[L]ately the vigilance of even the great houses has flagged, and typos are everywhere. […] How did it happen?

Editors I spoke to confirmed my guesses. Before digital technology unsettled both the economics and the routines of book publishing, they explained, most publishers employed battalions of full-time copy editors and proofreaders to filter out an author’s mistakes. Now, they are gone.

— Virginia Heffernan, The New York Times

Perhaps it’s not about waiting for content to hit rock bottom before editing makes a comeback. Maybe it just needs to hit the bottom line hard enough for companies to recognize the value of editors.

Do you have any tips to share with other professional writers, editors, and designers?

“Never, ever, ever take a job for the money. Just when I think I’ve learned this lesson, I fall back in the hole and end up hating myself, the publication, the world. Only pick the jobs and assignments that are going to make you proud.” — Alissa Walker, Freelance writer

“I’m sure you’ve heard this one before — write regularly. Or if you design, design regularly. It’s the only way to keep your skills sharp and your audience engaged. Also, expose yourself to a lot of newness. New news, new people, new places, new ideas. It spurs creativity and gives you interesting content and perspective. Newness can also mean variety. I’ve noticed that some of the best writers and designers I’ve met have built up experience in many sizes, formats, and mediums.” — Tim Gasper, Keepstream co-founder / The Appconomy contributor

“Be a student of your industry. Read/look at as much work from others in your industry as you can to see how the pros are doing it. Start some kind of “inspiration spot” where you save photos or links or samples of things that inspire you so you can reference them later. But probably the most important thing is to just get out there and create something. Write a blog, take photos, redesign ads or publications you like, just practice your craft and set it free for others to see. You’ll learn the most when you have to stand behind content you’re creating.” — Becky Johns, Account Executive, Agency Communications at Cramer-Krasselt / Freelance Photographer

“Be true to yourself, your skills, and your internal motivations. Be confident in yourself in order to take steps to be doing exactly what you want to be doing. If it were easy, everyone would be doing fine art or publishing a magazine. Having faith in yourself, finding the benefit in what you’re doing, and staying optimistic are the most important things.” — Chad Kouri, Maker and Doer

Thank you to all our featured professionals who gave us a glimpse into the work they do, from how they create and communicate in their job to how they define professional writing. For more inspiration, be sure to check out all our interviews with young professionals.

Our featured professionals will give us a glimpse into the work they do, from how they create and communicate in their job to how they define professional writing.

The Spring series will kick off tomorrow, April 27. Until then, get inspired by browsing our past features of young professionals.

If you ask someone what an editor does, you’ll hear words like grammar, flow, style, accuracy, spelling, and tone, among others. Editors strive for perfection from behind the scenes, and if you are great at what you do, you are invisible.

No one will look at an edited article and think, I am certain that, once upon a time, there was a double quote where there should have been a single, and a wise person fixed the issue for my benefit. But if you let a “their” slip through in the place of a “there,” you are a complete moron.
— “What It’s Really Like to be a Copy Editor“

But editors are more than real-life spellcheckers and grammar police — real editors ship:

These are people who are good at process. They think about calendars, schedules, checklists, and get freaked out when schedules slip. Their jobs are to aggregate information, parse it, restructure it, and make sure it meets standards. They are basically QA for language and meaning.

This is only a small snippet from an article by Paul Ford that I consider a must-read for both editors and non-editors — the former because it offers language for explaining the many facets of the role, and the latter because it speaks to how important an editor is to the content process.

But sometimes words aren’t enough. How can something like editing be conveyed in a way that syncs with conventional performance (aka value) measurement tools? Enter a survey by Writing for Digital that sought to answer that very question. The result: when it comes to web copy, “well edited pages do 30 percent better than unedited pages.” That is a huge margin that quantifies an editor’s skills in a way that companies can understand.

Yet even when I explain how editing is a part of the larger process, or that well-edited content ties in to the overall perception of a company’s brand, there are times I feel it is still seen as a skill that anyone can do with limited time, resources, and reward. I don’t think this is a unique battle; I think it’s the same one that designers are fighting when it comes to spec work or clients who expect quality but cheap design. So why does the devaluation continue?

