Top 12 Copy Editor Skills to Put on Your Resume
Crafting an impactful resume as a copy editor means spotlighting the blend of precision, speed, and polish you bring to every sentence. The skills below help you prove it—clearly, convincingly, and without fluff.
Copy Editor Skills
- Proofreading
- Grammarly
- AP Style
- Chicago Manual
- SEO Optimization
- Fact-Checking
- Microsoft Word
- Adobe InDesign
- CMS Platforms
- Google Docs
- HTML Basics
- Time Management
1. Proofreading
Proofreading is the last line of defense before publication. It’s where you catch the sneaky stuff—grammar slips, punctuation stumbles, formatting wobbles—and make the copy clean, consistent, publication-ready.
Why It's Important
It safeguards clarity and credibility. Misses erode trust; sharp proofreading prevents that and smooths the reader’s path through the text.
How to Improve Proofreading Skills
Sharpening your eye is part habit, part method:
Practice daily: Edit short passages, vary genres, push your attention to nuance.
Know the usual culprits: Homophones, subject–verb agreement, serial comma consistency, number style, capitalization rules.
Use tools wisely: Run checks (spelling/grammar), then verify decisions yourself. Tools suggest; you decide.
Read aloud: Your ear catches rhythm problems and clunky phrasing your eyes might miss.
Take breaks: Fresh eyes uncover what tired eyes gloss over.
Keep learning: Reference guides and ongoing training keep instincts sharp.
Trade feedback: Join editing communities and swap pages to reveal blind spots.
Build a repeatable process, and your accuracy climbs.
How to Display Proofreading Skills on Your Resume
2. Grammarly
Grammarly is a writing assistant that flags grammar, spelling, punctuation, tone, and clarity issues. It speeds up line edits and surfaces patterns you can address quickly.
Why It's Important
It’s a fast first pass—useful triage that frees your brain for higher-level editing decisions like structure, voice, and logic.
How to Improve Grammarly Skills
Make the tool work for you, not the other way around:
Tune goals per project: Audience, formality, and intent settings should mirror the brief.
Create custom dictionaries: Add client terms, proper nouns, and industry jargon so they aren’t flagged.
Build style guides: Set house rules (hyphenation, capitalization, spelling variants) for consistent suggestions.
Review suggestions critically: Accept changes that fit style and voice; reject the rest.
Use it across touchpoints: Browser, Word, Google Docs—keep consistency wherever the copy lives.
Study the Patterns: Note recurring flags and fix root causes in future drafts.
How to Display Grammarly Skills on Your Resume
3. AP Style
AP Style is a widely used guide for grammar, punctuation, usage, and capitalization, especially in news and digital publishing. It’s the backbone of consistent, efficient communication.
Why It's Important
It aligns teams and publications on one rule set, reducing friction and edits while maintaining clarity and trust.
How to Improve AP Style Skills
Master the core rules: Numbers, titles, dates/times, abbreviations, capitalization, punctuation.
Keep the Stylebook handy: Check, don’t guess—especially on edge cases.
Stay current: AP Style updates regularly; track official updates and release notes.
Practice on real copy: Apply rules to live projects to cement memory.
Log house exceptions: When a client deviates from AP, document it in a concise style sheet.
How to Display AP Style Skills on Your Resume
4. Chicago Manual
The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) offers comprehensive guidance on grammar, punctuation, citations, numbers, and manuscript prep—common in books, academic, and long-form content.
Why It's Important
It provides depth and nuance for complex manuscripts, ensuring consistency across sprawling projects with many moving parts.
How to Improve Chicago Manual Skills
Apply it daily: Repetition turns rules into reflex.
Use the index and glossary: CMOS is vast; finding answers quickly is half the game.
Study tricky chapters: Hyphenation, numbers, citations, and capitalization deserve extra passes.
Join editor groups: Discuss edge cases; compare interpretations; refine judgment.
