Tag Archives: CIEP training

Flying solo: Training and CPD as a business asset

In ‘Flying solo’ this time around, Sue Littleford sets out why we should always consider training and CPD a vital cog to keep the wheels of our business turning.

Huh? A business asset? Training and continuing professional development? Well, yes, that’s exactly what it is. And as with the acquisition of any asset for your business, it’s something you should approach with deliberation.

If anything will bear a cost–benefit analysis for a sole trader or other small business, it’s the investment of your time and money in refreshing and developing skills and learning new ones. So let’s take a look, first, at the benefit side of that equation.

The benefits of training and CPD

  • Knowing what you’re doing: investing in your training, rather than relying merely on having a good grasp of spelling, punctuation and grammar, is one of the principal ways to keep imposter syndrome at bay. You will know you know what you’re doing.
  • Marketing: when you’re confident that you know what you’re doing, it’s so much easier to market yourself and to craft robust CV and website text. Ayesha Chari demonstrated this beautifully when she wrote her out-of-office message before attending the 2023 CIEP conference: ‘I’m taking time off for CPD this month to raise my editing skills and business services for my clients!’ Clients do love a supplier who is up to date and investing in their skills, and I shall be brazenly stealing Ayesha’s idea!
  • Upgrading: I’ve been to the upgrade Q&A at the last two CIEP conferences and know that training is absolutely key for upgrading, as is evidence of recent CPD to become an Advanced Professional Member, so lay the groundwork now, with a solid basis in the core skills (how to actually proofread and/or copyedit) as a launchpad for future needs when you niche down. No knowledge is ever wasted. And a Professional (or Advanced Professional) Member badge on your website, marketing materials and socials is a great selling point.
  • Upgrading to at least Professional membership is not only a requirement for remaining in the CIEP beyond seven years, it also feeds into marketing as then you can take out an entry in the Directory, the go-to place to find an editor or proofreader for a huge range of clients. You can complete the training section of your Directory entry as another way of demonstrating to clients that you’ve invested in providing a good and knowledgeable service to them.
  • Working efficiently and effectively: when you achieve this, you can improve the effective hourly rate you achieve in fixed-fee jobs, as well as feeling in control of your business.

Woman writing in a notebook

The costs side of the equation

  • As with any asset, you need to decide what it is you need to learn, where you’re going to source it from, and exactly which course from many offers to choose. When you’re spending your own money on training, rather than your employer’s, these decisions become acutely important.
  • Budget time to do the course as well as the money to pay for it. It’s a waste if you buy a course then never find the time to do the learning. With self-directed courses, it’s far too easy to keep kicking that can down the road until access to the course is running out and you sprint through it far too quickly to get the most out of your investment.
  • Besides the time spent on the course itself, also budget for time to elapse between courses. Allow yourself the chance to embed your learning, to practise those new skills and to make them your own. Filling your head with a cascade of new ideas to implement can lead to incoherence, overwhelm and, yes, imposter syndrome. Take a breather between courses.
  • Plan: you can’t do everything; you certainly can’t do everything all at once. There’s a tab on the Training and CPD spreadsheet in the Going Solo toolkit (CIEP members only) to keep a wish list of courses you want to do. If you’re interested in learning more about a particular aspect of editing, then you can use that tab to keep a record of potential courses, and weigh up the pros and cons of doing each one.
  • Go with reputable suppliers for the biggest marketing bang for your buck, and the best educational opportunities. I’ve seen some courses offer the world for £29.99, on websites where they have a distance-learning course for every topic under the sun. Don’t waste your £29.99 – they’re not tremendous value, they’re inadequate training. They will not take you from novice to accomplished editor in ten easy lessons.
  • Where you can, prioritise courses that have some form of assessment, and tutor support. Checking your work against model answers is all very well, but properly supported training is invaluable when you’re getting your core skills under your belt. Such courses will take more effort on your part. Good! They’ll also impress clients more.
  • Speaking of costs, in the UK not all training is tax-deductible. Training that keeps your skills up to date is an allowable business expense. Training that puts you in the position to begin trading, or extend your business into a new area, even if it’s a related one, is not.
  • Record-keeping: back to the Going Solo toolkit for another tab: completed training. Keep a good record of the training you’ve taken and be ready for easier upgrading. The spreadsheet was designed with the upgrades process in mind – the Admissions Panel has approved it, so you can just send in your spreadsheet (trim it of the unnecessary tabs before you do) to save having to type out every editorial course you’ve ever done on the application form.

