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Copy editing is a vital part of the journalistic process, and it's a good way to get your foot in the door if you're having trouble finding a job as a reporter or an editor, so if you're going into journalism, you'll want to learn How to Become a Copy Editor.
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Copy editing is a vital part of the journalistic process, and it's a good way to get your foot in the door if you're having trouble finding a job as a reporter or an editor, so if you're going into journalism, you'll want to learn How to Become a Copy Editor.
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Why be a Copy Editor?
Nancy Hanus, director of New Media for The Detroit News shares her tips and experiences from her newspaper career. For her, copy-editing was a springboard of experience that allowed her to move around to various positions at the newspaper and advance her career until she reached her current position. Copy editing skill is needed for many positions and she recommends it as one of the best places to start if you would like to move up in a newsroom setting.
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Introduction
- Copy editing is one possible step in a journalist's career path, and as such will require a bit of work before you will be able to actually find a job. There are ways to hone your skills outside of formal education, but having a college degree in Journalism, English, or Communications under your belt will raise your chances of getting a job immensely.
Step 1: Skills You'll Need
- A copy editor's job is to check written articles for grammar, style, word usage, and occasionally factual errors, so you'll need to develop an understanding of language if you want to go into the field.
- You'll need a firm grasp of spelling and word usage, for starters. For some, this comes easier than for others, but some things you can do to help are to look up words you don't know, and just to read in general.
- Pick up an Associated Press Style Guide. While not every publication follows the rules in there, nearly every US newspaper does, and the guidelines inside are a good reference when you have a question. Keep in mind, the guide is updated each year.
- Study world and local events, so you have a starting baseline to find factual errors. You'll also want to work on your internet searching skills to do fact checking.
- Learn to do close reading. While it's tempting for most to skim and read quickly to get through a lot of copy quickly, you'll often miss smaller errors when you do this. One technique is, after reading through once, to read it backward, so you pay more attention to each word. Reading aloud will also help you determine whether things sound right.
Step 2: Training
- There's several ways to go about getting training for a copy editing job.
- Most all college and university journalism programs will have copy editing courses available, so if you're already going to school for Journalism or other communications, such as Public Relations or Marketing, you'll want to take those classes. In fact, newspaper copy editors are expected to have full journalism training and experience.
- You can also look to get internships, or mid-career training from various journalism groups in the US, such as the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund, American Press Institute, the Poynter Institute, or the American Copy Editors Society.
- There are also online training courses, but you should be careful to make sure that the one you choose is legitimate and certified.
Step 3: Finding A Job
- This is probably the toughest part, just as finding any job would be. If you've gotten formal training from a college or university, that will make this somewhat easier.
- A good first step is to check the local papers in your area. Go to their offices, and see if there are any positions available, and apply if you can. Even if you can't, try and talk to the publisher or Editor in Chief, as you can never have enough contacts in the industry.
- Another good way to go about it is to check the listings online at sites like JournalismJobs.com, or Monster.com. Both have search functions that will help you find listings for whatever job you're after.
- With luck, you'll have scheduled an interview. You can prepare by brushing up on your skills; many newspapers or magazines will give you a tryout or a test run, so make sure you're prepared to exercise those skills.
Copy Editing on Google Products
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The Concise Guide to Copy Editing: Preparing Written Work for Readers (Paperback) - $10.36
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Questions and Answers About How to Become a Copy Editor
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How to Become a Copy Editor Blogs
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