Editing Fundamentals

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$389

AUD

35% off

$599 AUD

Quick Facts

Delivery Method Online
Professional Certificate
24hrs Suggested Study Time
3 Months Access
Tutor Support
Study On Any Device
9350 Students

If you aspire to be an editor, this course will teach you the fundamentals of top-notch editing for both fiction and nonfiction.

Ask any published writer and you will hear that a good editor is not just helpful, but essential. If you aspire to be an editor, this copyediting course will teach you the fundamentals of top-notch editing for both fiction and nonfiction. If you're already working as an editor, you'll not only brush up on your skills, but will also learn about recent advances in your chosen profession. If you're a writer, you will learn essential self-editing tools to give your manuscripts the professional look that publishers like to see.

From the language of editing to grammar, punctuation, and syntax to the all-important relationships between editor, author, and publisher, every facet of editing will be explored in this copyeditor course. Online editing is gaining popularity; its complexities will be unraveled and its advantages and pitfalls explored. Can you make a living as an editor? Tips and resources for finding work will be addressed at length. When you finish with this course, you will feel confident enough to tackle even the most complex of manuscripts.

Courses are delivered to you through expertly executed lessons, online instruction and interaction with like-minded students. Our courses are designed to deliver all of the benefits of studying in a classroom whilst giving you the flexibility to study at a time and place to suit your needs. You can access your classroom 24/7 from any device with an internet connection.

This course has a 3 month duration. You'll complete comprehensive lessons, quizzes and assignments before submitting your final exam at the end of the course to achieve your certificate. Courses must be completed within the 3 month access period.

Have you ever wondered just what editors do with writers’ manuscripts? In this first lesson, you’ll find out. You’ll learn about the different types of editors—copyeditors, acquisition editors, developmental editors, production editors, and more—and exactly what their jobs entail. Because this course focuses on copyeditors, you’ll explore the three levels of copyediting: light, medium, and heavy. Finally, you’ll be introduced to five immutable laws of editing designed to make your job as a writer or an editor much easier.

If you’ve ever seen a page marked up by an editor, you probably wondered what all those funny-looking marks and symbols meant. In today’s lesson, the mystery will be revealed. All the marks will be displayed and defined, and you’ll learn to use them as a sort of shorthand to fix errors. At the end of the lesson, you’ll have the opportunity to practice using your newly learned copyeditors’ marks in an entertaining exercise.

Today, you’ll be given some invaluable tools for increasing awareness of detail while you’re writing or editing. You’ll learn the theory behind these tools and how to use them to help you with accuracy and consistency. Then we’ll shift gears and delve into the intricacies of fiction writing and editing. You’ll take a close-up look at fiction writing devices such as narration, exposition, dialogue, and point of view, and how each can be effectively incorporated into a manuscript.

Grammar and punctuation are two subjects that usually evoke a big “Ugh!” Today’s lesson is a review of the basics of English grammar and punctuation, but the ugh-factor is conspicuously absent. You’ll revisit all those principles you learned in school, but in a light-hearted manner guaranteed to ease the pain. Proper grammar and punctuation are the hallmarks of good writing and editing, and you’ll be glad you had the chance to bring your knowledge up to date.

Today’s lesson will take you into the world of spelling, capitalization, and numbers. Most people are surprised to learn that there are actually rules governing how words are spelled and capitalized, and whether numbers should be spelled out or in digit form. You’ll learn not only the rules but also the exceptions. The benefit of knowing all the variations is that you’ll create consistency in your work, and your writing/editing will shine.

This lesson explores all the writing pitfalls that can leave readers in a state of confusion. You’ll learn to recognize and fix mixed metaphors, garbled syntax, nominals, redundancies, and much more. You’ll also learn how to untangle overly wordy sentences, how to eliminate sexism, and how to create parallel structure. One of your goals as an editor or a writer is to produce clarity. This lesson will put you firmly on the path to achieving that goal.

When is it appropriate to use an abbreviation? When should you hyphenate words? Most people have a general knowledge of abbreviations and hyphens, but when it comes time to actually use them, they haven’t a clue. Today, you’ll learn all the ins and outs of the rules that guide their use. Then you’ll look closely at a less-glamorous but critical part of a manuscript: bibliographies, footnotes, citations, and endnotes. Editors and writers need to know how to properly reference quoted material within a manuscript, and the simple guidelines in today’s lesson will make the process easy.

The relationship between an author and an editor is tricky at best. Throw a publisher into the works, and you have the potential for a powder keg of emotions. Today’s lesson shows you how to keep life harmonious within the author-editor-publisher relationship. Writers will be able to see things from the editor’s perspective, and editors will learn how it feels to be in the author’s shoes. Both of you will gain insight as well as a good brush-up of your people skills.

