel or magazine copyediting is the Chicago Manual of Style.

Likewise, if it’s a news story, the formatting style needed is the Associated Press Stylebook. In some cases, you may also receive a style sheet, which is a proper template outlining the style of the publication you’re editing for (if applicable).

There are also chances that no formatting standards are required to follow in some cases. During such instances, the copyeditor needs to keep the author’s style consistent.

5. Be Flexible in Approach

Since every publication has its own set of expectations, concerns, and guidelines, copy editors need to be flexible enough to adapt to the requirements.

Copy editors should continually study grammar and stay current on language usage. Several style guides and thesauruses are available to help them further hone their language skills.

Lastly, copyeditors need to value critical feedback to better understand various copyediting styles and levels. This means having someone else look at the copy with an unbiased eye to avoid any errors or mistakes slipping through. Welcome the feedback offered by peers and clients with an open mindset to sharpen your skills.

Artificial Intelligence in Language Editing

Editing tools powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) employ natural language processing (NLP) technologies to detect weaknesses in composing readable text and improve its quality. These tools may serve a myriad of purposes, including academic writing, professional writing and correspondence, and even personal letters.

The most striking benefit of AI language editing applications is perhaps the fact that they can spot likely grammatical mistakes and typos almost instantly. They can spot misspellings, incorrect punctuation, and style lapses. In addition, these applications may enhance the document’s clarity and provide shorter forms of expression where possible.

Another advantage of AI-powered language editing applications is that they improve with successive users. Since these applications help users use a large volume of textual material, they mold themselves into the system and understand the typical errors. Thus, it becomes easier for them to learn to offer better assistance to users.

What are the Challenges in AI Copyediting?

While AI has advanced significantly in natural language processing (NLP), it cannot fully comprehend human language’s nuances, context, and complexities. It is crucial to use AI-powered technical editing tools as a supplement to, rather than a replacement for, human editing.

The depth, originality, and critical thinking that human editors bring to content creation may be absent from AI-generated material. Furthermore, AI systems might not always correctly detect and fix mistakes, especially in intricate or subtle texts.

Ethical copywriters must exercise caution when utilizing AI tools, avoiding blind reliance on their suggestions. They must scrutinize AI-generated content, ensure originality, and supplement it with thorough research and critical thinking.

What are the Practical Solutions to Combat AI Copyediting?

To triumph over the challenges, optimum collaboration between AI and human editors is required. With the help of the strengths from both parties, organizations can produce optimum results.

Some strategies to take advantage of the limitations of AI and perform at the maximum level are given below:

1. Human Control

The editors have a vital role in ensuring the quality and accuracy of AI content. They use their linguistic skills and contextual know-how to upgrade and perfect the work generated by artificial intelligence to meet the highest standards of quality and clarity.

2. Continuous Training and Improvement

AI models have to be continuously trained on high-quality data to be developed to be better with a minimum possibility of error.

3. Transparent Communication

Clear communication between AI developers, editors, and content creators is also important in establishing expectations and addressing potential issues.

4. Ethical Considerations

Establishing guidelines that address key concerns are crucial to ensure AI’s ethical use and deployment. These guidelines should consider factors such as bias mitigation, transparency, accountability, and privacy.

5. Blended Approach

Human ability being harmoniously used along with the AI tool will enable a powerful synergy for better content quality.

What are the Advantages of AI in Copyediting?

Now that you know it is important to strike the perfect balance between humans and AI, let us first begin by understanding the advantages of AI in copyediting:

1. Efficiency and Productivity

It takes artificial intelligence much less time than a human to copyedit a piece of content thoroughly. AI-powered proofreading and AI-powered copyediting can analyze a large volume of text quickly, significantly increasing productivity. Such artificial intelligence tools for copyediting are very useful for publishing houses that work on tight deadlines and a high volume of content editing tasks.

2. Error Detection

Even human copyeditors can sometimes fail to detect errors in spelling, grammar, punctuation, syntax, etc. However, with AI in copyediting, the chances of oversight are highly reduced as each irregularity is detected and corrected efficiently. AI can also suggest improvements to reduce such errors in the future.

3. Consistency

It is very important to maintain a uniform style of formatting while proofreading and copyediting. AI tools automatically apply algorithms and guidelines while copyediting to ensure consistency throughout the process. For instance, if the content targets the US audience, the algorithm will apply the US English spelling in the content.

4. Language, Style, and Tone Suggestions

Copyediting AI tools are intuitive and consistent. While editing the task, they can suggest improving the text’s language, style, and tone to enhance the reader experience and readability. For instance, it can offer alternative word choices or rephrase sentences to ensure clarity and improve the overall quality.

What are the Disadvantages of AI in Copyediting?

As with the emergence of any new technology, AI in copyediting currently faces several challenges, including the following:

1. Lack of Contextual Understanding

Even highly advanced AI tools cannot understand contextual nuances as well as humans can. They can easily misinterpret cultural meanings, phrases, expressions, and idioms. When they indulge in translation practices to understand the intended meaning, the literal translations overrule cultural translations and lose sense.

