Advice on Proofreading

[estuarygirl]

Am considering taking courses offered by the SfEP and just wondered if it was worth, or indeed possible to join as a member from scratch. If you are a member, you get a discount on the courses offered. Anyone had an experience of this?

Editor here. I'm a SfEP memebr and I'd completely recommend it.

There are loads of benefits to joining - editors' forums, local groups, discounts on training, CPD, etc. Browse their website to find out more, or PM me.

It's worth joining just for the member discount on courses!

Anyone can join. You join as an entry-level member and are encouraged to upgrade - there are various routes. When you are a professional member, you qualify for an entry in their Directory of Editorial Services - where I get most of my clients.

And SfEP's courses are constantly being upgraded to reflect the move from hard copy to online editing and proofing.

PM me if you'd like any more info.

Thanks for your response. I have since joined and am working my way through the P1 Proofreading course to get a feel for it. There is a local meet-up near me at the end of September - is it worth me going along or will it be too soon and I'll have no idea what anyone's on about?! Thinking of doing the P2 asap.

Will PM you!

Might have to start my own thread on this, but as it's related to the above I thought I'd pop it in here to start!

As part of my current role I proof read and edit reports for clients.
I have a few professional qualifications - (so have written several reports, assignments etc) and have been asked by a couple of friends recently to proof read their final assignments.
(one has had her results and reckons the process gave her an extra 10-15% in marks. Wish I'd known that this could add so much value when I was studying!!)

I've been looking online and there are several websites offering this service - would the SfEP qualifications be relevant to this process - there's no info on the websites of the qualifications of the editors they use?

Has anyone else done work like this and what would you say about it?

Friends have asked you to read their final assignments in what? University theses/essays/dissertations?

Working with students is a real minefield. You're not allowed to rewrite stuff for them; you're not supposed to be improving their work so they get a better mark. That's cheating.

The SfEP has a guide on working with students - www.sfep.org.uk/resources/guides/#TD

That sets out what you can and can't dp for them. Before you work for a student you should get their supervisor's permisison, to ensure he's happy you're involved, and you should also ask for the uni's guidelines for proofreaders.

Is that what you're talking about? And what sort of website do you mean? Ones that offer to cheat for students and write essays for them?

I wouldn't touch any of those with a bargepole - they're unethical and unscrupulous.

If this is the type of website you're talking about, then I'd imagine no SfEP editors would want to be involved - for the above reasons.

If I've got the wrong end of the stick, sorry, But if I haven't, how can you defend cheating like this?