On Copy Editing

Copy editors are a little crazy. That's been my experience - and I doubt that any copy editor would disagree.

The posts on The Slot didn't do much to persuade me otherwise. Working form 3 til midnight (although, I doubt that they really get to go home at midnight, I would guess it's often much later, especially at a newspaper), the obsessing over things like dangling modifiers and the responsibility of finding libel - how could you not be a little different from the average J guy, right?

It's a valuable skill though, not everyone can be a copy editor. Especially because I work at a paper, I have so much appreciation for what they do. Even after three years of editing I would never feel comfortable passing any story through production without it being looked at by a copy editor (for example, I think I might need a comma after that first clause ....?)

I enjoyed reading Walsh's entries about the history of the name Slotman. When I was interning this winter the chief copy editor was called the Slot and I had no idea why. I also was surprised to see that at professional publications copy editors write heds and deks ... it's also sort of a relief that, as a journalist, I probably will never have to.