Clay on the Copy Editor Code

Copy Massage, who collects dictionaries for fun, is working on his personal Code of Copy Editing. Stop by and help him add new stuff. A highlight:

3.) I will express my concerns.



Copy editors do their job toward the end of the production process. Their concerns, therefore, can be dismissed in the headlong rush to print. We have to be heard. Not all battles can be won, of course. Not all battles are worth fighting. But we have a job. We must do it.

I’ve been doing this work since the middle of the Reagan administration and I still find myself reluctant at times to raise concerns … only to hear other editors raising the same concerns when pages are being proofed. It should be the first thing they tell you in editing class: if something bugs you, for God’s sake speak up.