Home | Course Catalog | Essential Skills for Proofreaders

Essential Skills for Proofreaders

Cost: $159.99
Course Type: Online/Facilitated
Length: 60 hours

Course Description

While you may be a natural at spotting errors in written material, that’s only the most basic skill you’ll have to master to make a career as a proofreader. Proofreading involves a whole lot more than simply knowing where the commas go: It is a technical skill that requires thorough knowledge of the publishing process and detailed style rules, as well as the ability to make informed decisions that affect the book as a whole.

This comprehensive course will give you the knowledge and tools you need to begin working as a proofreader using Chicago style, the principal style manual for publishers who produce non-technical works. Topics discussed include:

The role of the proofreader in the process of book production
The proofreader’s responsibilities
Standard proofreading symbols and how to use them
Controversial grammar issues to watch out for
Word choice: Rules for proofreaders
The intricacies of punctuation
Using the Chicago Manual of Style
The nuances of formatting names and special terms, titles of works, numbers, and abbreviations in typeset books
Thoughtful and accurate decision making
When and how to query
How to keep track of inconsistencies before they become unmanageable
Style sheets as time (and sanity) savers
Proofreading for page layout
Assigning blame: printer’s errors versus editorial alterations
Rules for word breaks, margins, running heads, and page numbers
Special considerations for figures and tables
Formatting chapter titles, headings, and subheads
How to proofread a table of contents and an index
Documentation, footnotes, and reference lists
Emerging rules for citing online resources
Questions to ask before you begin each project
Terminology to use when communicating with a publishing company
The varying levels of proofreading
Resources for further study

Format

Essential Skills for Proofreaders is designed to take approximately 60 hours. You may stop and start, picking up where you left off. You have 90 days from your date of registration to complete the course.

Essential Skills for Proofreaders consists of fourteen lessons of varying lengths, as well as assigned reading from the Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition, carefully designed discussion questions and meaningful exercises, and a final test to gauge your knowledge of the course as a whole.

As an Editorial Courses student, you'll access your course through our Virtual Classroom, a comprehensive portal to your lessons as well as additional content like editorial job listings, a dedicated chat room, and a library of the best editorial resources on the Internet.

Course lessons are presented on demand via the eLearning interface within our online learning system, accessible from any Internet connected computer that meets our basic technical requirements.

You'll interact with your instructor and classmates via our online discussion board, a casual yet profound forum designed to significantly expand your understanding of the course material.

Each lesson ends with a quiz to assess what you have learned.