Although I majored in creative writing and English in college, puffed-up language is one of my pet peeves. When would-be copy editors submit cover letters (and sometimes resumes) rife with unnecessarily obfuscating diction, I roll my eyes and click ''delete.'' If your cover letter makes you sound like a pompous café lurker who accessorizes with a copy of Gravity’s Rainbow, potential employers may fear you’re too high-maintenance and use that as an excuse to weed you out.
I realize you may want to showcase your literacy, but big words and long phrases, in and of themselves, don’t necessarily impress. Demonstrating an apparently effortless command of the English language and the ability to craft sleek, elegant sentences that use vocabulary precisely does. Don’t scour your thesaurus for impressive synonyms. Use direct language and the most appropriate words wherever possible. Remember: they’re not looking for a poet; they’re looking for someone who can churn out clean copy efficiently without lording it over the writers or obsessing over the wording of a clause for hours on end.
When writing your cover letter, get to the point and emphasize what you can bring to the employer. Be precise in your descriptions of your skills and accomplishments, but use business-like language and as few words as possible to explain yourself. Pack your sentences with information. Avoid the passive voice and wordiness altogether. And don’t try to make yourself sound like a quirky genius. You want the employer to perceive you as both skilled and easy to work with.
2. Don’t Be Too Confident about Your Editing Skills.
If you’re a strong copy editor, you may not know a single person who can proofread as well as you can. Nevertheless, in polishing your cover letter and resume, don’t settle for being your only proofreader if you can help it. It’s very easy to miss errors in your own writing, especially if you’ve read a document over and over again. Make changes based on someone else’s feedback if necessary and then let your documents sit for a while before proofreading printed copies of them yourself at least one last time.
Sometimes having someone else look over your work can even enlighten you regarding constructions that might be perceived as errors but actually aren’t. To avoid getting disqualified because of someone else’s ignorance, you can reword or reformat to make aspects of your resume less likely to raise red flags. Many people, for example, think it’s always incorrect to end a sentence with a preposition. It’s not, but you should avoid doing it, just in case.
Unfortunately, sometimes the people reviewing submissions from copy editor job candidates are not as knowledgeable as they could be and are quick to make rash judgments about what they consider mistakes. Of course, there’s always a chance this could hurt you, no matter how skilled you are or how much you tweak your resume, since many grammar and punctuation ''rules'' are not set in stone. But you can reduce your chances of getting your resume tossed by these folks if you avoid giving them opportunities to misinterpret your abilities.
3. Use the Right Style.
If the job description notes that you should be familiar with a particular style (AP, Chicago, APA, MLA, etc.), format your resume in that style. Doing so has two significant benefits: it allows you to demonstrate your proficiency in the given style and makes it less likely that the person reviewing your resume will assume you’ve done something wrong.
For instance, AP style, favored by journalists, does not use the serial, or Oxfordian, comma before ''and'' in constructions like ''I have a dog, two cats and three fish.'' MLA style, on the other hand, does employ the serial comma before ''and'' in such lists. Accordingly, if you use serial commas in a cover letter you submit to a newspaper, there’s a good chance someone there will decide you’ve employed commas incorrectly.
Certain style guides can be a bit pricey, but if you’re planning to launch a career as a copy editor, I would highly recommend getting your hands on the most recent editions of as many of them as you can. Check Amazon and eBay for relatively low-priced secondhand copies, and practice using various styles — rather than just reading the guides — in order to truly familiarize yourself with common issues you’ll come across. That way, when you apply for a new copy editing job, you’ll be prepared for any contingency. Even if a company uses its own style guide, the editorial staff will be impressed if you can demonstrate knowledge of a professional style and will at the very least expect you to be consistent in your cover letter and resume as well as when you complete the editing test they almost certainly will give you.
4. Look Meticulous.
There’s a common perception that excellent copy editors demonstrate obsessive-compulsive behavior in all aspects of their lives, not just their work. While not necessarily true, it won’t hurt to show up for a copy editing job interview looking even neater than the average job applicant. If you’re a woman, dress conservatively, avoiding wild, very brightly colored, irregular patterns, and don’t have a hairstyle that resembles a hair-sprayed lion’s mane. The same goes for guys, who should avoid the mountain-man look when it comes to facial hair. A neatly trimmed beard or moustache is fine and could even lend you a professorial air, but thick, deliberate stubble (or a soul patch) may detract from the impression that you’re appropriately persnickety.
Although dressing professionally and being well groomed is important for any job seeker, it’s particularly important for the copy editing job seeker. Most people don’t consider copy editing an especially creative job, so don’t go for the tortured artist look that writers can sometimes get away with. Instead, think ''android'' — polished, symmetrical, and extremely clean. I once had a coworker tell me I reminded him of Vicki, the pinafore robot child from the 1980s sitcom Small Wonder, because I dressed so conservatively and neatly and kept such tidy records. I took this as a sign that I had successfully branded myself in the workplace as a painstaking error-detector partially by managing my appearance.
Again, the idea that ''copy editor'' equals ''uptight'' may not apply to everyone who performs well in this field. But people make all kinds of judgments, conscious or subconscious, based on looks, and because there is a grain of truth to the stereotype, milking it can help you.
5. Take Enough Time.
When completing an editorial test for a prospective employer, don’t assume working faster will make you a more appealing candidate. Obviously, copy editing requires a delicate balance between efficiency and accuracy, but in most cases accuracy comes first. Failing to spot a glaring spelling error not picked up by Word is worse than taking an extra five minutes to complete the test.
The only exception is, of course, when the test is timed. If you’re given unlimited time, though, take as long as you would if you were given the assignment on the job. When I tell potential copy editors interviewing with our company to take as long as they want to complete the editing test, I mean it. I want to see what they’re capable of.
An added benefit is that simply by relaxing and giving yourself permission to work at a comfortable pace, you will likely increase both your accuracy and your speed. Without the distraction of worrying about how long you should be spending on the test, you’ll be able to focus and move smoothly through each sentence and won’t feel compelled to read the same sentence over and over because you keep thinking about something else halfway through it. Rushing will always break your concentration, so if given the opportunity, you must banish time constraints from your consciousness.
A few of these ideas may sound a bit extreme. Perhaps they are. They do come from the mind of a professional copy editor, and we all know how neurotic copy editors can be, right? However, if you’re serious about getting ahead in this competitive realm, I would strongly advise putting my suggestions to use.