Never think you know it all

You don’t know it all. No one does. I know I don’t! There’s always more to learn in our ever-evolving field – that’s one of the joys of being an editor or proofreader!

I’m always disheartened when people say to me that there’s nothing more for them to learn, that they did one course, five years ago, so they’re ‘qualified’, and there’s nothing more they need to know. (Yes, I’ve really had people say that to me.)

There’s no ‘qualification’ per se in the editorial world. Graded membership, as in the CIEP, and Australia and New Zealand Aotearoa’s Institute of Professional Editors (IPEd), is pretty rare, and the best proxy for ‘qualification’. Other countries and other membership organisations have certification courses but this is not the same ‘qualified’ as a doctor, a lawyer or a civil engineer. No editor should be speaking of being ‘qualified’ in that sense. And qualified doctors, lawyers and civil engineers (among many others) have a requirement to evidence a minimum number of CPD hours each year to retain membership of their professional organisation.

Unless you keep abreast of what’s out there, you may not even know what you don’t know. Be curious – a key requirement for good editing. Read the CIEP’s Curriculum for professional development to see what else you might pursue and don’t forget training beyond editing if you’ve got a need for subject-specific learning, or, indeed, business-skills learning.

Which brings us to …

Unconscious incompetence to unconscious competence

I first came across the Hierarchy of Competence model in management training, many years ago, and I’ve since encountered the related Dunning–Kruger effect, which adds the idea that, to paraphrase heavily, in areas where we don’t realise what we don’t know, we are more likely to think we know rather more about it than we actually do.

Although it’s often presented now as a pyramid, when I first came across the Hierarchy of Competence model, it was shown as a staircase.

Competence Staircase

Unconscious incompetence is a happy place – you don’t know much, and you don’t realise just how little you know.

Conscious incompetence is a less happy place, but it’s a place of growth – you’re alerted to the fact that the thing you’re learning is actually bigger than you thought. Hopefully, though, it’s also an exciting place to be as you start to explore your new skills and milieu.

Conscious competence isn’t the happiest of places, either, but things are improving – you’re aware of how much you need to practise, and how much more there is to learn, but you’re getting used to wielding your skills and seeing results. It’s still all a bit of an effort, though.

Unconscious competence is great – you’re just getting on with the job and doing it well.

However, don’t think that this unconscious competence is the end of your learning journey. It does take some effort to stay there, or you’ll find yourself tumbling down the stairs as the landscape changes around you. That’s your cue to undertake CPD – emphasis on the C.

About Sue Littleford

Sue Littleford

Sue Littleford is the author of the CIEP guide Going Solo, now in its second edition. She went solo with her own freelance copyediting business, Apt Words, in March 2007 and specialises in scholarly humanities and social sciences.

 

 

About the CIEP

The Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP) is a non-profit body promoting excellence in English language editing. We set and demonstrate editorial standards, and we are a community, training hub and support network for editorial professionals – the people who work to make text accurate, clear and fit for purpose.

Find out more about:

 

Photo credits: header image by cottonbro studio, woman writing in a notebook by RF._.studio, love to learn by Tim Mossholder, all on Pexels.

Posted by Eleanor Smith, blog assistant.

The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the CIEP.

‘Joining the CIEP is an excellent idea!’ An interview with a new(ish) editor

After a long career as a piano teacher, Dawn Wakefield entered the professional editorial world at the end of 2019 and is now an Intermediate Member of the CIEP. In this post, she shares her experiences as a new proofreader and editor and explains how it’s a continuous learning process.

Why did you decide to become an editor/proofreader?

I have always had a good eye for detail (sometimes annoyingly so!) and have sporadically done proofreading jobs informally for friends over many years. As I suddenly found myself obliged to keep working into my sixties, which I was not previously expecting, I liked the idea of doing some work that was less appointment-based and thus had more flexible working hours. When Covid severely reduced my long-standing music teaching business, having a new career became a necessity rather than just a wish.

What training have you done?

So far, I have completed CIEP’s Proofreading 1 and Proofreading 2 courses and also the introductory Copyediting 1 course. I have also found all the very informative talks at the three online CIEP conferences I have attended extremely useful.

The courses have also been very useful, both in extending my knowledge and in showing me how much more there is still to learn! I struggled most with the fact I often had to make decisions under assessment that in real life I would have consulted with my client about, so that small aspect was very different from the practical experience of carrying out my work.

Why did you join the CIEP?

