Editorial Skills for Business

An essential one-day introduction to proofreading publications in a business context.

Your organisation is constantly creating many differnt types of documents. Whether it is newsletters, leaflets, reports, letters, briefing papers, brochures, mailshots, or other material, they all need to be error-free. This fast-paced course will help you develop vital skills for proofreading all kinds of written material.

You will be shown how to:

• understand the role and importance of the proofreader
• develop basic techniques and avoid common pitfalls
• save time and money
• prevent mistakes.

The day is firmly grounded in the needs of corporations of all kinds, such as large corporations,SMEs, government bodies, charities and academic institutions and uses relevant practical examples.

Programme

• Why proofread?
  • The impact on time, cost and reputation
• Who else is in the team?
  • The key differences between editing and proofreading
  • Where has the document come from and where is it going next?
• Basic techniques
  • Working conditions and methods (space, time, distractions)
  • Proofreading blind or against copy
• A systematic approach
  • Checklists
  • Big things and little things (page numbers, headings, etc)
  • Layout considerations
  • Dealing with tables, pictures and graphs
  • Check your facts - how important is it that this is correct?
• Some common problems
  • Punctuation
  • Some grammatical tips
  • Tracking changes on screen
  • The danger of spellcheckers
  • Where to find further information
• Final checks
  • Dealing with authors
  • The problems of multiple sign-offs
  • Introducing new errors.

Who will benefit from this course?

Staff with an editorial or publications role in companies,SMEs, government departments, charities and other organisations, including people with little or no formal training and whose main job may not necessarily be reading proofs.

Your tutor

Melanie McRae works as a freelance editorial consultant in publishing. She has experience in working on both printed matter and electronic information. She works closely as part of in-company editorial teams, briefing writers, designers and researchers, and other freelance editors and proofreaders. Melanie is also a qualified secondary school teacher and has experience in marketing. She has worked successfully with both English speakers and delegates who do not use English as a first language. She is an experienced writer and trainer and develops, writes and delivers training packages to a number of UK and international clients. Melanie runs her own limited company, EDT (Editorial, Design and Training services, Ltd).

We also offer Basic Proofreading by Distance Learning,Proofreading for Editors andEditing Skills.

Note that most of our short courses can also be run as in-company events.