Editing for Better Communications
Covering topics from structure and style to soundness and sense, this course will help you become a better editor in a communications role for a business or another type of organisation. The course is aimed at people who work, or want to work, with documents that will be published in some form – for example newsletters, brochures, handbooks, and websites.
Content: The course has eight main sections, each of which contains an exercise, a reflective activity, and the chance to record your own thoughts in response to a series of prompts. Topics include:
- Principles of copy-editing and how they can help any document
- Using structure to make things clearer
- What to check and how to check it
- Achieving consistency in documents that have a number of contributors
- Common problems in text, and how to fix them
- Easy tips and tricks that professional copy-editors use.
As part of the course, you will receive a PDF copy of Editing for Communications Professionals, a guide written for in-house communicators published in early 2023.
How tutoring will work: While you can complete this course at your own pace, the tutor will be available throughout to answer any queries via email. Delegates will also receive links to quarterly drop-in sessions on Zoom, where they will be able to ask the tutor any questions about copy-editing.
Editing for Better Communications attracts two non-core CIEP points.
Curriculum Sample
About the Tutor
The course is taught by Cathy Tingle, a tutor with many years’ experience in business publications. After completing her PhD in English Literature she spent a decade producing marketing communications materials – annual reports, product leaflets, magazines and directories – for an educational awarding body.
Following a four-year stint as editor of the Edinburgh for Under Fives guidebook, Cathy trained in copy-editing and proofreading with Publishing Scotland under Margaret Aherne and is now an Advanced Professional Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP). In 2023 she published the Editing for Communications Professionals CIEP guide, the key resource for this course.