Our in-house copy-editing course will give your staff the skills to edit a wide range of documents, review colleagues’ work and improve their own writing.
We teach a two-stage approach to editing. The first stage is to ensure the document achieves its aim, is well structured and has the optimum content. The second stage is to review details such as clarity, choice of words, tone of voice, layout and legal issues.
The course covers all these topics and more, to give participants the same range of skills that publishers use to achieve their high standards.
A detailed manual and year of free advice from the tutor will add valuable extra help to ensure your staff continue to develop after the course.
Learning objectives
By the end of this course your staff will be able to:
work with the skills and confidence of professional editors
commission documents effectively
follow the two-stage approach to editing
evaluate and improve the structure of documents
rewrite complex or convoluted text in plain English
apply a corporate style guide and tone of voice requirements
resolve problems in multi-author documents
accurately apply the rules of grammar, punctuation and spelling.
Morning session
An introduction to editing
The characteristics of a good editor
How editors improve documents
Levels of editing
Distinguishing between style and error
Techniques for editing your own work
Software for editors
A review of editing software
Readability tests and alternatives
Why editing on paper is sometimes better
Commissioning skills
How to commission clearly
Defining the scope and purpose of the document
Agreeing content, length and tone
Setting deadlines
Two-stage editing
The advantages of the two-stage technique
Looking at the big picture
Ensuring the purpose is met
Evaluating and improving structure
Questioning coverage
Removing padding and repetition
Beginnings and endings
Headline-writing techniques
Techniques for powerful openings
Techniques for effective endings
Liaising with the author
The relationship between editor and author
Solving problems together
Earning the author’s respect
Editing multi-author documents
Improving structural flow
Adjusting depth of coverage
Dealing with variations in style, tone and terminology
Afternoon session
Plain English essentials
Thinking about the needs of the audience
Reviewing sentence length and structure
Correcting ambiguity
Working with words
Matching vocabulary to audience and purpose
Considering tone of voice
Removing cliché and management-speak
Cutting redundant words and phrases
Consistency and corporate style
Applying a corporate style
Keeping a style sheet
Consistency guidelines
Grammar and punctuation
Recognising and correcting mistakes in English grammar
A review of common punctuation errors
Legal considerations
Copyright and plagiarism
Libel
Bias
Presentation
Typeface and type size
Line spacing and paragraphing
Layout and colours
Further development
Reference sources
Post-course support
More information
The Editing at Work course is available as an in-house course, which can be run face-to-face at your premises or virtually over Zoom. For more information,
click here.
Top of page...
“The course was just what we needed and the feedback from the team has been very positive. Using our own documents as part of the training was particularly valuable.”
Erika Abram Edit Resource Manager Canadean Ltd
“I found the course met my expectations in full and has helped me tremendously in my work as an author and editor with LSN.”
Ian Duckett Development Advisor Learning and Skills Network
“A really excellent course that I enjoyed very much.”
Sally Littlecott Communications Development Officer London Borough of Newham
Running the Editing at Work course in-house
The Editing at Work course can be run as in-house training anywhere in the world, either at your premises or virtually over Zoom. If you have a group of staff who need the same skills, this option is cost-effective and convenient.
Tailored to your needs
The length and content of this course can be tailored to match your needs. In addition to covering some
or all of the topics given in the
example programme, you may want to add topics that are particularly relevant to your
organisation.
Flexibility
An in-house course is fully flexible. Tell us what you want to achieve and we will work with you to design a course to match. Tell us when you would like to run it and we will find a date that suits you.
Free support
Every course we run comes with a year of free support for each participant. We recognise that people do not think of every question on the day of the training. Our support service gives them the opportunity to ask their tutor an unlimited number of questions in the year following the course. In this way they continue to build their skills and confidence.
Ask us for a quotation
The cost of an in-house course depends on a number of things, including its length, its location and how much preparation we need to do. We can readily give you a quotation, so please contact us to discuss your needs.
Our in-house copy-editing course will give your staff the skills to edit a wide range of documents, review colleagues’ work and improve their own writing.
Learning objectives
An introduction to editing