Course details
The course begins with an introduction to the world of proofreading and the role of the proofreader. You can download the introductory module free of charge.
This is followed by five modules, each of which is divided into units that focus on a specific topic. Units have explanatory text, examples and a number of carefully designed self-test exercises.
You are not just thrown in at the deep end. The course has been carefully constructed so that new concepts are introduced gradually, with each unit building on what has gone before.
In total, there are more than 550 pages of materials, including 21 exercises.
You can study the course online or in printed form. The online version is cheaper, since savings in printing and packaging are passed on to you.
Assessment
The course includes four assignments and an online multiple choice test, the marks from which make up your final grade. Your tutor will mark each assignment and return it to you with feedback. The online test is marked automatically.
Industry recognition
Proofreading Today has been comprehensively reviewed by the Society for Editors and Proofreaders (SfEP). Consequently, completing it successfully contributes training points for SfEP members who are upgrading their membership.
Online resources
Enrolling on the course gives you access to our online student area, enabling you to:
- keep track of your assignment scores
- download extra copies of the exercises
- see exactly when we receive and mark each of your assignments
- access supplementary resources on subjects such as
- important grammatical points
- common proofreading problems
- dealing with US English
- proofreading websites
- getting the most out of your own website
Pay as you learn
Under our pay as you learn scheme, you can sign up for modules one at a time, rather than committing yourself to the entire course at once. Module 1 is £95 (printed) or £75 (online), and each of the subsequent modules costs £50 (printed) or £40 (online). Find out more on our enrolment page.
Added benefits when you complete the course
Once you've completed the course, if you're planning to offer your services as a freelance proofreader, we will help you get started:
- You will be entitled to a free listing on www.edittrain.co.uk/freelancers, our directory of freelancers.
- You'll be able to pick one of our free website templates and start advertising your services on your own website. If you take up this offer, you will just need to pay your domain name registration fee (typically less than £10 a year) and £60 a year for hosting. You will be able to add, edit and delete pages, and change your template at any time.
Tutor feedback
When your assignments are marked, you will get personal feedback from one of our experienced tutors. You can also contact your tutor for guidance during the course.
Course content:
Introduction
- How to use the course
- Your working environment
- Where the proofreader fits in
- The production process
- What an editor does
- Typesetting, design and layout
- What a proofreader does
- Changing workflows
Module 1: The basics of proofreading
- Type, fonts and measurements
- Points, picas, en/em rules and other measurements
- Tracking, kerning and ligatures
- Type specification
- How to read proofs
- Types of proof
- Proofreading techniques
- BSI symbols and marking up proofs
- How the editor uses the BSI marks
- How the proofreader uses the BSI marks
- Proofing colour codes
- Correction charges
- Insertions
- Single insertions
- Multiple insertions
- Inserting large amounts of text
- Inserting horizontal spaces, including fixed and narrow spaces
- Inserting vertical spaces
- Deletions and removals
- Deleting characters
- Deleting spaces
- Deleting large amounts of text
- Substitutions
- Substituting characters
- Changing to and from bold, italic, underlined text and capital letters
- Dealing with punctuation
- Marking up standard punctuation characters
- Marking up rules and hyphens
- Errors and queries
- Blind proofreading
- Assignment 1
Module 2: Style and position
- What's a style?
- House style
- Editor's style sheet
- General style guides
- Creating your own style sheet
- Headings and codings
- Rules
- Hyphens
- En rules
- Em rules
- Aligning and moving text
- Column alignment
- Indents
- Moving page elements
- Paragraphs and sentences
- Numbers
- Typical styles
- Superscript and subscript
- Using punctuation
- Comma
- Semicolon
- Colon
- Quotes
- Apostrophe
- Bullet lists
- Spelling and word-breaks
- Editorial choice
- Lines and word-breaks
- Assignment 2
Module 3: Types of text
- Parts of a book
- Notes and references
- Footnotes and endnotes
- Standard systems for citing references
- Bibliography
- Coloured and illustrated documents
- Graphic elements
- Diagrams
- Tables
- Photographs
- Captions
- Different types of publication
- Fiction
- Poetry
- Educational books
- General non-fiction books
- Academic books and journals
- Newsletters and magazines
- Children's books
- Business documents
- Promotional and marketing material
- Assignment 3
Module 4: Dealing with electronic files
- Electronic workflow
- Types of electronic proof
- Issues with electronic proofs
- Proofreading on screen
- Computer setup
- Making changes on screen
- Adobe PDF files
- PDFs and the publishing workflow
- PDFs and the proofreader
- Marking up a PDF
- Using paperlessproofs
- Websites and CD-ROMs
- How to proofread web pages
- Communicating errors
- Checking CD-ROMs
- Online test
Module 5: The professional proofreader
- The proofreader's judgement
- Widows
- Orphans
- Collating multiple comments
- The proofreading brief
- Schedules
- Supporting documents
- Taking a brief
- Taking a job
- Checking the job
- Assessing the content
- Drawing up a checklist
- Working through the job
- Returning the job
- Invoicing
- Building a career
- Finding the market
- Trade publishers
- Outside the trade
- Advertising and the web
- Making the approach – contacting potential clients
- The first job
- Maintaining contact
- Managing yourself
- Professional development
- Assignment 4
