Essential Editing Course

Distance Support

At Start Learning we pride ourselves on our friendly and supportive tutors. Your tutor support will start as soon as you receive your course and will be valid for 12 months. All our tutors are highly qualified with extensive experience in supporting distance learning students.

You contact your tutor via email and they are responsible for marking assignments answering your questions and guiding you through the course.

Entry Requirements

You will need a reasonable standard of English, preferably a GCSE grade C or above for this course.

Recommended hours of study

We recommended you spend approximately 100 hours of your time studying for the Essential Editing course. The pace of study is completely up to you. 

Course Contents

Unit 1 - Copyediting

• Where do you find copyeditors?
• What does a copyeditor actually do?
• Where does the copyeditor fit into a book-production team?
• What skills are needed by a copyeditor?
• How do you mark up a typescript?

Unit 2 - Making the meaning clear

• Is it ambiguous?
• Is it a parochialism?
• Sexist language
• Idiomatic English
• Is it the correct word?
• Abbreviations, contractions and acronyms
• What should I check with the author?
• What is a house style?

Unit 3 - Getting it organised

• How to organise the headings in text
• Where do illustrations go?
• Organising complicated text
• Distinguishing between hyphens and dashes
• Uses of italic and bold type
• Other organisational matters
• Newsletter production: getting started

Unit 4 - Proofreading

• What exactly is proofreading?
• How do you read proofs?
• What colours do you use to mark up proofs?
• How do you mark proofs?
• Authors' proof corrections
• From page proofs to final proofs
• Passing for press

Unit 5 - Computers in the editorial process

• The computer revolution
• Using authors' disks
• What is the best way of using the disk?
• Who will make the changes?
• What is actually done on disk?
• Publisher's template
• Marking up hard copy
• Can you edit directly on screen?
• An ideal way of working
• Is proofreading necessary?

Unit 6 - Production processes

• What does a designer do?
• A word about type
• To justify or not to justify?
• Making up pages
• Desk-top publishing
• Printing
• Binding
• Small press publishing

Unit 7 - Book and journal publishing

• What goes on the cover?
• Prelims
• What goes on the title pages?
• What goes on the contents page?
• Page numbers
• ISBNs
• Checking a dummy book
• Other sections found in books

Qualification

On successful completion of you assignments you will receive a Start Learning Diploma in Essential Editing.

Language of Course

English

Assessment

This course is marked through a process of continuous assessment guided by your tutor. This means that your qualification will be awarded according to your performance on assessments rather than by taking an exam.