Professional Copyediting Course

By the end of this module, you'll be able to:

1. Differentiate among developmental editing, copyediting, and proofreading, understanding their distinct roles and scope within the publishing process.

2. Define copyediting and articulate its purpose in refining written content.

3. Describe the general stages and workflow of the publishing process.

4. Identify the key characteristics and professional responsibilities of an effective copyeditor.

5. Recognize and apply general guidelines for what to look for when copyediting, specifically regarding spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, numbers, abbreviations, footnotes, references, tables, figures, graphs, consistency in person, and typographic elements.

By the end of this module, you'll be able to:

1. Master basic sentence components

• Identify the fundamental parts of a sentence, including subjects, verbs, and objects.

• Distinguish between independent and dependent clauses.

• Recognize and explain the role of various parts of speech within a sentence.

2. Edit for clarity and impact

• Determine when to effectively use active versus passive voice for optimal clarity and impact.

• Transform sentences between active and passive voice while maintaining meaning.

• Eliminate superfluous words and phrases to create concise and impactful sentences.

• Correctly identify and resolve sentence fragments, ensuring complete thoughts.

• Apply the principle of parallelism to construct grammatically balanced and readable sentences, especially in lists and comparisons.

• Refine sentences to enhance overall readability, precision, and effectiveness.

By the end of this module, you'll be able to:

1. Master verb usage

• Identify and correctly apply various verb tenses (e.g., simple, perfect, progressive) to convey precise timing in writing.

• Ensure subject-verb agreement, matching verb forms to singular and plural subjects.

• Recognize and correct errors in pronoun-antecedent agreement, ensuring pronouns correctly refer to their nouns in number and gender.

• Identify and appropriately use the subjunctive mood in conditional statements, wishes, and demands.

2. Refine sentence structure

• Detect and revise dangling modifiers to ensure clarity and logical connection within sentences.

• Construct grammatically sound sentences that avoid common errors related to verb tense, agreement, and modifiers.

By the end of this module, you'll be able to master punctuation usage and placement:

• Correctly apply periods to mark the end of declarative sentences and abbreviations.

• Utilize commas accurately to separate items in a series, introduce clauses, set off non-essential information, and improve sentence clarity.

• Differentiate between the appropriate uses of semicolons to connect independent clauses and separate complex list items.

• Employ colons to introduce lists, explanations, or quotations, understanding their role in signaling an upcoming elaboration.

• Formulate questions using question marks and express strong emotions or emphasis with exclamation points.

• Use parentheses to enclose supplementary information, understanding when to include or exclude them.

• Apply brackets to insert editorial comments, clarifications, or alterations within quoted material.

• Accurately use double and single quotation marks for direct speech, titles, and specific terms.

• Distinguish between and correctly apply en dashes, em dashes, 2-em dashes, and 3-em dashes for various purposes, including indicating ranges, breaks in thought, and omitted text.

• Master the use of apostrophes for possessives, contractions, and pluralizing single letters/numbers.

• Identify and correct common punctuation errors, understanding how incorrect placement can alter meaning.

By the end of this module, you'll be able to:

1. Master capitalization rules

• Apply capitalization rules correctly to the beginning of sentences and proper nouns within various word groups (e.g., names of people, places, organizations, specific events).

• Capitalize words accurately in titles, subtitles, and headings according to standard style guidelines (e.g., title case, sentence case).

• Identify and correctly capitalize special nouns.

2. Understand and apply hyphenation rules

• Determine when to use hyphens for compound adjectives preceding a noun (e.g., "well-known author").

• Identify situations where hyphens are not needed for compound modifiers (e.g., adverbs ending in -ly).

• Correctly hyphenate compound numbers and fractions.

• Apply hyphenation rules for prefixes and suffixes (e.g., "ex-president," "self-aware").

• Recognize and correct instances of incorrect or missing hyphens in sentences.

By the end of this module, you'll be able to:

1. Define key terms related to academic integrity and research, including "in-text citation," "references," and "style guide."

2. Identify and differentiate between various citation styles (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago) and their appropriate applications in different academic disciplines.

3. Explain the fundamental reasons for citing sources in academic writing, emphasizing ethical considerations, intellectual property, and the enhancement of credibility.

4. Determine situations where a citation is necessary to avoid plagiarism and when it is not required (e.g., common knowledge, original thought).

By the end of this module, you'll be able to:

1. Apply the Chicago Manual of Style guidelines for creating accurate in-text citations for various source types, including:

   • Works by one, two, or more than three authors

   • Direct and block quotations

   • Multiple references within a single text

   • Sources attributed to an organization

   • Indirectly cited sources

   • References lacking a publication date.

2. Construct correctly formatted entries for a Chicago-style bibliography or reference list for a diverse range of source materials, such as:

   • Books (single author, multiple authors, chapters in edited books)

   • Journal articles

   • News articles (with and without authors)

   • Blog posts and web pages

   • Wikipedia entries

   • Presentations

   • General resource materials.

By the end of this module, you'll be able to:

1. Apply the American Psychological Association (APA) style guidelines for creating accurate in-text citations for various source types, including:

   • Works by one, two, three or more authors.

   • Direct quotations (short and block quotations, including those without page numbers).

   • Multiple references within a single parenthetical citation.

   • Sources attributed to an organization.

   • Indirectly cited sources.

   • References lacking a publication date.

2. Construct correctly formatted entries for an APA-style reference list for a diverse range of source materials, such as:

   • Books (single author, multiple authors, chapters in edited books).

   • Journal articles.

   • News articles (with and without authors).

   • Blog posts and web pages.

   • Wikipedia entries.

   • PowerPoint slides.

   • Conference presentations (with varying numbers of authors).

   • General resource materials.

By the end of this module, you'll be able to:

1. Apply the Modern Language Association (MLA) author-page style for creating accurate in-text citations for various source types, including:

• Print sources with a single author, two authors, or three or more authors

• Sources with no known author

• Indirectly cited sources

• Sources retrieved from the internet

2. Construct correctly formatted entries for an MLA-style Works Cited page for a diverse range of source materials, adhering to the basic structural requirements and specific guidelines for:

• Books

• Journal articles

• News articles (with and without authors)

• Blog posts and web pages

• Wikipedia entries

• Chapters in edited books

• Presentations (by single or multiple authors)

• General resource materials