Course description

Do you always spot the typo on the menu, the missing apostrophe on the sign, the wrong date in the newsletter? This course turns that eye for detail into a proper skill. You'll learn how professional proofreaders and copy editors work, step by step, in plain English and in UK style, so you can check documents with confidence at work, for local groups or as paid freelance work.

It's a full course, not a few quick tips. There are 10 sections and 51 written lessons, each with clear examples and a hands-on exercise. Every section has a practice pack with exercise documents full of deliberate errors, answer keys, checklists and a printable cheat sheet. Throughout the course you follow Rosheen, a school office worker in Belfast, from her first newsletter to her first book.

What you'll learn

• The job: what proofreaders and copy editors do, and how to agree the right job with a client.
• Grammar and punctuation: the errors that slip through most often, and how to fix them.
• Style and consistency: UK spelling, capitals, numbers, dates, house style and style sheets.
• Proofreading methods: reading in passes, checklists, working on screen and on PDF, and the standard proof marks.
• Copy editing: clarity, plain English, tracked changes, comments and tactful author queries.
• Different texts: business documents, websites and menus, fiction, academic work, CVs and accessible writing.
• Ethics and the law: copyright, confidentiality, data protection and what checkers and AI tools miss.
• Freelancing in the UK: telling HMRC, pricing and quotes, finding clients, agreements and invoices.

Who this course is for

• Anyone who wants to check documents properly at work or for a club, school or charity.
• People thinking about proofreading as a side income or a new career.
• Writers who want to polish their own work.

You don't need any experience. You'll need a word processor with track changes and comments, a PDF reader with comment tools and a good UK dictionary. The course works with most programs, because it describes features by what they do.

How the course works

Read each lesson, then do the exercise using the files in that section's practice pack, and check your work against the answer key. The final project brings everything together: you proofread one document and copy edit another, with a style sheet and author queries, just as you would for a client. The course gives general guidance on tax and the law and points you to gov.uk for your own situation.

What will i learn?

• Explain the difference between proofreading and copy editing, and agree the right job with a client
• Spot and correct common grammar, punctuation and spelling errors
• Apply a house style and build a style sheet for any project
• Proofread on screen and on PDF using a clear, repeatable method
• Copy edit with tracked changes and write tactful author queries
• Adapt your approach for business, web, fiction, academic and CV documents
• Handle copyright, confidentiality and data protection responsibly
• Set up as a freelance proofreader in the UK, price your work and get paid

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