Editing and Proofreading Skills
Length
25 hours; ten 2½-hour meetings, five 5-hour meetings, or three all-day meetings.
Description
Editing and Proofreading Skills emphasizes the fact that modern secretaries, administrative assistants, office managers, and clerk-typists must constantly strive to increase their skills in editing and proofreading—especially since many of these employees have become desk-top publishers. This course offers an intensified review of punctuation, capitalization, and usage. It also considers problems in grammar, spelling, word division, and the use of compounds and numbers. Most important, it suggests a number of effective techniques in spotting errors in documents.
Method
The governing principle in Editing and Proofreading Skills is immediate application. Discussions in technique are followed immediately by sessions in which class members participate, and during which they apply the lessons of the day to practice materials based on actual samples taken from memorandums, letters, and reports.
Materials
Each student receives a copy of the following references:
- The latest annotated and abridged edition of the “U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual” (GPOSM).
- “Word Division” (WD), a supplement to the GPOSM.
- “Grammar and Usage,” a publication of the Communications Skills Company designed to answer questions not addressed by the GPOSM or WD.
Students will also receive over 100 pages of practical exercises and problems designed to assist them in becoming acquainted with the references. Early in the course, these exercises will center on only one skill area, such as punctuation or spelling. As the course progresses, students will be assigned IN-basket exercises in which they must apply skills from all areas considered by the course: punctuation, capitalization, usage, spelling, grammar, compounds, and numbers.
Class size
No more than 25 students a class.
Price
Call 256-883-6310 for pricing information.