Essentials of Written English
A basic, comprehensive course on writing/editing
Who can take this course?
- Writers, editors, copyeditors, copywriters, project managers, content writers, Alt-text writers, technical writers, web content writers, bloggers
- Students thinking of a writing/editing career
- Teachers who teach English in schools and colleges
- Writers in sales and marketing, human resources, health care, customer service, education, social work, advertising
- Journalists, reporters, proofreaders
Course overview
Basic details
- 30 video lessons (totaling about 23½ hours), accessible 24 × 7 for a period of 6 months
- Can take about 10 weeks to complete
- The course explains about 200 principles (with examples) by discussing 14 essential rules of writing/editing
- The rules are closely interconnected and discussed in a certain sequence, with each rule logically leading to the next
- Concepts and examples presented in the The Art of Copyediting courses are simply those culled from the instructor's (unpublished) book on copyediting
- Some PDFs related to the course discussion can be downloaded
Addresses your needs
- Every one of you—students, freelancers, and full-time employees—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; email support also available
- World-class-training at affordable pricing, part-payments also possible
- Can immediately practice principles learned
Course instructor
- Venkataraman Anantharaman, PhD, is the Founder of The Art of Copyediting
- Has 23 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
This may be important for you!
- Covering 200 principles, this course forms the basis for any level of writing or editing one can possibly conceive of
- No matter what your genre of writing or editing, the principles taught in this course will help you gain a professional competence and edge over others
- Whatever be your basic education and flair for the language, you cannot make a mark in the editorial field without formal training
- The training will be world-class, and at an affordable price
Listen to a short video about the course
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Benefits of taking this course
- Understand the most important principles in writing and editing as well as some preferences
- Know the most common errors in writing and learn how to correct them
- With understanding (and practice) comes knowledge
- With knowledge comes quality writing or quality editorial output
- Quality output provides proof of value
- Proof of value can help you in receiving good job offers, steady work, and even win the confidence of higher-paying clients
Course Outline
- Introduction: course overview, sentence components, and some basic patterns
- Words and sentences (apostrophe, sentence as a unit of thought, serial comma)
- Subject and associated action
- Writing a sentence: essential and nonessential elements
- Expressing complex ideas
- Sentences that do not begin with the subject
- Avoiding repetition of nouns
- Moving beyond a sentence
- Drawing attention
- Accommodating twists and turns of the thought process
- Symmetry in thought and sentence structure
- The rules: summary, interconnections, and importance
- Basic differences between British English and American English
- Applying the rules
Course highlights
Some principles you will learn
- You need just 14 principles to master the craft of writing and editing
- No matter how complex a sentence, you can always break it down to some simple, basic components
- Possessives, false possessives, when you do and don’t need possessives (Rule 1)
- There are three levels of fragmentary thinking and all these can hinder comprehension (Rule 2)
- There are 20+ subrules within principle of S–V agreement (Rule 4)
- We have just three principles with which we can explain the myriad uses of the comma (Rules 3, 5, and 7)
- There is just one principle with which you can prove whether a sentence is right or wrong (Rule 6)
- Sentences with introductory constructions are prone to at least six types of errors (Rule 7)
- There are subtleties of pronoun use that can confound or enlighten (Rule 8)
- The features and distinctive uses of the semicolon, colon, and dash (Rules 9–11)
- Many gems lie unexplored within the principle of parallelism (Rule 12)
- Clear-cut distinctions between British English and American English as it relates to academic writing
Testimonials
Some comments on the course by participants
"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
Choose one of three offers for this course
Essentials-1
$292
Single full payment
Access to all course lessons in sequence
Access to course videos: 24 × 7, for 6 months
Mobile access to courses via a dedicated app
Interaction with course participants and instructor via comments; also email support
3 PDF downloads for items that form part of the course discussion
Essentials-2
$169
Two part-payments: $169 upfront and another $169 after 30 days
Access to all course lessons in sequence
Access to course videos: 24 × 7, for 6 months
Mobile access to courses via a dedicated app
Interaction with course participants and instructor via comments; also email support
3 PDF downloads for items that form part of the course discussion
Essentials-3
$117
Three part-payments: $117 upfront and $117 for 2 successive months
Access to all course lessons in sequence
Access to course videos: 24 × 7, for 6 months
Mobile access to courses via a dedicated app
Interaction with course participants and instructor via comments; also email support
3 PDF downloads for items that form part of the course discussion