Today, you will learn about a different way to edit, which has become the norm rather than the exception. Editing manuscripts on-screen is the wave of the present, and in this lesson, you’ll explore the intricacies of making edits electronically, thereby eliminating the physical manuscript. You’ll then learn about copyright law, permissions, and fair use, all of which are essential for both editors and writers to become familiar with.

Manuscripts have many parts beyond just the text. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to edit such peripheral material as tables, charts, and artwork. If you’ve ever seen a caption that didn’t fit the photo it was describing, you’ll understand the need for this extra scrutiny. Next you’ll learn all about the components of a book that come before and after the text, namely, the front and back matter. You’ll learn the function of parts such as the foreword, the table of contents, the index, and many more.

After five weeks of absorbing the technical elements of editing, it’s time to have some fun. Today, you’ll take a close look at the intricacies, inconsistencies, and irregularities in the English language. These are the things that defy classification but still are important to know. You’ll learn about oddball words and phrases, the do’s and don’ts of usage, and the many ways in which language is like a puzzle that’s never finished.

This might be the most important lesson of all. Today, you will learn how to find work as an editor. Whether you’re interested in a staff position or want to begin a freelance career, all the help and advice you’ll need is in this lesson. You’ll also learn some basic business practices that will make your life as an editor easy.

Jacquelyn Landis

Jacquelyn Landis holds a bachelor's degree and has worked as a nonfiction editor for over 15 years. Her editing repertoire includes books, articles, and business manuals written by best-selling authors such as Eva Shaw, George Carpozi, Anthony Rob... Read more

Read Jacquelyn Landis's Profile

Frequently Asked Questions

Once you've made the payment, we'll send you a confirmation email with a link to start your course. Feel free to get started whenever you're ready!

You'll have 3 months access to your course. In that time you are free to study at your own pace. The course duration is 24 hours.

Online learning is a flexible way to study that fits around your schedule, giving you the freedom to learn at your own pace from anywhere in the world. You'll have 3 months to complete the course and can take the multiple-choice questions and final exam whenever it suits you.

If you need help, you can contact us anytime. You can also join the discussion area where you can interact with other students. The discussion area for each lesson is open for the entire duration of the course.

Of course! We offer a 7-day money back guarantee. As long as you haven't completed the course, you can get a full refund within 7 days of enrolling.

We do not offer extensions or transfers for this self-paced course. However, you will have 3 months to complete the course, and if you need to cancel within the first 10 days of enrolment, we offer a money back guarantee.

What people are saying about our courses

As an aspiring writer and editor, I felt this course was extremely helpful. I now have the tools and the confidence to jump-start my career. Thanks, Jackie, for your amusing anecdotes and excellent instruction.

Verified Student

Every aspiring writer should take this course. It was helpful on many levels. I have recommended it to other writer friends.

Verified Student

Excellent and practical course with an interesting presentation of the material. I would definitely recommend this course to others.

Verified Student

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The Learning Environment

From the moment that you enrol in the Editing Fundamentals you will become an integral part of our learning community. You'll find yourself with the freedom to learn at a speed that suits you, on any device, from anywhere in the world. Achieving your career goals no longer has to mean compromising family and work commitments.

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Learn At Your Own Pace

We believe in personalised learning. That's why we provide all the tools and support you need to succeed at your own pace. With flexible learning, you'll stay motivated and retain more information. Plus, you can balance your studies with work and family commitments to make your dreams a reality.

We Won't Break The Bank

Education should be accessible to anyone who wants to learn. That's why we offer some of the most competitive prices in the industry with payments plans for just $25 per week. Investing in your future is a smart choice and doesn’t have to break the bank.

Industry-Led Courses

There's no better way to learn than from experts with years of experience in your field. That's why each of our 200+ industry-led courses are designed to give you a real-life perspective on your industry. With our expert mentors, you'll learn from people who have a wealth of knowledge and experience, and who are passionate about sharing it with you.

Get The Personal Support You Deserve

At Vibe Learning, we're real people who are dedicated to providing you with personal support every step of the way. Our industry experts are not only professional and knowledgeable but also incredibly passionate about sharing their expertise with you. With their guidance, you'll gain invaluable insights and practical knowledge to help you succeed.

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Editing Fundamentals

$599

$389AUD

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Microsoft Excel 2013 Advanced

Quick Facts

Delivery Method Online
Professional Certificate
24hrs Suggested Study Time
3 Months Access
Tutor Support
Study On Any Device
121 Students

Master advanced features and functions of Microsoft Excel 2013, including analysis tools, data tables, PivotTables, and conditional formatting.

