Copy Editor

Freelance/Contract, United States

You are a Copy Editor who can cut through bad grammar and boring jargon with a knife (or at least a very sharp red pen). We are a fun, innovative financial media company looking for someone to edit articles on a contract basis. Could this be a match?

Who we are

For over 25 years, The Motley Fool has published articles, books, and newsletters to teach individuals how to invest better. Soon, we will be launching The Blueprint, a business advice brand by The Motley Fool, to rate and review software tools and services used by small and medium-sized businesses. The Blueprint team is seeking a Contract Copy Editor to make sure our articles are well-written and adhere to our Foolish style. This position is great for someone looking to pick up some editing work on the side (we require a minimum of 20 hours a week) — and you can do the work anywhere you want!

This is a roll-up-your-sleeves-and-get-dirty editing job. You’ll be on the lookout for problems of clarity, grammar, style, and accuracy, helping to ensure error-free and Foolish content. You’ll be working with a team of writers, editors, and other copy editors to produce business advice information that educates, amuses, and enriches our readers.

This paragraph has typos intentionally.

We’re looking for only the most neurotic editors, those who can spot a dangling modifier from 50 paces and feel queasy at the sight of sentence sprawl. If it bothers you that this paragraph has typos, and you’re wondering what crazy person would do that in a copy editor job description, you’ll probably fit right in with us. This positon calls for a lot of juggling, so we need someone who is adaptable, patient, meticulous reliable, and cool under pressure. Therefore, we’re ideally looking for someone who has had experience working for a daly or weekly publication.

Description

As a copy editor, you’ll publish articles directly on our website via the content management system, so you’ll need to be technologically savvy and comfortable editing online. If you like technology or experience using common SaaS software products, that’s a big plus since you’ll be reading software product reviews and buyer’s guides all day.

Primary Responsibilities/Objectives

• Edits and proofreads online content for clarity, grammar, in-house style, and general Foolish tone.
• Fact check and source check content to ensure high-quality
• Works with our online content management system to ensure correct formatting and article workflow.
• This is an editing job. If you don’t like copyediting, you’ll hate it.
• We typically require at least 20 hours a week to copyediting The Blueprint articles.

Core Competencies

• Ability to leap tall buildings and catch typos in a single bound.
• Grammar neurosis — you just can’t stop thinking about it.
• Attention to detail.
• Dazzling under deadline pressure.
• Ability to prioritize and organize multiple workflows.
• Comfortable working with a diverse team including other copy editors, in-house editors, and writers.
• Can roll with the punches – and maybe give a few, too.
• Dependable and consistent.

Preferred Qualities

• Comfort and familiarity with content written for the web.
• Knack for delivering feedback tactfully, and receiving it gracefully.
• Patience of a saint.
• Sense of humor — if you can’t laugh at yourself, forget it.
• Undergraduate degree in English, journalism, or a related field, which may be substituted for equivalent experience.
• At least two years of professional editing experience.
• Experience editing content related to business, financial, technology, or software