Earlier this year, The Washington Post addressed an increase in errors in its copy, citing reduced staff and the changing duties of editors in regards to the online space. This is just one example of content suffering, and Alexis Madrigal, senior editor and lead technology writer for The Atlantic, suggests that letting the quality of content hit rock bottom is the only way editing can make a comeback:

We take good roads for granted in the US; our highway system just works, so you start to think of it almost as geology, almost immutable and close to eternal. But if you take a drive on the backroads of the Yucatan, the forest encroaches, large potholes appear out of nowhere, and the signage is indecipherable, regardless of your level of Spanish.

The Internet can feel like a jungle, and journalists are in the business of providing paths through the territory. Writers might blaze the trails, but editors maintain the roads. The vines are creeping and the potholes are growing. And maybe letting the road deteriorate is really the only way to make audiences and media companies realize the value of those whose names do not appear underneath the headline.

Maybe Madrigal is right. Maybe it will take more bad “roads” before people start to value editors again. But to not fight the perception that editors are expendable would be a mistake requiring more than red ink to correct.

Along with grammar and punctuation, The Yahoo! Style Guide: The Ultimate Sourcebook for Writing, Editing, And Creating Content For The Digital World covers a range of web-specific topics such as:

• Effective writing and editing for an online audience
• Techniques for streamlining copy
• Basic Web codes
• Internet law
• Search engine optimization

If you’re writing or editing for an online audience, this “Strunk and White for the online world” is a valuable resource to add to your arsenal. The guide is now available in both print and digital versions, plus book extracts, additional resources, and an “Ask an Editor” feature can be found online.

To clarify before I continue, there are three dashes in all English usage: the en dash (–), the em dash (—), and the 3-em dash (———). Try to think of them as hemlines.

The en dash appears frequently, but has a specific purpose, like, say, a miniskirt. It’s shorter than our little black dash—the length of the letter n. The job of an en dash is to show a range, be it of numbers, amounts, dates, scores—safely anything else that may otherwise require the word to between values. It is a preemptable piece of punctuation, so if a range is proceeded by a preposition like between or from, use the words to, from, or through in place of the dash. It is also a stand-in for the hyphen to avoid ambiguity when connecting hyphenated terms and open compounds. In other words, let the user beware of the en dash; it is difficult to pull off.

The 3-em dash is long and unusual like an evening gown, and you use it only on very formal occasions; that is, in certain types of bibliographic systems when you reference the same author but a different work. Sometimes, too, you use a 3-em dash in place of omitted words, like the black bars over bodies when the person has omitted clothing.

An em dash is a beautiful, functional piece of punctuation, perfectly balanced for all of your writing needs—like the LBD. It can arrest attention in the middle of a word party, exemplify good taste in relating a list, and is appropriate for even the most solemn of written occasions, even showing one overcome—with—emotion—. Its length is just right. The eye slides across the dash and focuses immediately on the words after it. You can see the space it creates, its slim line coming at you from a paragraph away.

The em dash is the most versatile—and not surprisingly, the most common—of all the dashes. Its foremost use is to set off digressions or descriptions within text a little more than normal. With these functions, a pair of em dashes make an interesting alternative to commas, colons, semicolons, and parentheses when used correctly. But be careful—too many will make your text feel breathless, much like how you’d feel wearing a little black dress in a wrestling match.

It’s true that some textual stylists conclude that the em dash is overused and should be avoided unless there are no other options for punctuation. However, it is more likely that they are tired of seeing such a staple misused and mistaken. Either way, the little black dash is one of those things you should always have hanging on your keyboard, a little piece that can do you and your writing so much good.

Rebecca Butcher is a recent graduate of Michigan State University and a new resident of New York. She is the editor of everything from your paragraphs to a generation’s array of emotions and enjoys every second of it. Drawing parallels without drawing conclusions is her second favorite activity. You can contact her, tweet her, and even facebook her with your thoughts in general — communication is what she’s all about.

Tell us about your educational/professional background.
I graduated from Michigan State University in ’07 with a dual B.A. in Political Theory and Constitutional Democracy (PTCD, that’s one) and Professional Writing (PW). I really enjoyed studying the leading writers in Western political thought, but I’m employed because of the writing skills, design processes, and use of the serial comma that I learned in Professional Writing. I spent a year at a small PR firm (with varying degrees of success) before taking my current job.

