Build a Copy Editor Resume That Survives Its Own Scrutiny
A copy editor resume guide with sample bullets, style guide keywords, and advice on word counts, error rates and CMS workflow.
Example Copy Editor summary
Copy editor with six years on a daily desk, editing about forty thousand words a week to AP style and the house sheet I maintain. Handles the final read before publication, writes headlines and decks in WordPress, and runs a monthly error review that reduced published corrections by a third. Also edits nonfiction manuscripts to Chicago style with tracked changes.
Skills to list on a Copy Editor resume
- Copy editing
- AP style
- Chicago Manual of Style
- APA style
- Style sheet maintenance
- Proofreading
- Headline and deck writing
- Track changes
- Adobe InCopy
- WordPress
- PerfectIt
- Fact verification
- Author queries
- Grammar and usage
What actually gets this resume read
- State your weekly word volume and the style guide you work in, because both set the level of the job.
- Mention the house style sheet you built or maintain, since owning one separates a copy editor from a proofreader.
- List the query style you use with writers, and show that you flag rather than silently rewrite their voice.
- Name every tool: WordPress, InCopy, Word track changes, PerfectIt, and any newsroom publishing system.
- Give a correction or error-rate figure for at least one job, since accuracy is the metric editors care about.
- Proofread this resume against your own style sheet, because a typo here ends the application on the spot.