Editorial Skills for All

esa 2020

We all rely on the written word to communicate with clients, stakeholders, and the public. The text that we produce is our shopfront to the rest of the world. How can we ensure that the copy for our company reports, websites or marketing material is clear and well structured, or that we won’t be let down by spelling and grammar errors in our letters and emails?

This interactive course provides a practical introduction to the role of editing and proofreading digital or print content in any business. Specially created for those who generate or prepare copy for presentation or publication, but have little or no editorial background, it guides you through what needs to be done – and why. Using an active learning approach, combining individual study with group activities and discussion, it explores how best practice from the publishing industry can be adapted to your own working environment.

By the end of the course you will have gained skills and strategies that will help you to ensure that the text you produce is in the best possible shape for its intended readers. You will be more confident in your editorial judgement, more accurate in your proofreading, and more efficient in the way you work.

This course was previously called 'Editorial Skills for Non-Publishers'. It has been revised and converted into classroom format in 2021.

Who is it for?

Anyone who works with words
Editorial staff at charities, membership organisations or any business with some publishing function
People responsible for, or who work on, corporate communications
Administrators who brief editorial freelancers or who are involved in quality control

What will you achieve?

On completing this course you'll be able to:

spot errors, ambiguity and poor structure, and know how to fix them
feel more confident in your use of the English language
understand how editorial best practice can be applied to your own work
use skills and strategies to edit and proofread more efficiently as well as more accurately
communicate effectively and knowledgeably with clients, writers, designers, programmers, freelancers and other stakeholders

Programme

Session 1: What do we mean by editing and proofreading?

Overview of editing, proofreading and editing for the web
How is proofreading different from editing?
Where do we start? Strategy and approach
How do we do it? Basic methods

Session 2: Getting the message across and fixing the words

Organisation and structure
Clarity and tone
Grammar gremlins, punctuation pitfalls and sloppy syntax
Misused words and other common problems

Session 3: Consistency, style and communication

The power of consistency
Developing and using a house style
Style sheets and Find and Replace
Communicating with writers and freelancers

Session 4: Ways of working efficiently

Taking a methodical approach
Digital workhorse and human brain: effective use of Word and Adobe
Layout issues and other proof-stage problems
Concluding discussion and top tips

How the course is delivered

Editorial Skills for All consists of four x 1.5 hour units plus breaks, comprising two half-day sessions on two separate days. You will be encouraged to complete a 'homework' exercise between the two sessions and bring it along for discussion.

You will need access to a computer or laptop with a camera and microphone and with Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat Reader DC (or similar) installed. Adobe Acrobat Reader DC is free software for downloading, viewing and commenting on PDFs. You will need to activate a free Zoom account to join the course. This takes two minutes and does not require any payment. It is purely for administrative purposes.

Any information to be completed beforehand will be sent via email.

If you have any concerns about technical requirements or access please contact us on courses@publishingtrainingcentre.co.uk or telephone (+44) 020 8874 2718.

Delegate feedback

"A great workshop. Caroline was lovely. I have learned about structure and how to organise my approach to editing copy." Instructional Designer, Central Law Training

"An excellent course with some great tips on where to start when editing a document." Communications Support Officer, General Osteopathic Council

"I enjoyed the course very much. It homed in well on the essentials and has given me more clout as an editor/proof-reader." Cycling UK delegate

The feedback is for the classroom version of this course.

About the tutor

In an in-house career that took her to Berlin, London, Oxford and Cambridge, Caroline worked on a wide range of academic books, journals and illustrated trade titles. She was trained at Blackwell and Cambridge University Press, where, as senior subeditor then copy-editorial manager, she in turn trained copy-editors and proofreaders for fifteen years. She updated Butcher’s Copy-editing, with a colleague, for the fourth edition.

Now freelance, Caroline enjoys helping authors to get things right, first time. She has created and taught courses for a variety of clients, including publishers, educational organisations, the CIEP and the reporters of the Scottish Parliament.

For more information about any of these courses, please email courses@publishingtrainingcentre.co.uk or sign up to receive our newsletter for updates on these and our other offerings.

Enrol on this course

Please read our Terms & Conditions

Please email bookings@publishing trainingcentre.co.uk with the course name in the subject line to be notified when this course will next run.

£300+VAT

Course format

Virtual classroom
9am to 12.30pm (GMT)
Four x 1.5 hour sessions plus breaks, comprising two half-day sessions on two days, two days apart

A number of discounts are available

Enrol on this course

What you will need

To join the course, you will need access to a computer or laptop with a camera and microphone. You will need to activate a free Zoom account to join the course. This takes two minutes and does not require any payment. It is purely for administrative purposes.

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