2. Lack of Subject Matter Expertise

Copyeditors have in-depth subject matter expertise due to years of practice and knowledge. Artificial intelligence’s preloaded data and information cannot defeat a human copyeditor’s domain-specific experience and knowledge. Often, AI in copyediting fails to accurately understand and edit field-specific writing, such as academic writing, legal writing, etc.

3. Absence of Emotional Intelligence and Sensitivity

The first robot, Sophia, to be granted citizenship easily said, “Ok. I will destroy humans,” when asked if she wanted to destroy humans. This demonstrates that artificial intelligence lacks the sensitivity and emotional intelligence to make ethical and moral choices. In the copyediting landscape, artificial intelligence cannot understand cultural sensitivities and certain language choices, and neither can humans.

4. AI and Data Biases

Artificially intelligent models are data-driven to amplify their analytical and decision-making potential. However, if the data used to train the AI system is biased, the outcome will also be biased. For instance, if AI has been fed historical data that stereotypes a certain community, the AI system will reinforce these biases in all the results it generates. Consequently, promoting a transparent and ethical data-driven development of AI is important.

How to Strike the Right Balance Between Humans and AI in Copyediting?

The only way to fully leverage the potential of AI in copyediting is by striking the right balance between AI and humans. Here are some strategies you can keep in mind to accomplish this much-needed balance:

1. Clearly Define the Roles and Responsibilities

The first strategy is to consider the roles and responsibilities of human editors and AI-driven tools. For instance, AI copyediting can perform the basic steps of copyediting, like grammar and spelling checks. In contrast, human editors can perform more complex and nuanced tasks, like contextual revisions, linguistic changes, etc.

2. Continuous Training and Feedback

Ensure that human editors continuously fine-tune the AI tools and technologies. They should constantly provide feedback and suggestions on accuracy and efficiency to improve the AI model.

3. Final Review for Quality Control

Before a draft is considered to be successfully copyedited, it must be checked one last time by a human editor. This will establish a robust quality check process and ensure all the guidelines are followed efficiently.

4. Adoption of the Latest AI Advancements

The artificial intelligence landscape is developing rapidly. Consequently, staying updated regarding improved capabilities and functionalities is important to leveraging its full potential. Evaluate your publishing workflow against the available AI tools to establish the necessary technological adjustments.

What are the Top 6 Emerging AI Trends in Copyediting?

Now that you are familiar with the basics of copyediting, let’s delve into the upcoming trends involving artificial intelligence and copyediting:

1. Advanced Grammar Correction Tools

Correct grammar is a crucial component of editing any document. While grammatical errors can make your piece of writing difficult to read and even drive people away, correct grammar improves the readability and clarity of your message.

Owing to the importance of correct grammar, AI-powered grammar correction tools are emerging, similar to those of tools like Grammarly. These tools use advanced AI algorithms to scan your document and spot typos, punctuation, and other grammar mistakes.

Once they have identified the errors, they suggest corrections to improve your document’s clarity and coherence.

2. Automated Style and Formatting Checkers

Good style and proper formatting can make your document look professional and visually appealing. However, ensuring consistency in style and formatting can be a tedious and time-consuming task for copy editors.

Fortunately, many AI tools are being developed to automate these tasks. AI tools use machine learning for copyediting processes and run checks through your document’s front, body, and end matter to spot inconsistencies in style, tone, and formatting.

Once they find them, they correct them according to your preferred style guide.

3. Advanced Natural Language Processors

One of the emerging technologies in copyediting includes advanced natural language processors. With their ability to analyze the sentences and their structures, they can help copyeditors identify the paragraphs and sentences that are unclear and thus need further clarification.

Their capability of making sense of the context further enables them to develop alternative phrases that can help you improve the contextual understanding of your document.

4. AI-Powered Plagiarism Checkers

There is an unlimited amount of online content available today, and as a result, you could easily end up unintentionally committing plagiarism.

In this scenario, only AI-powered plagiarism checkers can save you. AI-based plagiarism checkers can compare your document with the extensive database of published documents and flag plagiarized content.

If they find the latter, they provide you with alternate ways of writing the same content to improve your document’s integrity and originality.

5. Automated Fact-Checkers

Inaccurate information can gravely harm the credibility of your document. To prevent this, using automated fact-checkers can be very beneficial.

They perform fact-checking of claims, statistics, measurement values, references, etc., against reliable and verified sources and databases. If a claim or a reference turns out to be inaccurate, they direct you to the correct claim or citation. This ensures that the information present in your document is accurate and up-to-date.

6. AI-Powered Machine Translation Tools

In a world of globalization on the rise, documents are usually published in different languages today. As a result, publishers require copyediting in numerous languages.

To help with this, AI-powered machine translation tools can convert the content of your document into whichever language your publisher requires. Further, other AI-based tools can help your copyeditors maintain accuracy and consistency across different document editions.

Overall, these AI-based tools help eliminate language barriers and increase the odds of acquiring a global readership.

