At any publishing business, one of the most important people on the production side is the copy editor. Magazines and newspapers, especially, could not get along without their eagle eyes. Even in this age of spell check, grammar check and writing check, nothing is a substitute for a good copy editor. They do proofread material, but they may also offer suggestions for editing content.

A good copy editor will probably have a degree in English or journalism. Whatever his degree is in, the good copy editor will have strong writing skills, but more importantly, good editing skills as well. Good editing involves being able to reword a passage so that it sounds better, but does not destroy the writer's "voice." Good copy editors also have strong grammar skills. Reporters without journalism or English degrees are prone to make the most ridiculous grammatical errors, and the copy editor has to be on the alert to catch these before they make it into print.

A publication, particularly a newspaper, lives and dies on its perceived accuracy. If people start noticing many grammatical errors and poorly worded sentences, they will start to wonder whether the publication can get its facts straight if it can't even catch an error in apostrophe usage. When these doubts creep in, circulation can start to drop. A copy editor helps keep these things from happening.

At most publications, the copy editor is the last set of eyes on a story. The writer composes the story and, hopefully, does preliminary editing and runs spell check. The writer's editor then reads the story, making changes here and there, but is usually more concerned with content than with mechanics. When the copy editor gets the story, she is concerned with both.

Everyone has seen stories in newspapers and magazines that had paragraphs repeated or some other glaring error. A vigilant copy editor could have prevented those errors from ever making it to the press. This is why it is important for the copy editor to print out a physical copy of the page, rather than reading it on the computer all the time. A hard copy of the page enables the copy editor to see the whole thing, rather than just pieces at a time.

The copy editor checks the story carefully for spelling errors, formatting errors and content errors. He will check to see that local place names are spelled correctly and look for a hundred other things. Most copy editors also write headlines on stories, so they have to think of appropriate, accurate headers for articles.

The copy editor is also responsible for putting the stories on the page, and for page design in many cases. She checks to see that the articles get on the page in their entirety, and that if they continue on another page, that they do indeed "jump" to that page. Deleted paragraphs at the ends of columns and missing jumps give copy editors the nervous fidgets.

A good copy editor also checks any doubtful-looking facts. He checks numbers in stories to make certain they are correct and ensures that the correct pictures run with the proper captions, with all people in the picture correctly identified. In short, it is the copy editor's job to make sure that every page, every article, story, brief, word and headline is correct. Since the responsibility for errors always falls on the copy editor's head, it's a tough job. However, when it is done well, the copy editor has a publication to be proud of.