Blitzes are week-long efforts of theGuild of Copy Editors to reduce the backlog of articles that require copy editing. Each blitz has a specific theme and goal. Awards are given to editors who participate. Blitzes are held during even-numbered months, and month-longDrives occur in odd-numbered months.

The coordinators for each blitz are listed on each blitz page. If you have any questions, please first consult ourFAQ page. If you do not find the answer, leave a message on the blitz's talk page; we will be happy to help you.

Blitzes are open to all Wikipedians. The GOCE welcomes and encourages Wikipedians who are new to copy editing, or who are out of practice, to participate. You may copy edit as many—or as few—articles as you wish. If you want someone to review your work, feel free to ask on the current blitz's talk page and one of the coordinators will gladly assist.

Please make sure that you knowhow to copy edit and that you are familiar with theWikipedia Manual of Style before you begin copy editing.

1. Sign up for the blitz. On the blitz's page, find the "Signing up" section and press the "Create your articles list" button. This creates a subsection of the page where you will record your copy edits.
   • If you participated in the previous blitz, add anyRollover words you may have earned. You'll find this number on the "Barnstars" page—follow the link in the "Signing up" section of thecurrent blitz's page. In the "Totals" table, find the number in the column marked "New rollover words". Place this number on the "Rollover words" line in your subsection of the current blitz page. You do not perform any calculations with this number; coordinators will add the rollover words to your total at the end of the drive.
2. Find an article to copy edit: seethe "Finding Articles" section below. Articles listed on theRequests page also count towards your blitz totals—these higher-quality articles don't usually have{{copy edit}} tags. Follow all Requests page instructions.
   • Check the "View history" tab for the article you've chosen and look for any recent copy editing activity. Also look for a "GOCE in use" tag on the article. It is counter-productive for two copy editors to simultaneously work on the same article.
   • Optionally, place a{{Goce in use}} tag on top of the article, to inform other participants and editors you are editing it.
3. Obtain the article's word count: usethis script (see below).
   • This should be the word countbefore you start editing the article.
   • Write down the number somewhere for later viewing.
4. Record your chosen article in the "Totals" section of the blitz page. Your subsection is automatically populated with  # {{Working}} [[]] () and # {{Completed}} [[]] ():
   • Use the{{Working}} line for the one article you are actively copy editing. You should not start another article until this one is completed.
   • Article titles go in wikilinks [[]]. List the article's full title, not an abbreviated version.
   • Article word counts go in round brackets (parentheses) ().
   • Place any comments, inparentheses, between the article title and the word count (also in parentheses).
   • Check using the "Show preview" button, then save.
   • Remove any extant{{copy edit}} tags in the article.
5. Copy edit the article.
6. Record your completed work on your subsection of the drive page by changing{{Working}} to{{Completed}}.
   • You may manually update your total articles and total words.
   • Check using the "Show preview" button then save. Articles not logged or improperly logged will not be credited.

• Don't "rubber-stamp" articles. Be thorough and complete in your copy edits, working to the end of the article. The prose in copy edited articles should comply with theManual of Style and be free of grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors. Rejected work will not count towards your total and you may be penalized for it.
• Don't create extra work; don't copy edit any articles to which you have recently added a {{copy edit}} tag.
• Don't count what you haven't copy edited. Sometimes articles or sections are unsuitable for copy editing or may not need any work. Don't count words in articles or sections that you have not copy edited.
  • If, after examining an article, you find that copy editing is inappropriate or cannot be completed due to other issues, you may consider removing extant{{copyedit}} tags and taking extra actions—like placing{{GOCEreviewed}} on the talk page, deleting inappropriate material, reporting suspected copyright violation and so on.
• Do have fun; we're here to help bring these articles to their fullest potential and improve the overall quality of the encyclopedia. If you don't enjoy doing that, there is no motivation to improve these articles and the encyclopedia as a whole.

