 The answer is, yes, proofreading courses are worth it. Proofreading isn’t an innate talent; it’s a skill. There are lots of innate qualities that will make you predisposed to proofreading (such as vigilance and patience) but the skill itself really needs to be taught.
A good proofreading course will (or should!) provide you with:
This last point is really the crux of this blog post. There are lots of proofreading courses out there. Some of them are very good. Some of them are mediocre. In all honesty, I’ve yet to come across a truly bad proofreading course. However, most of them, whether very good or mediocre provide very little in the way of value. They are, in a word, expensive. In some cases, they are ludicrously expensive. But why are these proofreading courses so expensive, whilst The No-Nonsense Proofreading Course is just $48.99? Does The No-Nonsense Proofreading Course cut corners? No, it most certainly does not. It provides you with items 1 to 10 in the list above. And when it comes to the tenth item on that list, I believe it offers the greatest value of any proofreading course currently available online or anywhere else. The No-Nonsense Proofreading Course does something those other proofreading courses don’t. It enables you to carry out self-evaluations. Those other courses provide you with proofreading exercises that you then have to submit for evaluation. This is an expensive process for the course provider, requiring a certain amount of infrastructure and resource. The thing is, these evaluations are pointless. Why? Because the proofreading exercises they provide have a definitive set of right answers. They consist of existing pieces of writing that have had deliberate errors shoehorned into the text. If they were simply to provide you with the answers, you wouldn’t need to submit them for evaluation. The No-Nonsense Proofreading Course does just that. But, you ask, if they don’t evaluate me, how do I get my proofreading qualification? The answer to that question is simple. You don’t need a proofreading qualification. I’ve carried out professional proofreading work for decades and not once have I been asked to produce a proofreading qualification. Moreover, whilst I was responsible for hiring proofreaders, not once did I (or any HR department, for that matter) request a proofreading qualification from any potential candidate for a proofreading role or assignment. If you find that shockingly unlikely, go into any employment website and search for proofreading roles. Scan through the skills and qualifications needed for the role and you won’t find a single reference to a proofreading qualification. Possibly an English qualification. Possibly a specific technical qualification if the role is in a specialized environment. But never a proofreading qualification. Put simply, proofreading course don’t need to be expensive. The information can be conveyed in simple eBook form and you can very easily evaluate your own progress. Are proofreading course worth it? Yes, in the sense that it’s always worth learning the skills, essential even. But are they worth it in the broader, financial sense of the word ‘worth’? To be frank, most of them are not. Don’t get me wrong, there are some people who prefer the support structure of a more traditional training method: tutors, classrooms, assignments, assessments, qualifications. And I get that. Some people feel as if they’re not really learning unless all these components are present and correct. But I think most of us would rather save a chunk of cash and have a little faith in ourselves. Let me know what you think in the comments section below. Thank you for your time. Mike If you're interested in giving The No-Nonsense Proofreading Course a try, click here to find out more.
2 Comments
 Obviously, I’m biased, but I genuinely believe that The No-Nonsense Proofreading Course gives you the best shot at securing freelance or full-time work as a proofreader. It not only shows you how to proofread, it also tells you how to go about creating and promoting a proofreading business. And it’s ridiculously inexpensive.
However, it’s been brought to my attention by a number of people who’ve bought and profited from The No-Nonsense Proofreading Course that there is an additional advantage to my particular product that I’ve failed to emphasize. Namely, the casual open-door policy I offer to all those who’ve purchased The No-Nonsense Proofreading Course. This is not something I’ve actively created as part of my business model, to be completely honest. It’s just that if someone emails me with a question or a concern, I think it’s rude not to at least try to provide an answer. People email me about intricate points of grammar, about what website platform to use, about whether they should accept a particular assignment, about where the line is drawn between proofreading and structural editing, about all kinds of things relating to my proofreading course, proofreading generally or the business side of proofreading. And, so far, I have answered every single email. Every single one. So, I want to take this opportunity to formalize this arrangement. From this point on, I will operate a virtual open-door policy for all customers of The No-Nonsense Proofreading Course. If you have a question, a concern or a conundrum relating to proofreading, feel free to drop me an email. I will do my level best to provide you with an answer within 48 hours. Now, obviously, I’m just one man, so there will be times, very occasionally, when I will not be able to honor this arrangement. But I will do my absolute best. If you wish to contact me, please use the form on the contact page, that way I will be able to alert you to any availability issues. Thank you. Mike |
Testimonials
“I am one of those many fools who paid a huge amount of money for a useless course. This book... has opened so many doors for me. I now look on Mike as my mentor as I embark on a career. Thank you Mike.” Emma Steel, Proofreader and International Structural Editor. “ I thoroughly enjoyed the course and am so glad that I decided to take it... the whole experience was invaluable. My proofreading service is now well established and your course played no small part in getting it off the ground.” Hache L. Jones, Proofreader. “I'd just like to thank you first of all for writing such a great, straight forward eBook, and then going above and beyond what I would even expect as a customer by providing us, completely free of charge, updated versions months later!” Rachel Gee, Trainee Proofreader. “What can I say? Worth every penny and then some! God Bless! This a fabulous course.” Teresa Richardson, Proofreader. “As someone who has effectively been proofreading for thirty years, I found Mike’s No-Nonsense Proofreading Course an invaluable introduction and a very useful practical guide to many aspects of this discipline. I can wholeheartedly recommend it as the ideal starting point, and much more besides.” Jeremy Meehan, Proofreader. Blog AuthorMy name's Mike Sellars and I'm an experienced proofreader and the author of The No-Nonsense Proofreading Course. Click here to find out more about me. 
The No-Nonsense Proofreading CourseA Fraction of the Cost of Other Proofreading Courses Credit card and PayPal payments accepted. “As someone who has been proofreading for 30 years, I found Mike’s course an invaluable introduction and a very useful practical guide to many aspects of the discipline. I can wholeheartedly recommend it.” Jeremy Meehan, Proofreader. Still want to find out more? Click here. Proofreading Categories
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