Though I prefer to follow the Chicago Manual of Style, I can adapt to any house style. My dictionary of choice is the tenth edition of Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary . Send me a sample of your work, and I will show you what I can do for you. The role of a copy editor is to ensure that nothing in the mechanics of an author's text distracts the reader from the substance of that text. Copyediting involves a wide range of tasks, from checking grammar and punctuation to making sure that figure 4.4 follows figure 4.3.
Copy editors are also concerned with details.
For example, the tenth edition of Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary gives the noun copy editor as two words but the verb copyedit as one. A skilled copy editor can save a publisher from a lot of embarrassment and an author from appearing ignorant or illiterate. This page is brought to you courtesy the University of Massachusetts.