Being a copy editor is completely different than being a writer. If you love language, the actual structure and grammatical nature of it rather than actually writing new content, then being a copy editor might be the perfect job for you. People often think of copy editing as similar to writing, just a different role. In reality however, it’s a completely different job.
Your job as a copy editor varies depending on what kind of clients you’re taking on. On the most basic level, you’ll be reading over all the written material multiple times looking for grammatical, structural or factual mistakes. You’ll be correcting the many spelling errors that often slip through spell checkers.
You may also be required to actually edit how some of the sentences are phrased or structured. If the author wrote something in a convoluted or hard to understand way, you’ll need to re-word them so it flows better. The challenge is to balance this kind of editing with not stepping on the author’s toes.
In addition however, you might also be require to source check, quote check or fact check if you’re doing editing for a publication. For example, if the article cites a statistic from the 2010 USA Census, you’ll need to actually go to the census website to confirm the statistic was correct.
You may also be required to call up all sources in the article and anyone who gave quotes in the article to make sure they actually said what the article said they said. This is both to insure journalistic integrity as well as to product the publication against libel lawsuits.
What You Need to Get Started
To start, you’ll need samples. Samples for copy editors consist of “before” and “after” edits. The before edit shouldn’t have very poor grammatical structure, but it should be just “bad enough” that your edits really showcase your skills.
You’ll also need to learn AP Style or Chicago Style copy guidelines, ideally both. These aren’t rules of English, but rules of how newspapers and magazines prefer their copy to be written. If you plan on working for publications, you should be well versed in these style guidelines before applying for the job.
Getting Into the Field
If you plan on going into the field as a freelancer, then start networking with writers and browsing freelance websites like eLance or oDesk. Also periodically check on the “Writing Gigs” section ofCraigslist.
If you plan on working for a publication, try to network your way into the job rather than apply cold. No matter how you get your foot in the door however, be expected to be tested. Every copy editor who works for a publication can expect some sort of grammatical, spelling and copy editing test.
