Writing is central to our personal and professional lives. Errors in writing can derail a job application, miscommunicate a plan, and confuse our audience in many ways. This course will guide you through the writing process, from brainstorming the content to polishing the final draft. Along the way, you’ll be given tips for how to speed up the writing process and ensure that you send out error-free writing. Topics include time management, structure, crafting complex and clear sentences, and troubleshooting common grammar errors.

A great editor is like a great mechanic. They look at a piece of writing the same way a mechanic looks at a car: they assess the current state, see if it has any issues, and tune it up so it’s good to go. As you can imagine, there is no lack of metaphor to describe the task of editing. This course will help you discern between metaphor and fact to discover the truth of editing. You will learn the foundational principles of copyediting, the golden rules of proofreading, and what professional editors actually do and how you can do it, too.

This course, a staple for anyone who is interested in copy editing, will ensure you have a detailed understanding of word categories, punctuation, and sentence construction. The course will guide you through the eight parts of speech; simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences; ten punctuation marks; and the rules for capitalization. Through real-world exercises, you’ll be able to categorize words and phrases, build different types of sentences, and correct common syntax and punctuation errors.