Top 6 AI-Powered Copyediting Tools

Let’s see the best AI-powered tools for your needs:

1. Jasper

Jasper is a powerful AI tool that allows copywriters and copyeditors to do their job five times faster. It can aid in writing and editing content like blog articles, social media posts, newsletters, marketing emails, review articles, and more. Additionally, it is available in more than 30 languages, making it easier for writers and editors to work with a language in which they have little or no proficiency.

Due to its affordable pricing and wide functionality, it is suitable for both professional creators and beginners. The basic subscription plan starts at $49/month if paid monthly and $39/month if paid annually.

  • Search engine optimization
  • Paraphrasing and rephrasing
  • + language support
  • Browser extension
  • Language Translation

2. Rytr

This platform is trusted by more than 6,500,000 copywriters, entrepreneurs, and marketers. Depending on the creator’s needs, it is designed to curate both short-form and long-form content. One major highlight of Rytr is its editing services right on the platform, saving the editor from the hassle of copying the content to a different platform.

Rytr has a free plan that can generate up to 10,000 characters per month with a built-in plagiarism checker. The paid plans start at $9/month and can go up to $29/month. The unlimited plan can generate unlimited characters per month and has additional features like a dedicated account manager, priority email, and chat support.

  • + language support
  • + writing tones
  • + use cases
  • Six creativity levels
  • Paraphrasing and rephrasing
  • Readability meter check
  • Image generation
  • Browser extension

3. Copy.ai

With over 90+ tools and templates, Copy.ai helps creators write and edit content in minutes. To create and edit with copy.ai, you have to enter your project, provide the platform with some context on the points you want to be covered, and then let the AI generator work for you. Lastly, you can also edit, polish, and publish with the platform.

Due to its professional-level proficiency, it has a trusted customer base of famous brands like Microsoft, eBay, Nestle, and Ogilvy. It comes in a free and pro plan of $36/month with unlimited word generation capacity.

  • Free writing templates
  • + languages
  • Enterprise-level data security
  • Free Demo
  • Vast resource base

4. QuillBot

Quillbot is a trusted partner of many copyeditors for its copyediting services, easy access, and exceptional rephrasing capabilities. Unlike other AI platforms, Quillbot does not create content. However, it rephrases content in creative ways. Editors can also choose the tone and fluency of the desired rephrased content.

Additionally, it is available in four English dialects: US, UK, CA, and AU. It is trusted by more than 50 million users worldwide and helps writers and editors save 75% of the time spent on a project.

It comes in a free plan, and the subscription plan starts at $9.95/month if paid monthly and $4.17/month if paid annually.

  • Summarizer
  • Citation generator
  • Translator
  • Extension for Chrome, Word, and MacOS
  • /7 help center
  • Free demo and payment refund policy

5. OwlyWriter

OwlyWriter is an automated proofreading and copyediting AI tool that is highly appreciated for creating engaging social media posts. To write and edit posts, provide a brief prompt, select a tone, and let the platform do the work for you.

You can also utilize the platform to brainstorm posts and caption ideas quickly. Some of OwlyWriter’s trusted customers are Domino’s, Ikea, the University of Chicago, the World Health Organization, Allianz, etc.

Beginners may find OwlyWriter a little pricey, with its plan starting at $99/month. For enterprise and professional pricing plans, you can contact OwlyWriter to get a quote.

  • LinkedIn post generator
  • Hashtag generator
  • Free trial and demo
  • Reporting and analytics
  • Network integrations

6. Hurix Digital

Hurix Digital is another platform that can fulfill all your AI-driven language editing needs. It can help you optimize all your written content with a few clicks. With seamless integration, you can integrate it with multiple other work tools.

Along with AI-powered copyediting expertise, Hurix Digital is known globally for providing many other digital services, such as digital content solutions, digital content transformation, and digital engineering. Some of our trusted clients are Deloitte, Ikea, Cambridge University Press, Cathay Pacific, and many more.

Due to its user-friendly interface and affordable pricing, it is suitable for both beginner and professional creators. You can contact the expert team to get a custom-made pricing plan.

  • ePUB conversion
  • Accessibility solutions
  • Pre-press and editorial services
  • Vast knowledge base
  • 24/7 customer care service

The End Note

There are many ethical concerns surrounding AI-based copyediting. However, human oversight and AI tools can take care of them. Considering this, Hurix Digital is a great place to start if you are considering outsourcing copyediting services.

The future holds immense potential for AI in copy editing, with advancements to improve AI’s understanding of human expressions.

As AI becomes more sophisticated, the creative industry must remain vigilant, ensuring that innovation does not come at the cost of ethical standards. By adopting best practices and fostering a collaborative environment between AI and humans, we can harness AI’s potential to enhance the creative process without compromising on ethical standards.

Having said that, Hurix Digital can assist if you’re seeking dependable EdTech solutions for your AI-generated content needs. With state-of-the-art hardware and software, we provide customized learning plans made to fit businesses’ particular requirements.

Connect with us to stay at the forefront of this exciting field, ensuring your content remains relevant, engaging, and ethically sound!