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By: Susan Iskiwitch | 06/24/2008

The last time I was an editor was as a high school senior. I was one of four editors-in-chief of the Cranbrook Kingswood Crane-Clarion, and now I fully understand why there were four of us: in order to quadruple our chances of catching copy errors.

A piece written by Gene Weingarten published in Sunday's Washington Post has been making the rounds at Standing. Titled “Yanks Thump Sox,” the piece is a satirical look at the reasons why copy editors are no longer “necessary” in a world where newspapers are having to cut corners to make ends meet.

“If you are like I, you are pretty sick of reading articles about how the financially-troubled newspaper industry is making desperation budget cutting moves,” Weingarten writes. “One frequent newsroom complaint is that they are cutting back drastically in the use of copyeditors. The era of the copy editor is gone. Copyeditors were once an important part of the journalism process, back when journalists weren't as educated as they are now… Copy editors were fine-tuners, fixing basic but important things that a first line of editing might'nt catch.”

You get Weingarten's point; copy editors are essential and without them, the written word is less effective (and more annoying) than it's potentially able to be.

The public relations profession, just like journalistic professions, relies extensively on the written word. I'm doubtful the public relations industry would have the ability to maintain long-term client relationships if editors and administrative team members were eliminated; what makes publications believe they'll maintain the loyalty of their “clients” (readers) without their copy editors?

Read the rest of Gene Weingarten's piece and try to spot all of the “errors in fact, grammar, syntax and style that a good copy editor would have caught.”

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