A Guide to Copy Editing: A Skill Requiring More than Savvy Writing

Writing and copy editing are two different animals. Of course, there are those who can do both well, but that doesn't hold true for everyone.

What, exactly, is copy editing?

First, let me point out some important characteristics that can make or break your copy editing venture.

If you don't know the difference between an adverb and an adjective, or you don't know how to identify the object of a preposition, you might not want to call yourself a copy editor.

If you use commas arbitrarily (maybe you write a sentence, close your eyes, and randomly put in commas), you're not a copy editor.

If you don't notice commas, semicolons, quotation marks, and periods when you're reading things, you might not be ready for copy editing.

OK. Here's a definition. According to the Chicago Manual of Style, copy editing involves both mechanical editing and substantive editing.

Mechanical editing requires a "close reading of the manuscript with an eye to such matters as consistency of capitalization, spelling, and hyphenation; agreement of verbs and subjects; punctuation; beginning and ending quotation marks and parentheses; numbers given a numerals or spelled out; and many similar details of style."

It's a very time-consuming, detailed task. Not for the faint of heart, and not for those who are easily bored.

In college, I copy edited my university's daily newspaper. After a while,I couldn't even read for fun. I found myself checking every letter and punctuation mark. It became a tedious chore. I've recovered now, but I don't copy edit all the time anymore.

Substantive copy editing is slightly different, but is still an essential part of the process. "It involves rewriting, reorganizing, or suggesting other ways to present material."

I think substantive copy editing is more of an art, whereas mechanical copy editing is an (almost) exact science (most rules of grammar are explicit).

If you're up to the task of copy editing, you have to arm yourself with two essential tools: The Chicago Manual of Style, and the Harbrace College Handbook. If you're copy editing for newspapers, use their style manuals...usually AP style.

Being a good copy editor does not also mean that you're a good writer. You may be good at fixing things for others, but writing from scratch may elude you. I'm lucky to be pretty good at both.

My preference? First, I like writing my own material. Second, I like mechanical copy editing. Substantive copy editing is only fun when I don't have to deal with bad writing and arrogant authors. What about you?