Tell us about your current job.
I’m a communications specialist with the Michigan Credit Union League (MCUL), the state trade association for credit unions. I’m in a department of four people that takes care of media relations, publications, multimedia, web writing (and a little bit of design), social media outreach, and member communications. I handle about half of the media relations load including writing press releases and op-eds, contacting reporters and pitching stories, and general strategizing for media outreach. We get to dabble in the political advocacy side of media communications as well, which I enjoy tremendously.

I also write for four different MCUL publications and am the editor/designer for one of them. We oversee the website content, so I get to do regular updates to the public affairs pages and work with other departments to improve the information architecture, usability, and writing in their areas as well. Our department does video work, generally for web use, so I get to write, shoot, and edit the occasional short video. My boss (the director of public affairs) is a former TV news guy, so I’ve learned a lot about basic video production from working with him. I also tweet occasionally on the company account.

What does a typical day look like for you?
It varies greatly, which is a real asset. In the middle of a major media campaign, I may do almost exclusively media work, including writing, calling reporters, and tracking stories, for the better part of a week. When the publication deadlines come up, I’m usually buried in Quark for a few days. Web updates happen daily, but the larger ongoing online construction projects are usually put aside when more pressing things come up.

Usually it’s some mix of the above tasks. If I’m on top of things, there isn’t usually much time pressure for any particular item. At the same time, it’s rare that I run out of things to do. I appreciate the variety and the time I have to play and create.

What kinds of documents do you produce?
Press releases, op-eds, a quarterly publication (for a fairly conservative member audience), as well as internal, informal plans. We tend not to have formal intra-office memos. Our communications staff constantly shifts between pieces written for members (with technical language, financial industry jargon, and pro-credit union slant) and the media (low industry knowledge, consumer focus, jargon free). Then we have to convince our bosses not to add in overly complex language and concepts to the media communications before they go out.

What communication skills are needed for your job?
Written, oral/aural, and visual design skills are all important, in generally equal parts. When dealing with reporters, you lose credibility quickly with misspellings, punctuation errors, and grammatical missteps — both in press releases and emails. You also have to be able to speak their language when calling and listen to gauge their interest in a story.

That said, those skills don’t matter if I can’t produce decent-looking, visual-rhetorically-sound press releases, publications, and web pages. I’m not a designer or a telemarketer, but I have to sound professional and create documents that look professional. The skills are different than those needed for writing, but the necessity of audience understanding is the same.

How did you prepare for your job?
Working for a PR firm gave me a firm grasp of AP style, working with reporters, and producing news-centered writing. For a PW grad, it’s the process of adding a very specialized audience to your repertoire. Never having worked for a news outlet of any sort, this was a big step for me. It’s not rocket science, but there is a lot of thought that goes into every lede and every pitch. It’s also done very badly by thousands of organizations every day, which makes it important to separate yourself from the inbox trash that reporters receive every day. Luckily, I’ve been able to conjure up design and publications writing skills from PW classes.

List three of your favorite professional resources/references/tools and tell us why they’re your favorite.
I use a number of different reference books to fulfill my style, grammar, and usage needs. I like having actual books because, after so much time staring at the screen, it feels good to turn pages.

AP Stylebook is the Bible. We generally try to stick to AP style for our publications (for our own sanity), but there are times when I turn to other books for specific publication-related questions. Chicago Manual of Style is comprehensive and often is able to offer two or three solutions for a given situation. I use A Writer’s Guidebook for answers to my grammar questions because its explanations make sense to me, for whatever reason.

These three are within reach at all times. Strunk & White is also on my shelf, mostly as a conversation piece.

How do you stay up to date in your field?
I have been somewhat involved with the local chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, and have been lobbying the boss for more funding to increase my participation.

I do read a number of PR-related blogs including The Bad Pitch Blog, which offers sobering tales of really poorly done PR, and the NY Times After Deadline grammar blog, which gives insight into both the pitfalls between a writer and clean, clear sentences, and the internal workings of a major newsroom. I also follow many PR and communications types on Twitter and benefit from the wisdom they share.

How would you define professional writing?
Professional writing is conscious communication. It’s writing a document and being able to make a supporting argument for every decision made in the process; it’s web design that satisfies the needs of three different audience groups; it’s a publication that gets its point across on different levels for different readers, both in terms of design and content.

