Where can I get basic copyediting training?

June 30, 2015 10:06 AM

I want to learn copyediting basics. I have writing skills and great attention to detail, but no formal copyediting training. What resources are out there? I'm looking for short-term things like courses, manuals, and workbooks, not full degree or certificate programs.

My field is health and medical writing. I am fine on writing skills and medical terminology. I just need some solid grounding in copyediting. Thanks!

posted by cadge to Writing & Language (11 answers total)

Freelance (fiction) copy editor here. If you are on Facebook you might want to ask this question on the "Editors of Earth" group page. I often hear people referred to the courses offered by the Editorial Freelancers Association and at UCSD's extension program. UCSD is a certificate program but I think you can just take individual courses.
posted by BlahLaLa at 10:32 AM on June 30, 2015 [2 favorites]

If you're in a position to do so (office writing job, working at an agency, for example) make it known you want to learn. Ask for some guidelines and then take a bit of copyediting work off of someone else's plate.

Get feedback and repeat.
posted by paulcole at 11:12 AM on June 30, 2015

I took a four week copywriting course through a local university's adult learning program. Check out your local universities or community colleges. If you are in the Indianapolis area I can send you the course I took.
posted by xicana63 at 11:59 AM on June 30, 2015

It sounds like you need the American Medical Association Manual of Style. Wikipedia describes it. I found it in this Wikipedia entry, which also lists the manual we used at our college newspaper (AP Manual of Style), among others in different scientific/non-scientific writing communities. You might want to have a look there too!
posted by ipsative at 12:19 PM on June 30, 2015

I know someone who got a certification for medical editing -- specifically for the journals/manuscript market, however -- through the BELS exam. They have a study guide on their site and a freelance jobs database.
posted by megancita at 12:47 PM on June 30, 2015 [1 favorite]

The UCSD program is good! Source: my linguist/lexicographer wife used to be one of the instructors. :)
posted by Mo Nickels at 2:04 PM on June 30, 2015

You want The Copyeditor's Handbook, by the late Amy Einsohn.

(Shopping: IndieBound — Barnes & Noble — Amazon. If you're looking to save money, you can find cheap used copies of the second edition, which is good enough.)
posted by Shmuel510 at 2:45 PM on June 30, 2015 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Awesome! Thanks for these suggestions!
posted by cadge at 8:35 PM on June 30, 2015

You can get a certificate at Emerson College.
posted by pracowity at 2:34 AM on July 1, 2015

Most allied health writing, if it doesn't use the AMA manual, uses the APA manual.
posted by Wilbefort at 6:53 AM on July 1, 2015

Response by poster: Update: I did end up enrolling in the Emerson certificate program that pracowity suggested. Its courses are more like seminars that last just one or two nights, and they have lots of practical advice and exercises. It's not the huge multi-semester commitment I'd been worried about. Thanks again for everyone's input!
posted by cadge at 10:15 AM on December 30, 2015