Make flashcards or quick refs: Summarize rules you forget.
Test yourself: Short quizzes on rules you routinely apply help you spot gaps.
Read widely in CMOS-edited works: Seeing rules in context locks them in.
How to Display Chicago Manual Skills on Your Resume
5. SEO Optimization
SEO means shaping content so search engines can understand, rank, and serve it to the right readers. For editors, that’s clean structure, relevant keywords, and reader-first clarity.
Why It's Important
Good editing that also respects search intent expands reach. More visibility, more readers, more impact.
How to Improve SEO Optimization Skills
Research intent: Identify what the audience is actually seeking and match tone, depth, and structure to that intent.
Place keywords naturally: Titles, headings, ledes, and body—never forced, always useful.
Strengthen meta data: Write specific, compelling titles and descriptions that earn clicks.
Use headings logically: H1 for the main idea; H2/H3 for scannable structure.
Optimize images: Descriptive file names and alt text; compress for speed.
Link smartly: Internal links that guide readers deeper; avoid dead ends.
Check mobile readability: Short paragraphs, crisp subheads, legible fonts.
Improve speed: Trim bloat—unnecessary scripts, oversized media, messy code.
Earn authority: Publish accurate, useful content that others want to reference.
Refresh often: Update facts, add sections, retire outdated parts.
How to Display SEO Optimization Skills on Your Resume
6. Fact-Checking
Fact-checking verifies every claim, stat, date, quote, and proper noun so the piece stands on solid ground.
Why It's Important
Accuracy builds trust. Errors spread fast and stain brands; verification prevents that.
How to Improve Fact-Checking Skills
Corroborate with multiple sources: Don’t rely on a single outlet; confirm independently.
Go to the origin: Track data back to original studies, releases, or official records.
Use reputable fact-checkers and databases: Cross-check against established fact-checking sites and academic or government databases.
Verify media: Reverse image search; check timestamps, locations, and metadata where possible.
Document everything: Keep a verification log with sources and dates.
Stay skeptical: Watch for logical fallacies, cherry-picked data, and ambiguous phrasing.
Keep training: Workshops and newsroom standards evolve; update your toolkit.
How to Display Fact-Checking Skills on Your Resume
7. Microsoft Word
Word remains a powerhouse for editing with Track Changes, Comments, Styles, and collaboration features that make complex revisions manageable.
Why It's Important
It centralizes edits and feedback, standardizes formatting, and preserves a transparent record of decisions.
How to Improve Microsoft Word Skills
Customize the Ribbon and Quick Access Toolbar: Surface Track Changes, Styles, Comments, and oft-used tools.
Master Find/Replace with wildcards: Fix global issues (spaces, punctuation, formatting) in seconds.
Use Styles and Templates: Enforce consistent headings, lists, captions, and body copy.
Refine review settings: Color-code reviewers, filter change types, and collapse comments to focus.
Enable readability and Editor checks: Scan for clarity, concision, and common mistakes.
Leverage references: Insert citations, cross-references, tables of contents; automate what can be automated.
Speed with shortcuts: Learn keystrokes for navigation, selection, and formatting.
Use AutoCorrect and Quick Parts: Standardize recurring phrases and boilerplate.
Co-author in real time: Coordinate edits and resolve comments faster.
How to Display Microsoft Word Skills on Your Resume
8. Adobe InDesign
InDesign is the standard for layout—precise typography, grids, master pages, styles, and export controls for print and digital.
Why It's Important
When layout matters (magazines, books, brochures), InDesign lets copy and design mesh without collateral damage.
How to Improve Adobe InDesign Skills
Learn essential shortcuts: Speed up navigation, selection, and type adjustments.
Use paragraph/character/object styles: One change, everywhere—clean, consistent, fast.
Manage linked text: Place Word/Docs content as linked files for smooth updates.
Adopt InCopy workflows when possible: Let editors and designers work in parallel without overwriting each other.