Do you have any tips to share with other professional writers/editors/designers?
In my organization, one of my most important jobs is to be an evangelist for good writing. You do this by consistently writing well, but also by helping others to improve their writing and understand the goals of audience-focused communication. It is possible, though not always easy, to do this and still have friends at work.

The more we can share the importance and perspective necessary for better writing, the better our workplaces can communicate with each other and the less work we’ll have to do correcting everyone else’s stuff. The world is growing increasingly more complex, so people who can explain it and help others explain it grow more important every day.

Tell us about your educational/professional background.
I graduated from Calvin College with double majors in English and mass media. I worked as a copy editor and later a section editor for the student newspaper there, and held an editorial internship where I wrote for two city magazines before I graduated. I actually got my first taste of marketing through an administrative assistant position – the company put my creativity and writing skills to work by putting me on projects for an internal newsletter, some promotional materials, event planning and Web site writing. I loved that, but the administrative part of my job was unfulfilling and I honestly wasn’t that good at it…so I moved on to full-time freelancing. Now I am Motion Marketing & Media’s (M3) resident ink slinger and managing editor of Capital Area Women’s LifeStyle Magazine (CAWLM).

Tell us about your current job.
As M3′s resident ink slinger, I do a lot of copywriting for a broad variety of materials, from proposals to newsletters to websites to press releases and more. I also pitch a lot of stories and interviews about our clients to newspapers, television, and radio. I’m the primary proofreader for all materials that come out of the M3 office and I also manage social media for various campaigns. I work with the rest of the team on branding, communications plans, and events.

As managing editor of CAWLM, I coordinate the many pieces that must come together to bring the magazine to fruition each month. This includes conceptualizing story ideas, managing freelance writers and photographers, writing articles, editing articles, and working with the rest of our in-house team to keep tabs on ad revenues and layout design. I also oversee our reader outreach, including radio ads, the website, and the Facebook Fan page.

I wear a lot of different hats. It helps me stay creative and on top of my game. I love it.

What does a typical day look like for you?
The first thing I do in the morning is get my coffee and catch up on my e-mail. After that, my priorities are primarily deadline-driven. Every Monday we have a team meeting to keep us all up to date on each and every M3 account, and every Thursday we have a brainstorming meeting. Most of my time is spent writing and editing.

The closer we get to CAWLM‘s deadline, the more time I devote to proofing and layout review — the few days prior to deadline I generally take the entire magazine home with me to review before I get in again the next morning. After deadline, we hit a lull where magazine work is lighter and I catch up on client work.

What kinds of documents do you produce?
I write magazine articles for CAWLM, of course. For M3, I write press releases, talking points, website copy, blog entries, newsletters, proposals, brochures, media kits…a little bit of everything really. Check out my latest blog entry on National Punctuation Day.

What communication skills are needed for your job?
Strong, flexible writing skills are critical, as well as a solid knowledge of the AP Stylebook. But verbal and interpersonal communication skills are extremely important, too. I have to be able to convey a relevant, attention-grabbing story pitch in 30 seconds or less to a reporter over the phone, for example. It’s also important to foster relationships with clients and the rest of the M3 team I work with each day. Since we don’t pay our writers, being able to motivate and foster relationships with CAWLM freelancers is crucial for getting quality articles from them consistently and on deadline.

How did you prepare for your job?
The things that I have found to help me the most at every stage of my career so far have been maximizing the flexibility of my writing skills and not being afraid to ask questions to help me learn new things. I never turn an opportunity down. I believe I’ve been successful because of the diversity of the kinds of writing I’ve taken on.

List three of your favorite professional resources/references/tools and tell us why they’re your favorite.
AP Stylebook: This is the Bible for anyone working at a publication or pitching to them.

Copyblogger: This blog is updated constantly by a handful of blog and copywriting experts. They have great tips for staying on top of your game.

Thesaurus: For those days when your brain just doesn’t crank out the right words. And for learning new ways to say what you want. We have Merriam Webster’s in the office, but I also use online thesauri and other sources.

How do you stay up to date in your field?
I stay current by staying connected through expert blogs, Twitter, professional publications, and keeping the conversation going with other creative minds. I also keep tabs on the news, since I need to be on top of hot topics and trends, and read as much as I can — books, blogs, magazines — and try to expose myself to writing I admire to improve my own style and vocabulary.

