Editorial Markup of Text

Setting right hundreds of technical minutiae in running text 

I want to take this course!

Who can take this course?

  • Copyeditors working on scientific books and journals
  • Content writers and subject matter experts (SMEs) in any branch of science 
  • Freelance copyeditors learning to copyedit academic work
  • Anyone seriously considering a career in academic copyediting

Course overview

Basic details

  • 43 video lessons (totaling over 11 hours), accessible 24 × 7 for a period of 4 months
  • Approximate study time required: 7–8 weeks to complete the lessons and the practice material
  • Explains every concept related to the handling of hundreds of editorial minutiae in running text
  • Indicates the principles and the possible preferences for handling numbers as well as cross-references in running text
  • Provides a simple method of finding (or fixing) the editorial style preferences for any journal or book project
  • Downloads include
    • Prefixes used with SI units
    • A template for fixing the number-style preferences for any project
    • Number style preferences of all the major style manuals (8 styles overall)
    • Greek characters and their variant forms

Addresses your needs

  • Every one of you—those entering the copyediting profession, freelance as well as full-time editors—can learn from the convenience of your homes
  • Self-paced study (any time, weekdays, weekends, with breaks whenever you want)
  • Mobile access to course lessons via a dedicated app
  • Replay lessons any number of times till the concepts become clear to you
  • Interaction with participants and instructor in the form of comments within the course; email support also available
  • World-class training at affordable pricing, part-payments also possible
  • This course has The Art of Copyediting guarantee 
I want to take this course!

Course instructor

  • Venkataraman Anantharaman, PhD, is the Founder of The Art of Copyediting
  • Has 25 years of editorial experience (22 years in-house), first as a copyeditor and later a manager and director of editorial programs
  • Spent almost his entire career training people and evolving his own methods of teaching copyediting over the years
  • Was the only Asian speaker at Editing Goes Global, the first international conference for editors, convened by Editors’ Association of Canada (now Editors Canada), Toronto, June 2015
  • Is writing a book tentatively titled Principles of Copyediting (currently about 312,500 words)
  • Concepts and examples presented in the The Art of Copyediting courses are simply those culled from his book

Why this may be important for you!

  • Discusses number-handling under 20 categories, and indicates which of these are principles and which of these can be preferences (and why)
  • Gives you a step-by-step process for handling the varied items you may encounter in editorial markup
  • Gives you a pre-prepared number-style preferences document for every major manual and also a template for fixing the style for any project
  • Will help you to handle the entire process with ease and confidence (whatever be the style)

Benefits of taking this course

  • At the end of the course, you will be able to understand the editorial style preferences of all the major style manuals (and take care of them in any project) 
  • Not only that, you will be able to handle any journal, any book, any style—even fix the style for any new project because you will know what questions to ask, and you will also have a well-thought-out template to simply fill out and fix the style
  • You will have a clear idea of the variety of things to be handled under editorial markup and the sequence of handling these
  • You will understand the practical subtleties of the process of editorial markup (traditional style vs. modern scientific style, for example, and the implications of the style choice in the entire process), which may otherwise take even a year to learn

The Art of Copyediting guarantee

This course comes with The Art of Copyediting guarantee of satisfaction

  • The value of content that you will receive and its practical use in earning will far outweigh the amount you pay for the course
  • Brings together the cumulative effect of 25 years of learning and training by the instructor
  • The course is completely self-contained; you do not need access to any specific style manual, although you can relate whatever you learn to any manual you may have access to
  • You will learn within 8 weeks and bypass the many years of struggle and conscious reading of various books and style manuals to pick up what is presented here
  • The course (built from scenarios encountered by copyeditors over 15 years) will answer almost any practical problem you may encounter—or at least empower you with sufficient information to help you solve newer problems

Course Outline

  • Words vs. digits for numbers used in text
    • General handling of numbers in different fields
    • Traditional and modern scientific number styles
  • Handling numbers in text: principles and preferences
    • Discussion of numbers under 20 context-based categories of use
    • Core preferences, invariant principles, variable preferences, and consistency-related factors in number-handling
  • Fixing number-handling style preferences for a project—Part 1
  • Numbers used for textual cross-references in running text
  • Fixing number-handling style preferences for a project—Part 2
  • Numbers used in scientific conventions
    • Examples from 8 fields, ranging from physical sciences to medical sciences
  • Greek characters and their variant forms in scientific conventions
  • How to go about doing textual markup
  • Some practical tips on editorial markup
  • Markup of scientific conventions not involving numbers
  • Advanced editorial markup
  • Overall process sequence for editorial markup of text

