Copy editors are extremely important in a news room. The read over the writing of others and make sure that the facts are correct, and that things like spelling and grammar are also correct. You may be wondering why a journalist couldn't just do that himself/herself. The reason for this is time. If every journalist spent the amount of time necessary to make sure that everything was in perfect order, it would eat up a lot of time. That is not to say that journalists don't spend any time looking over their work and making sure everything is in proper order. In fact it is a highly important practise to look over your own work before giving it in to your copy editor. The copy editor just provides another buffer between the journalist and the public, so the public can be sure they are getting the right information.
So what do copy editors edit? Well, when an editor edits, they use a list of mark up symbols which allows them to communicate the errors made in the piece of writing, to the author. Every journalist should know these symbols in order to understand the mistakes made in the piece.
As Jesse Snyder put it in his blog post: "everyone makes mistakes." Copy editors help to minimize these mistakes and that is why they are so important.
Picture from text correct website (http://www.textcorrect.co.uk/images/copy-editing-title.jpg)
Steven, you are on the right track with this blog post, but I feel like you could expand on it a little more. Where's the personality! You have a very distinct voice when you are writing, and I feel like this post is missing it. Nevertheless, you do bring up a good point when you say:
ReplyDelete"In fact it is a highly important practise to look over your own work before giving it in to your copy editor. The copy editor just provides another buffer between the journalist and the public, so the public can be sure they are getting the right information."
I couldn't have said it better myself!
I only noticed one small error from your first paragraph. The second sentence should start with the word "They" not "The," so you just missed the "y."
Overall, I think you did a good job of covering the basics on the role of a copy editor.