Copy editors’ plight in the digital age

What it’s like to obsess over usage and syntax when most everyone cares only about page views. Their unenviable lot—and more—in The Week in Writing.

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Also, a look at what makes a good love letter, writing for Whitney Houston, and the buzzwords of the week.

The copy editor’s life. These days, copy editing is as undervalued a skill as ever, and those who “only” copy-edit are finding it harder to stay relevant without picking up some additional skills (much like those who “only” write). This is sort of the idea of Yoni Goldstein’s piece in the National Post, which also chronicles the copy editor’s place on the newsroom totem pole. In a time when page views are editorial currency, Goldstein writes that “online news sites and blogs tend to be nearly completely unconcerned with the kinds of typos and grammatical errors that copy editors are paid to seek out and fix.” Read the essay here.

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