In July 2020, I completed the Publishing Training Centre’s Essential Proofreading course. I was attracted by the PTC’s claim that I would be studying ‘The only self-study course that takes you from beginner to PQB-qualified proofreader in one step’.

I started the course in January 2020, after I’d finished the SfEP’s Proofreading 1 introductory training. (The SfEP has since become the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading, or CIEP.) That meant that I wasn’t quite a complete beginner, but I was close.

There are no set dates for Essential Proofreading; it’s all online, and you can go at your own pace. You get access to the materials for one year from the date that you sign up. It’s possible to complete it more quickly though: I started on the second of January, and received my final marks on the second of July. The first Covid-19 lockdown meant a big downturn in my work as a professional musician though, so I had plenty of time to focus on my studies from March onwards.

There are five modules, each with course notes, practice exercises and a final assignment. The assignments for Modules B–E decide your overall grade. The exercises have model answers and commentaries, which I found immensely helpful. For me, seeing where I had gone wrong was the most useful part of the experience.

During the course, I learned how to proofread with both Word documents and PDFs, and to mark amendments on paper. A significant portion of Essential Proofreading was dedicated to working within the publishing industry (either in-house or as a freelancer).

Most of the time, I found the material clear and informative. However, there were occasions where I didn’t feel like I’d grasped everything sufficiently. Thankfully, a crucial feature of the course is access to a tutor. They mark your assessments and give feedback on your work. You can contact them by e-mail, and you get a fifteen-minute phone call with them for each module.

With that said, the course is not easy. I needed to work slowly and methodically, and often had to re-read the course notes. Sometimes I struggled with a practice exercise, and only understood properly when I referred to the model answer and commentary. But one way or another, I found that each module had prepared me for the assignment at the end by the time I came to it.

Each assessment was harrowing, and I had to make plenty of judgements. Proofreading is not an exact science. A big part of the course is knowing when not to change things. Sometimes it was tempting to mark an alteration because I would not have chosen to write something in that way, but I had to learn to exercise restraint. Making a load of unnecessary changes is an excellent way to jettison marks.

Thankfully, everything came together for me in the end. I passed Essential Proofreading with distinction, with an overall mark of 91.37%. The course taught me a huge amount, and made me confident when checking for things I would not previously have even thought to look for.

My answer to both of these questions is a resounding yes! My training has allowed me to work confidently and provide a high-quality service for each client I’ve worked with. Learning what I needed to was a transformative experience, and set me up in the best way.

Find out more about the Publishing Training Centre here.