Taunton.com seeks a production copy editor for its Fine Homebuilding magazine. You must be experienced with InDesign and while home building experience isn’t required, it is a definite plus.

There’s a New Jersey-based temp editor/proofreader job listed–just one of many editing gigs listed–at the creative temp agency Adecco. If you’re really in need of some work, a creative temp agency might be a good thing…

GSW Worldwide has an opening for a health editor--a fulltime position which includes the usual proofing, fact-check and accuracy detail needed for medical writing.

AOL wants an editor for its AisleDash section. AisleDash sounds to us like some kind of grocery store deal finder gig, but this is actually a wedding-themed operation. The ad mentions a “deep comittment to read weddings for real women.” We do find the lack of diversity in this ad a bit amusingly sad (after all, gay couples like to get married, too.) but we know they were just trying to get the ad running and probably aren’t interested in political hot potato-tossing.

Being avid Penn & Teller fans, we weren’t sure if we should run this, but it IS an editor job and we won’t turn our nose up at a paycheck for a hungry editor who might need the gig. PETA advertises an editor opening, but let the applicant beware, they want someone who can speak Spanish and/or Dutch. They aren’t asking much on the Dutch front, eh? Perhaps the right person could convince them to moderate the rhetoric a bit? But that’s editorializing…and this is an editor job listing.

As always, if you know of a good editor gig, please don’t hesitate to share with the rest of us!

Can online writers learn anything from this book? There’s certainly nothing wrong with applying the same fact checking and layout concepts where appropriate. In fact, I think many websites could use with a bit more thinking time in the visual presentation–perhaps a move towards more print-based visual aesthetics could be a good thing.

In spite of the Amazon Kindle and other gadgets which intend to put the axe at the root of the trees of the print industry, print isn’t in its deathbed quite yet. This book should prove valuable to anyone with a vested interest in keeping print alive in the early days of their editing career.

What about the proper use of semicolons? WritingHood.com has four tips to help you remember what you learned so long ago.

And then there’s the flagrant abuse of the apostrophe, which has aggravated at least one person so much they dedicated an entire website to it.

ParagraphPunch is another site dedicated to a single idea, but this one’s for pay. Alas, some who need it are too stingy to shell out…but it’s there should you need a bit of schooling.

And finally, show your writers this Self Editing Success article by Carole Moore if you really need to send a message. With a little luck the writer will take a hint…but this is also good for keeping oneself honest when you lack decent input from a more experienced writer or editor.

by Joe Wallace

Dear Editor: My writers constantly turn in material that’s off the mark either with rampant errors or directions not followed. I’m starting to think I hired a staff full of idiots. Help!

There are many reasons why writers get it wrong when on assignment. Some of can be laziness, some of it is circumstantial, but the problem I want to concentrate on for this post is the one that originates with YOU, the editor.

Writers often fail because editors don’t give them complete instructions. Don’t assume a writer automatically knows what to do, especially if you’re assigning a project they might not have done before. One great example–I once assigned a writer to cover a news story about military airplane mechanics. My writer had never covered that type of story before, and I had.

She came back with an excellent piece because I explained to her what she could expect when she got down to the repair bay. I told her who would be best to speak to, the most knowledgeable person on the floor based on positional authority and etc. I also warned her about a couple of pitfalls that could interfere with covering the story.

Most reporters won’t know (the first time) that when recording an interview in a military aircraft repair area, you’re often dealing with a lot of aircraft traffic and you should grab your interview when it’s quiet (usually when you first show up for some reason) as it might be a long wait once the planes start moving out to the runway. Armed with that seemingly insignificant information, the entire story gets done in a much shorter amount of time.

But editors, if you don’t give your writers complete information–as complete as you know at the time–it’s tough for the writers to figure out what’s on your mind. In this particular case, I told my writer that I wanted a story about where the repair crews felt they fit into the overall mission–and how specifically they operate in that capacity. (Without the repair crews, there basically is no mission–once the plane breaks, the repair guys are more important than the pilots.)

Now think about that one for a second. If I had just told the writer to go down and “Get me a story about airplane mechanics,” while chomping my cigar, I’d never get what I’m after. New editors, sometimes detailed instructions are best.

I’m also grateful to those editors who teach me all these cute little grammar things that I had no idea even existed. In doing so they save me from a ton of grief down the road. As much as I hate to be confronted about my mistakes, this confrontation ensures that I will never, ever make that mistake again.

Of course, I’ve got a ton of bad writing habits that need correcting–and I’d happily correct them myself if I knew what they were…but I don’t. Which is why editors were created. To know. Of course, they have to forsake their personalities for that knowledge, but they feel it is a worthy sacrifice.

Kidding editors….kidding….

If you are trying to work with Microsoft Word and track changes while you edit, you may need some help. Look at the online page designed to do just that at Microsoft for some tips. This is also a great resource for writers who get documents back from an editor with suggested changes. Regardless of which side of the desk you are on, this is a resource you won’t want to be without.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that any first draft is something that you should turn in. A well-known writing professor once said, ”The only writing is re-writing,” and those are words of wisdom that should be followed. Any piece can be improved with another careful look. I’ve heard of writers who don’t do it, but I guarantee that when they turn in the piece, the editor wishes that they would have. Take a few minutes and go through your work again once it  is written. You might catch something vital.