Julia [Sandford-Cooke, longtime CIEP member and longtime friend of Dawn’s] said it was a good idea! Seriously though, I knew I had skills in this area but I needed to gain some qualifications in order to work for people beyond my usual circle of contacts.

What benefits have you had from being a member of the CIEP?

The best thing has been the helpfulness and friendly supportiveness of my local Norfolk group. I have learned a lot from attending the meetings and have gained a network of more experienced editors who are very willing to help with editing issues. There is also the almost-overwhelming amount of information available on the CIEP website, which I am still slowly progressing through, and the regular emails also supply more information than I can keep up with at times.

Have you joined any other groups?

As a result of connections made at the 2021 CIEP conference, it was decided to set up a Music Special Interest Group (SIG), and I am enjoying being the coordinator of this group and getting to know other musical-minded editors internationally.

Do you have a website?

I already have a website for my music teaching business, but have not felt ready to set up my own website for editing as yet. However, soon after joining CIEP I joined the Norfolk editors group website NPEN, which has proven useful as a way of having a web presence, looking credible professionally and also gaining some work as a result. Impressed by the effectiveness of this, I am now also part of the new group website for CIEP music editors, Find a Music Editor (FAME).

Do you have a social media presence?

I am on LinkedIn and also Twitter. I tend to use Facebook and Instagram for more personal input, but not exclusively so.

How did you go about finding clients?

Despite not having much of an editorial presence on Facebook, building connections with other pianists through Facebook groups has been very useful, and has led to several piano-related proofreading and fingering jobs. I need to do more marketing but have been lucky to find clients through personal contacts, and also through being on the NPEN website. Telling absolutely everyone you can think of about what you are doing … is a good plan!

You were already self-employed – has your previous experience/processes been useful? What have you needed to change?

I have always enjoyed running my own business, so I am used to that responsibility and discipline. Working for independent authors has been similar in experience, but I have found adapting to working for larger companies more challenging.

Did you have to buy new equipment/software?

So far, my outlay in this direction has been quite modest. I needed a second screen, but for now I am borrowing one. The purchase of a more up-to-date laptop is imminent, but I have managed OK for three years on what I had. I found myself buying plenty of textbooks. Actually, I buy more books generally now because editing has renewed my enthusiasm for reading again, particularly fiction, which I rarely used to read at all. Now I need to invest in more bookshelves!

What skills from being a music teacher do you bring to your work as a proofreader?

Working independently. Also, I see quite a few similarities in the skills involved in listening to a piano pupil and correcting their errors, as well as helping them to find the best way of expressing themselves and the music. This relates in many ways to correcting text and making suggestions to help an author communicate clearly and effectively with their readers.

What has surprised you most about your new career?

The huge amount there is to learn! Especially if you want to be at the top of this profession – an Advanced Professional member – I should have started sooner …

What do you wish you’d known beforehand?

I wish I had more IT expertise! I have learned a lot quite quickly, but there is long way to go …

I would have really welcomed some more structured guidance from the CIEP specifically for new members. There is lots and lots of information on the website, so it can be difficult to know where to start and what order to do things in. I keep discovering things that I wish I had known sooner.

What do you like best about proofreading?

The satisfaction of seeing the finished publication. Also, any opportunity to put all my musical and linguistic skills into action. A recent highlight was proofreading and piano fingering for the book HerStory by Karen Marshall for Faber Music; it made use of my editing skills, piano skills and European language knowledge all in one project … and promoted many exceptional female composers. [Editor’s note: This book was actually a finalist in the Outstanding Music Education Resource Category for the 2023 Music and Drama Education Awards.]

I also enjoy the sheer variety of materials you get to work on; I can see why editors become good quiz team members!

What do you like least?

Publishers who send you second or final proofs with no notice and expect you to turn them round in 24–48 hours. It seems to happen more than I would wish.

What would be your top pieces of advice?

If you are just starting out, joining the CIEP is an excellent idea! Being part of a friendly professional organisation is really invaluable.

It’s a good idea to put aside plenty of time and also finance for taking training courses and studying in your first few years, as in the longer term that will open up more work opportunities. I have yet to get the balance of this sorted. Better forward planning would be helpful rather than focusing on immediate income and struggling to find the time and money for further studies.

About Dawn Wakefield

Dawn Wakefield, based in North Norfolk UK, is both an editor and a professional piano teacher. Her editing work draws on both her recent training with the CIEP and a lifetime of skills and knowledge gained while teaching music and also Balkan dancing! As well as specialising in music-related proofreading, she regularly works in a variety of non-scientific subject areas, including the arts, philosophy, alternative therapies and spirituality.

