KOK Edit: consulting medical editor
KOK Edit: your_new.php KOK Edit: consulting medical editor Katharine O'Moore Klopf
copyeditors knowledge base

Education and Certification

Which is more important for editors, formal training or experience? Copyeditor Helen Schinske says both are valuable:

I think training did give me a leg up in a lot of ways. I had done a good deal of desultory proofreading and editing before going in for a formal certificate program, but the class work really consolidated and clarified a lot of ideas I'd been a bit vague on before. I'd never really had proper feedback on what I was doing—either there wasn't time or the customer didn't know any better than I did. In fact, I'd been doing a lot of things right, but it was a great relief to know they were right and to get official credit for what I knew. I also made a bunch of local connections in the business that have been quite important to me.

Probably nine-tenths of the benefit was psychological; if I'd had more chutzpah, I could have done just as well on my own. All the same, I really liked being part of a community of editors, and I liked getting pats on the back from my teachers. I came out of the training much more confident in my own ability to adapt and find my feet in the freelance world.

UK proofreader Louise Harnby believes that both training and experience are necessary.

Finally, it's important to understand the difference between a certificate program and certification. They are not the same thing.


Basics | Education | Business Tools | Editing Tools | Networking | Finding Work | Reading