Introduction to Editorial Skills: Copy-Editing and Proofreading

ies vc

Introduction to Editorial Skills offers new editors the opportunity to learn proofreading and copy-editing skills. You will be given expert editorial advice and the opportunity to practise the key skills of the proofreader and copy-editor across a range of different types of content, for both print and digital output.

Revised and updated in summer 2020, this flagship course has been converted into a virtual classroom format. The three tutors are all well-respected editors in the industry with a wealth of experience.

Once you have taken this course, you will have the foundations on which to build a successful editorial career.

Who is it for?

Individuals working in book or journal publishing, in-house or freelance, wishing to develop copy-editing and proofreading skills, including editorial assistants, copy-editors, desk editors and production editors.

Students wishing to start a publishing career with formal training in editorial skills and individuals who have to proofread and copy-edit as part of their job.

What will you achieve?

On completing this course you will:

have a clear sense of what you are trying to achieve when editing or proofreading a document
understand your editorial responsibilities
see how your role fits in with others involved in the publication process
comprehend the substance of, and differences between, copy-editing and proofreading

Programme

The course promotes active learning through a blended approach of self-study and three online group sessions.

You will learn through a range of short and longer exercises, on-screen and offline completed independently or in small-groups, supported by group discussion and expert guidance and feedback from our highly experienced PTC tutors.

Introductory materials:

An introductory pack will be sent to delegates before the course. The pack includes a comprehensive self-study module written by Jane Buekett which provides an introduction to:

publishing workflows
copy-editing and proofreading on-screen and on hard copy
BSI standard marks for proof correction.

Copy-editing

You will learn to identify and fix:

poor structure
ambiguity
repetition and redundancy
poor grammar or punctuation
inappropriate or non-inclusive language

You will also learn:

why consistency is important
what editorial conventions, house style and job-specific style are, and why they matter
how to make and record their own style decisions
how to approach copy-editing methodically and strategically
how to follow a brief
where to to turn for further help and guidance

Proofreading

You will also learn how to proofread effectively:

layering
slow reading
judging how much to change
marking proofs clearly and efficiently with BSI and PDF mark-up
distinguishing editorial corrections, layou and queries
where to turn for further advice on BSI and PDF mark-up

+ How the course is delivered

The course consists of six x 1.5-hour sessions, each a mixture of delivery and interaction using Zoom breakout rooms and other online tools. There will be 30-minute breaks between each session with the opportunity to do exercises and take a break. The course will run on from 9am to 12.30pm on each day.

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

“I really enjoyed the course. It has built on my knowledge and I feel much more confident in approaching editing and proofreading projects.”

Editorial Assistant, Egmont UK

“Caro was a fantastic tutor, very good at tailoring tasks/discussions to the people in the room. It was a very rewarding two-day course and I feel more confident at work having done this. Also, it was great to meet people from other publishers/workplaces and learn how they do things”

Production Editor, Cicerone Press

“It was a really brilliant two days. Sarah is a fantastic tutor who creates a great learning environment. Thank you!”

Editorial Assistant, British Museum

The feedback is for the classroom version of this course.

+ About the tutor(s)

The tutors devised and fully updated the course in 2020. One tutor will deliver all three morning sessions of a course.

In an in-house career that took her to Berlin, London, Oxford and Cambridge, Caroline Drake 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.

Since 1999, Sarah Sodhi has proofed, tagged, bound, corrected, edited, managed, commissioned, subbed, scheduled, estimated and produced a great deal of content – from interactive, multi-media resources to marketing leaflets, from monthly magazines to 900-page medical tomes.

Starting her career at a small medical publisher in Oxford, Sarah produced medical textbooks, journals and a bi-monthly magazine. She then moved into the public sector to work for an adult education charity, introducing formal scheduling procedures, progress-chasing systems and detailed budgets. After this, she immersed herself in the education sector, editing and managing digital and print resources for primary, secondary and adult education publishers.

Caroline Knight began her career in publishing at Penguin Books in 1989, when she joined Editorial 2, the department dedicated to copy-editing. She has been a PTC tutor since 1996 and a freelancer since 2010.

Caroline became managing editor of Allen Lane The Penguin Press in 1995 before moving to Weidenfeld & Nicolson Illustrated in 1997. She lived in Greece, working freelance and tutoring at the PTC, from 2000 to 2003, when she became managing editorial director at William Heinemann, an imprint of the Random House group. Five years later, she moved to Atlantic Books, where she stayed until 2010 when she moved to rural Kent and rejoined the freelance community.

She has worked with Alastair Campbell, Vince Cable, David Willetts, Margaret Drabble and the late Herman Leonard, as well as a wide variety of others less famous. She enjoys editing both fiction and non-fiction, with a leaning towards history and politics. She lives on the edge of the North Downs with her husband, three children, a dog, six hens and tens of thousands of bees.

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.

Please read our Terms & Conditions

Session 1: 19 October | Session 2: 22 October | Session 3: 26 October (Times TBC)

Dates

19 October 2020
02 November 2020
07 December 2020

Price

£700+VAT

A number of discounts are available

Date information for future sessions

October 2020

Dates: 19, 22 & 26 October 2020
Times: TBC
Tutor: Caroline Drake

November 2020

Dates: 02, 05 & 12 November 2020
Times: Each session will run from 9.30am-2.00pm (GMT)
Tutor: Caroline Knight

December 2020

Dates: 07, 10 & 14 December 2020
Times: Each session will run from 9.30am-2.00pm (GMT)
Tutor: Sarah Sodhi

Course format

Virtual classroom
9.30am to 2.00pm (BST)
Six x 1.5 hour sessions plus breaks, comprising three half-day sessions on three days

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, tablet 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.

Enrol on this course

Fields marked with * are required

Course date *

If you are entitled to one of our range of discounts, please select one of the following. To check your eligibility, visit our Discounts and funding page.

Discount

Your name (title, first name, surname) *

Your job title

Your email address *

Your telephone no. *

Company name (if any)

Your postal address

Address *

Postcode *

Country

First delegate (title, first name, surname)

1. Job title

1. Email address

Second delegate (title, first name, surname)

2. Job title

2. Email address

Third delegate (title, first name, surname)

3. Job title

3. Email address

Fourth delegate (title, first name, surname)

4. Job title

4. Email address

Where did you hear about this course?

Other (please specify):

Anything else you'd like to tell us? If you've been issued with a voucher from the Publishing Training Centre and you'd like to use it with this booking, or you'd like to book more than four people on this course, let us know here. Alternatively, you can email us directly at bookings@publishingtrainingcentre.co.uk:

Enter captcha security code