 

About the CIEP

The Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP) is a non-profit body promoting excellence in English language editing. We set and demonstrate editorial standards, and we are a community, training hub and support network for editorial professionals – the people who work to make text accurate, clear and fit for purpose.

Find out more about:

 

Photo credits: piano by Pixabay, sheet music by Ylanite Coppens, both on Pexels.

Posted by Belinda Hodder, blog assistant.

The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the CIEP.

Getting to grips with grammar and punctuation

By Annie Jackson

Do you go cold when you hear the words ‘dangling participle’? Does the mere mention of a comma splice or a tautology make you anxious? Do you have a faint memory, perhaps from primary school, that people who write ‘proper’ English never start a sentence with ‘And’ or ‘But’? Perhaps you’ve been flummoxed by the terms used in the school materials that you’ve had to work with while homeschooling your children (you are not alone: see this article by the former Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen).

Actually, you almost certainly know much more about grammar and punctuation than you realise. The ‘rules’ are often no more than old-fashioned preferences or prejudice, and may not be relevant anyway. It all depends on the text: a novel for young adults, an information leaflet for patients at a doctor’s surgery, or an annual report for a major company – each requires a very different approach. The tone in which the document is written, and the intended readership, will dictate how strictly grammar and punctuation rules should be applied.

If you work with words, in any capacity, and you feel that your knowledge could do with a brush-up, then the new online course from CIEP, Getting to Grips with Grammar and Punctuation, could be just what you need.

Why both grammar and punctuation?

Let’s see how the Collins Dictionary defines grammar: ‘the ways that words can be put together in order to make sentences’. It defines punctuation as ‘the use of symbols such as full stops or periods, commas, or question marks to divide written words into sentences and clauses’.

This explains why these two subjects have to go hand in hand. Grammar is about putting words together; punctuation helps the reader to make sense of those words in the order in which they have been presented. Used well, the grammar and punctuation chosen should be almost imperceptible, so that nothing comes between the reader and the text. If they are used poorly, the reader will be confused, may have to go back over sentences as they puzzle out the meaning, and may eventually stop reading as it’s just too hard to figure out.

For the want of a comma …

Take this well-known example. ‘Let’s eat, Grandma’ is a friendly invitation for Granny to join the family meal. If you remove that tiny comma, the poor woman is at the mercy of her cannibal grandchildren.

More seriously, a misplaced comma can have huge legal and financial implications (see ‘The comma that cost a million dollars’ from the New York Times).

Poor grammar can have unintentional comic effects (dangling participles are particularly good for this, as you can see here). It could even affect your love life (see this Guardian article ‘Dating disasters: Why bad grammar could stop you finding love online’).

So it’s worth knowing the rules you must follow, and those that can sometimes be ignored.

Why this course?

Getting to Grips with Grammar and Punctuation is for anyone who works with words. It aims to:

  • clarify the basic rules of English grammar
  • clarify the rules of English punctuation
  • discuss some finer points of usage and misusage
  • explain the contexts in which rules should or need not be applied.

This course alternates units on grammar and punctuation, with two basic units followed by two that go into more detail. Each unit has several sets of short, light-hearted exercises on which you can test yourself to see how well you have taken in the information. The penultimate unit discusses finer points of usage, and finally, there are three longer exercises on which to practise everything you’ve learned from the course. There is no final assessment for the course, but every student is assigned a tutor and is encouraged to ask for their help if any questions arise as they work through it.

There is an extensive glossary of grammatical terms as well as a list of resources, in print and online, for further study. This includes a number of entertaining and opinionated books on grammar which will prove, if nothing else, that even the pundits don’t always agree.

By the end of this course, you should have a clear idea of some of the finer points (and many of the pitfalls) of English grammar and punctuation. You should have developed some sensitivity to potential errors, acquired greater confidence, and learned strategies to make any written work you deal with clearer, more effective, more appropriate and even, perhaps, more elegant. And we hope that you will have found it interesting and entertaining at the same time.

Annie Jackson has been an editor for longer than she cares to admit. She tutors several CIEP courses and was one of the team who wrote the new grammar course. Despite many years wrestling with authors’ language, and before that a classics degree, she realises there’s always something new to learn about grammar.

With thanks to the other members of the course team who contributed to this post.


Photo credits: books by Clarissa Watson on Unsplash

Posted by Abi Saffrey, CIEP blog coordinator.

The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the CIEP.