While we do our best to copy edit articles, this is not always achievable. Articles may be unstable, have confusing text or need attention from experts in that subject area.In these instances we can use a tag to attract such help for the article. Some useful tags are:

{{off-topic}} ~{{Expert-verify}} ~{{Expert-subject}} ~{{contradict}} ~{{confusing}} ~{{refimprove}} ~{{nofootnotes}} ~{{notability}} ~{{original research}} ~{{crystal}} ~{{POV}} ~{{unreferenced}}

SeeWP:TC for a full list of cleanup template messages.

Here are the instructions for installing and using the word counting script:

To add the script that calculates page size:

1. If you have JavaScript enabled, gohere to access your skin's .js file.
   • If you do not have JavaScript enabled and either do not wish to or cannot, go toSpecial:Preferences and click on theAppearance tab. In the very first section,Skin, click onCustom JavaScript next to the name of the selected skin.
2. ClickEdit on the page that is opened.
3. Add the following code to the page and save it:{{subst:js|User:Dr pda/prosesize.js}}^{[Credit 1]}
4. Reload the cache:
   • If you are using Internet Explorer, press Ctrl-F5
   • If you are using Firefox/Safari for Windows, hold down Shift while clicking Reload (or press Ctrl-Shift-R); for Mac, press Command-R.
   • If you are using Opera/Konqueror, press F5.
5. To test the script, go to arandom article, look under the Toolbox menu on the far left of the screen and find the link forPage size. The backlog elimination drive uses the number of words listed underProse size (text only).
6. Go copy edit!

The following information depends on the theme—be sure to check that first! If the theme is requests, see therequests page! Some copy editors enjoy taking a random dip inCategory:All Wikipedia articles needing copy edit and learning about something completely new along the way. Others prefer editing articles in a field they already know about. Such articles can be found using categories:^{[Credit 2]}

1. Go to thePetScan tool.
2. Set the Depth to 5.
3. Write or pasteWikipedia articles needing copy edit in the box labelled "Categories".
4. Write the name of a category you're interested in on a separate line in the same box, for example;Books.
5. Scroll down and click the button labelled "Do it!"
6. Be patient; large categories might take a little while to search.

This example will find articles tagged with{{copy edit}} inCategory:Books, as well as its sub-categories, sub-sub-categories, and so on down to sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-categories.

Rollover words are words from your blitz total that did not count towards an award. These are carried forward—or "rolled over"—to the next blitz. For example, ifExample copy edits 12,718 words, they will receive the Tireless Contributor Barnstar (10,000 words). Their remaining 2,718 words are rolled over until the next blitz, at the conclusion of which they are added to the total word count. Thus, ifExample copy edits 1,400 words in the following blitz, they will receive the Working Wikipedian's Barnstar (4,000 words) and 118 rollover words (2,718 plus 1,400, minus 4,000).

Rollover words are only valid until the next blitz. IfExample earned 14,000 rollover words in a February blitz and did not participate in the April blitz, they cannot use them in the June blitz; their rollover count will return to zero. Blitz rollover words and drive rollover words are not interchangeable; they can only be used for the next blitz or drive (respectively).

The following awards are given out at the conclusion of the blitz.

	At least one copy edit The Minor Barnstar		At least15,000 words The (old school) League of Copy Editors Barnstar
	At least2,000 words The Modest Barnstar		At least20,000 words The (modern) Guild of Copy Editors Barnstar
	At least4,000 words The Working Wikipedian's Barnstar		At least30,000 words The Barnstar of Diligence
	At least6,000 words The Cleanup Barnstar		At least40,000 words The Order of the Superior Scribe of Wikipedia
	At least10,000 words The Tireless Contributor Barnstar		At least50,000 words A special, VERY exclusive award created just for the few, the happy few: the Most Excellent Order of the Caretaker's Star

Anyone who copy edits at least oneindividual article of more than 10,000 words will receiveThe 10k Copy Edit Barnstar.

Participants can place a drive userbox on their userpage using {{User Copyedit Blitzes|X}}. Replace X with the number of blitzes you have participated in. It displays as follows:

This user has participated inXCopy Editing Project Blitzes with theGuild of Copy Editors.

• Wikipedia copy editing
• WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors blitzes
• Wikipedia competitions