Copy Editors

Experience gained while in college through internships, volunteering to help a nonprofit with its newsletter, or working on your college newspaper or yearbook are among the methods to gain the skills necessary for employment as a copy editor.

Good copy editors are fanatics for the written word. Their passion for good writing comes close to the point of obsession. They are analytical people who know how to think clearly and communicate what they are thinking. They read widely. They not only recognize good English when they see it but also know what makes it good. If they read something they do not understand, they analyze it until they do understand it. If they see a word they do not know, they look it up. When they are curious about something, they take action and research the subject. They are not satisfied with not knowing things.

You must be detail oriented to succeed as a copy editor. The ability to communicate clearly and diplomatically, particularly when writing queries to authors, is useful in this work. You must also be patient, since you may have to spend hours combing manuscripts for inconsistencies and style issues. If you are the kind of person who cannot sit still, you probably will not succeed as a copy editor. To be a good copy editor, you must be a self-starter who is not afraid to make decisions. You must be good not only at identifying problems but also at solving them, so you must be creative. If you are both creative and a perfectionist when it comes to language, copyediting may be the line of work for you.