Why Editing Matters

I'm a copy editor, and damn proud of it. I worked really hard to get the position, and was copyediting almost a full year in my previous position before I got my promotion to full-fledged copy editor at my job. I work at a publishing company, which is not the same as being a copy editor at a newspaper, I know, however recent news has compelled me to speak about this.

Editors and copy editors are losing their jobs at an alarming rate, and part of the reason (besides our failing economy) is that people don't see the need for that job function. I say, what could be MORE necessary? Spell check doesn't catch everything, and writers that think they're putting something coherent on the page usually are not. And really, that's to be expected... have often have you written something that differs from what you meant to say? An odd "and" instead of an "are", a misspelling of someone's name, a random typo... this are just some of the items that a copy editor would catch. Though you may not know the difference between "everyday" and "every day" ("everyday" is a modifier, such as "everyday hero", while "every day" as two words would be found in the sentence, "I brush my hair a hundred times every day"), I'm sure you would be more than a little put-off that a newspaper inadvertently had "Obbama" in print. Copy editing lends credibility... it's the constant question, "Did you really mean to say this?"

Please go to Why Editing Matters for the 118 reasons (thus far) that editing matters.

For more information about job losses in the newspaper industry, see here, or read Gene Weingarten's ode to copy editors here.

Psychic Training Camp starts today!

I signed up for a class on Intuition at the Open Center. It's being taught by Stacey Wolf, author of the book Psychic Living and others. The class starts tonight and runs for six weeks. Very excited!