A professional who prepares written material for publication, performing any combination of following duties. Responsibilities include:

• Reads copy to detect errors in spelling, punctuation, and syntax.
• Verifies facts, dates, and statistics, using standard reference sources.
• Rewrites or modifies copy to conform to publication's style and editorial policy and marks copy for typesetter, using standard symbols to indicate how type should be set.
• Reads galley and page proofs to detect errors and indicates corrections, using standard proofreading symbols.
• May confer with authors regarding changes made to manuscript.
• May select and crop photographs and illustrative materials to conform to space and subject matter requirements.
• May prepare page layouts to position and space articles and illustrations.
• May write or rewrite headlines, captions, columns, articles, and stories according to publication requirements.
• May initiate or reply to correspondence regarding material published or being considered for publication.
• May read and evaluate submitted manuscripts and be designated Manuscript Reader.
• May be designated according to type of publication worked on as Copy Reader when working on newspaper; Copy Reader, Book when working on books.