Why professional editors can’t guarantee catching every single error

When commissioning professional editing, it’s natural to expect a polished, error-free document. Many people assume that editing means every typo, inconsistency or minor mistake will be eliminated. In reality, even the most experienced professional editors cannot guarantee a 100% error-free text.

This is not a reflection of poor practice or lack of care. Instead, it reflects the nature of language, the complexity of specialist writing and the limits of editorial review – particularly in medical and medico-legal contexts.

Editing is more than spotting mistakes

Editing is often misunderstood as a process focused solely on finding errors. While correcting mistakes is part of the role, professional medical editing involves much more than surface-level corrections.

In practice, medical editors are responsible for:

• ensuring terminology is precise and appropriate for the context

• maintaining consistency across abbreviations, references, numbers and formatting

• clarifying meaning where language may be ambiguous

• aligning documents with relevant standards, guidelines or professional expectations

A narrow focus on eliminating every minor typo can actually undermine quality if it leads to unnecessary changes that affect meaning, tone or technical accuracy.

Why 100% error-free editing isn’t realistic

Even with careful, experienced review, some small errors may remain. There are several reasons for this:

Language is complex and nuanced

Medical and medico-legal writing often contains dense information, technical terminology and subtle distinctions. Some inconsistencies or ambiguities are context-dependent and difficult to detect, particularly when they are not objectively ‘wrong’.

Editing involves judgement, not just rules

Not every potential issue should be corrected. Some wording choices reflect the author’s expertise, legal positioning or technical intent. In these cases, preserving meaning takes precedence over making cosmetic changes.

Human review has natural limits

Professional editing is a detailed human process. No matter how thorough the review, it is not possible to catch every single small oversight – especially in long, complex or highly technical documents.

What professional editing does achieve

Although absolute perfection cannot be guaranteed, professional medical editing delivers substantial and meaningful improvements.

Edited documents are typically:

• clearer and easier to follow

• more consistent in terminology, formatting and references

• more accurate and less open to misinterpretation

• better suited to their intended audience and purpose

The goal is not flawlessness, but reliability, clarity and trustworthiness – qualities that matter far more in professional medical and medico-legal communication.

Managing expectations in medical editing

Clear expectations help ensure successful outcomes. Understanding the scope and purpose of editing allows the process to focus on what matters most for the document.

This includes clarity around:

• the level of editing required (proofreading, copyediting or more substantive review)

• the intended audience and use of the document

• any relevant guidelines, standards or constraints

When expectations are realistic and aligned, professional editing becomes a collaborative process that significantly improves quality without promising the impossible.

Final thoughts

Editing is not about guaranteeing perfection. It is about improving clarity, accuracy and consistency so that documents communicate effectively and stand up to scrutiny.

In medical and medico-legal writing, where meaning and precision matter, professional editing offers something more valuable than perfection: confidence that the text has been reviewed carefully, thoughtfully and with expertise.

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A note on terminology: The terms medical copyeditor, medical proofreader and medical editor are often confused and used interchangeably. To add to the confusion, there are yet other terms used for different niches such as plain-English editor, medico-legal copyeditor or editorial assistant (the latter is commonly used in medical communications). I personally use medical editor to describe my role, and medical editing to describe both medical copyediting and medical proofreading, as this suggests a hybrid approach as per my own clients' preferences ... plus, it's simpler! See here for more detail on the traditional differences between proofreading and copyediting.

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