Chapter One Review and Interpretation, Nancy Gordy and Susan Eder

A copy editor's job includes but is not limited to: assisting in adding creativity to stories, correcting spelling and grammatical errors, editing and organizing photo's and articles as well as determining placement, writing headlines and cut lines, and assiting in the determination of what is newsworthy. To determine what is newsworthy one must consider certain aspects such as: timeliness, proximity, relevance, conflict, unusualness, and prominence. Characteristics of a good copy editor include: being very factual, being well travelled, being well read in both fiction and non-fiction, having a post-secondary education, having experience working for a newspaper, having a good understanding of what is newsworthy, beeing a good writer, as well as being a good journalist but with more focus on being a good writer.

There are many steps to getting an article distributed and a copy editor is involved in many of the steps throughout. A newspaper would produce evidently lower quality material without good copy editors. Mistakes lead to questioning of the facts presented. Copy editors play a large role in reducing the likeliness of this occuring. They help build a strong reputation.

"Brochures are based on a set of very distinct production considerations" (Bowles 13). Brochures can take up to 3-4 months to complete. A timeline should be followed in order to ensure the final product will be completed on time.

Chapter 1 Interpretation:
This chapter outlined the many skills that a copy editor has in order to be successful as well as the importance of good copy editing skills. There are many characteristics that build a good copy editor. A modern newsroom was traditionally shaped as a horseshoe but is changing to adapt to online news. The editing process involves many steps in both a news story and a brochure where a copy editor plays a large role. In Chapter 1 we believe the difference between proofreading and copy editing should have been defined. In our opinion this would help give us a better understanding of what is to come throughout the course.

Note: Image from mattwright on flickr.