Explore plugins: Tools that sync external documents or enhance GREP find/replace can save hours.
Preflight and package: Catch overset text, missing fonts, color-space issues before export.
Export presets: Define PDF/EPUB settings for repeatable, high-quality output.
How to Display Adobe InDesign Skills on Your Resume
9. CMS Platforms
Content Management Systems let editors create, edit, and publish without writing code. Think workflows, permissions, templates, and structured content fields.
Why It's Important
CMS skills keep production humming—fewer bottlenecks, cleaner publishing, consistent output across pages and teams.
How to Improve CMS Platforms Skills
Learn the workflow: Draft → review → approval → publish, plus roles and permissions.
Use structured fields: Titles, excerpts, alt text, meta data—fill them well and consistently.
Build reusable components: Blocks, snippets, and templates keep formatting uniform.
Apply SEO and accessibility checks: Headings, link text, alt text, color contrast, and keyboard navigation.
Preview across devices: Desktop, tablet, mobile—fix formatting issues before go-live.
Track revisions and versions: Roll back cleanly; log changes and who made them.
Organize media libraries: Naming conventions, alt text, sizes, and rights info.
Monitor analytics: Watch performance and refine content structure based on real behavior.
Automate checks: Broken-link scans, image compression, and scheduled publishing.
Create a QA checklist: Before publish: links, images, headings, tags, authorship, categories.
How to Display CMS Platforms Skills on Your Resume
10. Google Docs
A browser-based word processor that shines at real-time collaboration, commenting, and version history—perfect for fast-moving teams.
Why It's Important
It centralizes feedback and eliminates file chaos. Everyone edits the same source of truth.
How to Improve Google Docs Skills
Live in Suggesting mode: Keep edits reversible and conversations clear.
Use comments and @mentions: Route questions and assign follow-ups directly in the doc.
Master keyboard shortcuts: Jump, select, and format without breaking flow.
Create document outlines: Headings double as navigation and structure.
Harness version history: Name milestones, compare changes, restore instantly.
Add-ons and preferences: Grammar aids, snippet tools, and personal dictionaries reduce rework.
Link Sheets when needed: Keep data live and consistent across documents.
How to Display Google Docs Skills on Your Resume
11. HTML Basics
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) structures web content. Knowing the fundamentals helps you edit directly in CMS or source files without breaking layouts.
Why It's Important
Small HTML tweaks—fixing headings, links, lists, and alt text—can make content accessible, scannable, and cleaner for search engines.
How to Improve HTML Basics Skills
Understand document structure:
<!DOCTYPE>,<html>,<head>,<body>.Use semantic headings:
<h1>through<h6>for hierarchy and accessibility.Master text elements:
<p>,<em>,<strong>,<br>.Handle links safely:
<a href="...">with descriptive anchor text.Work with lists:
<ul>and<ol>for clean structure.Add images correctly:
<img src="..." alt="...">with meaningful alt text.Validate: Run code through a validator to catch errors early.
How to Display HTML Basics Skills on Your Resume
12. Time Management
Time management means dividing attention across tasks without fraying quality. It’s calendar sense, prioritization, and rhythm.
Why It's Important
Deadlines hold. Quality stays high. Stress stays lower. Teams trust you with complex flows because you deliver.
How to Improve Time Management Skills
Prioritize ruthlessly: Separate urgent from important; sequence deep work when you’re sharpest.
Chunk the work: Break large edits into passes (structure, line, proof). Short sprints, short breaks.
Use simple tools: Task boards, calendars, and timers—Trello, spreadsheets, or any system you’ll actually use.
Set realistic estimates: Track your pace by task type; quote and plan using real data.
Block distractions: Turn off pings; use website blockers when focus is fragile.
Batch similar tasks: Approvals together, references together, queries together—less context switching.
Leave buffer time: Build margins for last-minute changes and fact checks.
How to Display Time Management Skills on Your Resume
