New Zealand Institute of Business Studies

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Book Editing, Proofreading and Publishing

If you have a better than average appreciation of English; if speelling misteaks jump off the page at you; if you can recognise a clumsy sentence; if you know the difference between to/too/two or there/their/they’re and its/it’s maybe you should consider getting into proofreading and editing. You’ve already got half of what it takes! (That's a decent education.)

You can learn how to be a professional proofreader and/or editor within a year. Editors make dozens of decisions every hour. Deciding to start your training course is your first decision.

This correspondence course has 14 tutorials and assignments. Each one takes you a step closer to being a qualified professional. (Trade Certificate Level 4.) You’ll learn the language of proof readers' squiggles (30 main ones) and writing editorial notations in the margin.

Whereas spelling and grammar have a right/wrong exactness, an editorial critique is usually someone’s judgment. The more books you’ve read, the more mature you are, the more worldly wise you are concerning people, the better you’ll be as an editor. Lots of great editors are still working in their 70s and 80s.

If you think this kind of work is exciting, interesting, and mentally stimulating, you’re right. Once you're in publishing – and you’ll start doing relatively easy proofreading tasks – you’ll find it becomes engrossing and rewarding.

New Zealanders have a special geographical advantage. When London and New York and Cape Town end their working day - we’re having breakfast. So book and magazine publishers there like to send that day’s unfinished work to a New Zealand proofreader. Then, while they sleep, goblins here perform our editorial magic. That’s how publishers and editors get so much done. They out-source work around the 24-hour clock.

The Prospectus you download gives you complete information on the Proofreader & Editor Course. The Enrolment Application form is inside it. Complete the form below and you will get an instant email with the course Prospectus as an attachment. (Prospectus is in PDF format).