Course highlights

  • Words vs. digits for numbers used in text
    • Application of traditional and modern scientific number styles—a basic comparison
    • Pros and cons of the modern scientific number style
    • Advantages of the traditional scientific number style
    • Problems associated with number-handling: why the modern scientific system was probably invented
    • The modern scientific number style helps in explaining the traditional scientific number style!
    • Understanding consistency in relation to number-handling
  • Downloads:
    • Prefixes used with SI units
    • Number-handling style preferences of 8 major style manuals (with citation of page number or section number for every preference)
    • A template for recording/fixing number-handling preferences of any project
    • Greek characters and their variant forms
  • Variables and greek characters
    • Greek characters and typographic standardization
    • Practical realities of typesetting of Greek characters
    • Editors role in setting standards in academic publishing
    • How copyeditors can help streamline or standardize conventions in a given field
    • Fields where greek characters are spelled out
  • Number hunting—the quickest way of doing textual markup
  • Step-by-step sequence of actions to address all aspects of editorial markup
  • Editorial markup in the overall workflow for copyediting
    • Tasks that precede and the tasks that follow editorial markup
I want to take this course!

Testimonials

Some comments received on The Art of Copyediting courses

"I can see that you have put enormous time and thought into the training, and everything that you covered in the sample content you shared with me mirrors exactly the type of training we have been doing for editors internally for the past few years. I can see immense value for individuals trying to learn the fundamentals of the trade and for corporates that don't have the capacity to train copyeditors quickly enough after they join."

Jason Pearce
Previously Head of Prepress & Systems, Oxford University Press, London; now President, Strategic Technology, Newgen KnowledgeWorks, Chennai, India

"I had the opportunity to attend Dr Venkat's Basic Course on Editing and Writing. . . It has been such a wonderful learning experience. I would say this course is not just for beginners, but for all copyeditors—no matter your years of experience. . . I recommend all freelance and in-house copyeditors (entry level, intermediate, experienced), editorial proofreaders, authors, project managers, translators, and writers to take up the Basic Course on Editing and Writing. . . Do not hesitate to make this investment in your career; I am sure this course will give you a fresh perspective on writing and editing and help you reach greater heights in your careers."

Visalakshy Loganathan
Convenor of the First-Ever Conference for Editors in India, Chennai, February 2018

"I find that the writing/editing course offered by Dr Venkataraman Anantharaman . . . bridges a major gap one has to cross ("learning before the job") before venturing on our "learning on the job." This compact and in depth course has two major advantages: It not only helps the learners acquire—and refine—their editing skills, but they're also exposed to the psychology of the writer and the writing process. In terms of editing, the learners are supplied constantly—throughout—with examples and concepts that they may not have understood or even observed earlier, and with immaculate precision and detail. The course clears some "editing myths" through a practical "rule of meaning" approach. So, be ready to understand some important concepts through the "stay hungry, stay foolish" approach. . . There's so much more. . . If you're learning from a Master, you're always much ahead of the others. Dr. Venkat's methodology of "proving that a sentence is wrong before attempting to edit it" is worth knowing simply because of its great practical value for any editor."

Anand Singh
Freelance STM editor

"I attended Dr Venkat’s Basic Course on Writing/Editing (June 2017–January 2018). I have to say the experience was illuminating and humbling: the former because it brought to light errors that are common but usually unrecognized, and the latter because it made me realize that though I am a native English speaker, there were flaws in my grammar. Fortunately, Dr Venkat helped to iron these out. . . Dr Venkat’s delivery in interesting and his passion for the language comes through in each session. He answers questions with precision, clarity and patience. I highly recommend this course as a refresher for all those who have been away from the formal study of English for some time, including those who, like myself, consider themselves pros at the language!"

Neena Thomas
Haryana

"The classes were so well organized into points and each one discussed in detail; using many examples to elucidate each point made it much easier to comprehend the differences between different scenarios; and connecting a rule to other relevant rules was very effective in helping to grasp certain concepts much better than before. . . I enjoyed each session as sentence structure became clearer. Although I should not play favorites, I loved the session on introductory phrases; the ones on the colon, semicolon, and dashes come next. Of course, I would feel guilty if I do not mention the one on prepositions or the explanation about appositives. But then, each session had something new to be learned."

Chandra Karthik
Freelance STEM copyeditor

Purchase the course

Pay by any method or choose a no-cost 3-month EMI option

Editorial Markup of Text-1

₹5,650

Choose your own mode of payment

Access to 43 video lessons totaling over 11 hours

Access to course videos: 24 × 7, for 4 months

Mobile access to courses via a dedicated app

Interaction with course participants and instructor via comments; also email support

A wealth of downloads that serve as reference documents and working aids

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