Copy Editor at Motley Fool

Contract 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?

The Motley Fool, based in Alexandria, Virginia, publishes articles, books, and newsletters to teach individuals how to invest better. We’re seeking a Contract Copy Editor for Fool.com 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, bureau editors, and other copy editors to produce investing and personal finance information that educates, amuses, and enriches our readers.

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 a mistaken stock ticker. This position 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 daily or weekly publication.

As a copy editor, you’ll publish articles directly on our website via the Fool’s content management system, so you’ll need to be technologically savvy and comfortable editing online. If you like finance or have financial experience, that’s a big plus since you’ll be reading investing and personal finance stories all day.

Primary Responsibilities/Objectives:

• Edits and proofreads online content for clarity, grammar, in-house style, and general Foolish tone. Typos make us cringe more than the Wise of Wall Street. You have to be able to stop them dead in their tracks.
• 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.
• Dedicate at least 20 hours a week to copyediting Foolish 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.

Education and Job Knowledge:

• Undergraduate degree in English, journalism, or a related field, which may be substituted for equivalent experience.
• At least two years of professional editing experience.
• (Note: Foolish Fools always use capital “F”s in the word “Fool” unless they are writing about something that is less than stellar.)