How would you define professional writing?
There are so many facets to professional writing, but I would define it broadly as writing with the intent of promoting a business. But this definition leaves out so much of what a job in professional writing entails — the diversity and creativity involved.

Do you have any tips to share with other professional writers/editors/designers?
Read everything. Know your grammar and style guides. Be adventurous — new experiences strengthen your writing and creativity by broadening your horizons.

Our featured professionals will give us a glimpse into the work they do, from how they create and communicate in their job to how they define professional writing.

The Fall series will kick off on October 5. Until then, get inspired by browsing our past interviews with young professionals.

Tell us about your educational/professional background.
I have a B.A. in English from Grand Valley State University and recently completed an M.A. in Digital Rhetoric and Professional Writing at Michigan State University, with a certificate in Serious Game Design.

Work-wise, I have been at MSU Outreach and Engagement since October 2004, though only recently as a full-time employee. I also do freelance editing for Joe Darden, Professor of Geography at MSU, and helped develop the Beginning Farmers website for Taylor Reid in Community, Agriculture, Recreation, and Resource Studies.

Tell us about your current job.
Outreach and Engagement’s mission is to promote and support outreach work and scholarship across the entire university. My unit works mostly on content development and distribution–so reports, websites, brochures, conference support, ad infinitum. I help maintain three websites, write stories for our annual magazine, and, most frequently, design and edit scholarly reports. Thus far, my freelance work has been of a similar nature.

What does a typical day look like for you?
I get to work at about 8:00 and spend the first few minutes settling in (checking email, getting coffee from the coffee shop upstairs, etc.). Then I start tackling my to-do list, which today includes editing two stories for our magazine and switching out photos for a manual I designed. Whenever I have freelance work, I pick away at it for an hour or two in the evening, or for a few hours on Sunday afternoons (unless the deadline is incredibly tight, I give myself Saturdays as a day of rest).

What kinds of documents do you produce?
Most of my projects are scholarly publications. Joe Darden, for example, researches racial inequality in Detroit, and he’ll send me, on average, a journal article, book chapter, or presentation once a month. At Outreach, the work is a bit more varied–the manual I’ve just finished, for example, is based on scholarship but is intended for parents of young children. It required quite a bit of graphic design work.

What communication skills are needed for your job?
A strong knowledge of grammar is an obvious necessity. Outreach is a highly collaborative organization, so good interpersonal skills are also helpful.

How did you prepare for your job?
When I started at Outreach, I didn’t do much to prepare. When I was in grad school, though, one of the more important things I did was to connect what I was learning directly with my work. When I was studying Web 2.0, for example, I focused my research and final project on an analysis of how Outreach could incorporate some of the tools and trends into our general workflow and end products. Such applied learning improved both my coursework and my work there.

List three of your favorite professional resources/references/tools and tell us why they’re your favorite.
PSDTuts and VectorTuts – If there’s ever a slow period at work, I pull up a tutorial and start picking away at it. It’s a great way of learning and practicing Photoshop and Illustrator.

Google Scholar – It’s a great way of verifying references for scholarly publications.

A good pair of earphones – One of the problems with a highly collaborative environment is that there’s always someone walking through my office suite, frequently to talk to someone else. It’s a lot easier to focus with music right in my ears. If I’m ever at an office that bans Internet radio or audio CDs on work computers, I’m investing in an iPod.

How do you stay up-to-date in your field?
I read or skim a lot of blogs and follow a few people strategically on Twitter. My boss is also good at keeping us up-to-date on new trends and software.

How would you define professional writing?
The short answer is that it involves writing nonfiction pieces for diverse audiences with a common need (aka consumers). Of course, professional writers have a much more complex role than that; we write and edit, yes, but we also do consumer research and design work. The actual written portion may only be 10% of the work done on any given project.

Do you have any tips to share with other professional designers/writers/editors?
If there’s ever any down time at work, never let it go to waste. Use it to learn a new skill (for me, that’s Photoshop and Illustrator) or read up on your field. Additionally, carefully craft an online presence through your blog and through social networking, and Google your name periodically to make sure you’re happy with what comes up. Potential future employers certainly will.