Introduction to Editorial Skills: Copy-Editing and Proofreading

How the course is delivered

The course consists of six x 2.25-hour sessions including breaks, each a mixture of delivery and interaction using Zoom breakout rooms and other online tools. There will be a 45-minute exercise set to complete between the sessions, and a 45-minute break. The course will run on from 9.30am to 2.00pm on each day.

You will need access to a computer or laptop with a camera and microphone and with Microsoft Word and either Adobe Acrobat Reader DC (which is free) or Adobe Acrobat Professional installed. To join the course, you  will need to activate a Zoom account. 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.

Accessibility

Please contact us at courses@publishingtrainingcentre.co.uk with any accessibility or special requirements, for example having in-session captions or the learning materials sent to you in advance.

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

“Caroline was an excellent tutor. I’ve gained clarification on many rules when copy-editing and proofreading and new ways of seeing both jobs.” Osprey Publishing delegate

“The course was great! It was taught in an engaging and easy to understand manner, but also was rigorous, thorough, and informative. I was able to improve my work straight away.” BRF delegate

“I really enjoyed the course. The general grammar and proofreading/copy-editing points were very useful and the style sheet immensely helpful.” Bloomsbury Publishing delegate

“I enjoyed the course very much and have no suggestions for improvement. I learned, and was able to practise, new copy-editing skills and now feel comfortable to take on more editorial tasks.” Publishing Assistant, The National Gallery

“The course served as a great refresher of my university editorial modules and filled in my knowledge gaps after having done little editing in the last year due to COVID.” Editorial Assistant

“Caro was a fantastic tutor. I wanted to learn more about the basics of copy-editing and proofreading, and whether this was a career I wanted to pursue. I learnt a great deal about the differences and jobs of each of those roles, and that I do want to pursue work in the field.” Aspiring editor/proofreader

“I loved the course. I’ve gained confidence and Sarah was fantastic, inspiring.” Freelancer

“I really enjoyed the course, the structure was great. I learnt editing and proofreading skills which I could use the next day. It has boosted my confidence in proofreading and copyediting by helping me understand the roles they play in the publishing process. I enjoyed doing the tasks 'offline' by yourself, and then coming together as a group to discuss.” Editorial Assistant, Class Publishing

“Really enjoyed the course. Sarah is knowledgeable and friendly. The course worked well over Zoom – the sharing of slides and materials, and being able to discuss points was fairly easy. As I do a mixture of copy editing, proof reading, and type setting, it was good to see how each role is separated out and the individual things to look out for.” MGP delegate

“The use of polls was an excellent way of engaging and interacting with the students - I have rarely seen such efficient use of Zoom tech in online training. I enjoyed hearing Sarah Sodhi's real-world examples, especially past experiences working with copyright checks. I will be able to apply the concepts and training to my upcoming job as managing editor in an industry publication. My main take-aways from the sessions were publication workflows, style sheets. the scope of copyediting versus proof-reading, coding for format/structure and red flags for plagiarism.” MA Student, King’s College London

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.