Wouldn't it be great to learn how to effectively use all the advanced Excel features? In this practical and information-packed course, you'll see how to maximise this program's functions and capabilities.

Most organisations rely heavily on Excel to consolidate, analyze, and report financial information. Your company is probably no exception. By learning these advanced techniques, you can become more valuable to your organisation.

You'll see how to work with the additional analysis tools provided by Excel add-ins and become skilled in using validation to protect the integrity of your worksheets from less experienced users. Impress your coworkers by learning how to add functional and eye-catching custom controls to any worksheet and how to use scenarios and data tables to quickly perform what-if data analyses. You'll discover advanced techniques for PivotTables, like creating Timelines, calculated fields, and calculated items. You'll learn how to use Excel's consolidation function to efficiently summarise data from multiple sources, become adept at importing external data, and master the art of conditional formatting to highlight duplicate entries and other common worksheet problems.

Learn how Excel 2013 table tools take the complexity out of table creation and management. As you become proficient at nesting functions within other functions, you'll be able to accomplish just about anything Microsoft Excel has to offer!

Over the next six weeks, we're going to explore Microsoft Excel 2013's sometimes-overlooked and advanced features. You'll learn how to use data analysis tools and techniques to improve your decision making, and you'll practice generating accurate data more quickly. By the end of this course, you'll be well prepared to contribute more value to your organization with your advanced understanding of Excel. To kick things off, we'll spend this first lesson exploring how you can modify Excel to streamline processes and make your work easier. You'll use the Excel Options dialog box to customize some of Excel's behind-the-scenes behavior, set up your Quick Access Toolbar, and take a look at the status bar and its customizable features. Mastering these processes will lay the foundation for our exploration of advanced topics throughout the course.

Today we'll explore some great table management features in Excel 2013, discuss how to use data forms with Excel databases, and look at a few alternative database techniques. You'll be glad to know that formatting and working with tables has gotten much easier in this latest version of Excel. Now, instead of applying filters, total rows, and formats separately, you can perform these actions through a single user interface. We'll delve into how it's done. You'll also learn how data forms provide a more user-friendly method for adding, deleting, and editing records in a table, and you'll practice using a data form to search for and view records that match specific criteria. We'll wrap things up with a brief look at some of the practical applications for data forms.

In this lesson, we'll tackle data validation techniques—your first line of defense against incorrect or missing data and the logical next step after data forms. You'll practice using whole number, decimal, date, time, list, and other forms of validation. After that, we'll explore the possibilities of custom validation, which allows you to apply validation on a cell or range of cells based on a formula you create. The possibilities for using it are limitless! You'll also learn how to create input messages and error alerts to guide the user's data entry, how to keep track of validation rules, and how to apply a custom validation rule to other cells so that you don't have to create it all over again.

In the first three lessons, we covered what you might call intro-level advanced Excel topics, and now it's time to head into more complex territory. So today, let's start working with custom controls—graphical objects that help facilitate data input and are sure to impress users. We'll start by getting your Ribbon set up to work with custom controls, and then we'll walk through some practice exercises. You'll learn how to create standard and drop-down list boxes, check boxes, option buttons, and group boxes. You'll also master the process of creating a dynamic list box, which allows you to control the values in one list box based on the values chosen by your user in a separate custom control.

Today you'll discover how to use conditional formatting. And I'm not just talking about creating validation based on cell values. We'll do a quick review of that process, just as a refresher, but after that we're going to focus on formula conditional formatting. We'll work through nine different practice exercises that explore row conditional formatting, and we'll briefly discuss how the formula works after each exercise. You'll see how to use conditional formatting to hide errors, to highlight records based on multiple criteria, to track and alert you about due dates, to find the differences between two lists, to shade every other row (my personal favorite), and more. I think you'll especially enjoy learning how to set up a scorecard, which will show you problem areas in red, possible problems in yellow, and everything running smoothly in green. (Your manager will love this.)

In this lesson, you'll learn how to use Excel's consolidation function to efficiently summarize data from multiple sources. A lot of people do this the hard way, but with Excel's automatic consolidation feature, you'll no longer need to develop a web of formula links to multiple sources. Goodbye, potential for human error! We'll begin with an exercise on consolidating data within the same workbook, and after that, you'll practice consolidating using an advanced technique with category labels and wildcards. Next, we'll step things up with a practice exercise on consolidating from multiple workbooks. You'll also learn how to use automatic and manual outlining to view or hide different levels or sections of your information.

Excel's functions (or predefined calculations) are too numerous to completely cover in one lesson, so today we'll just focus on a few important ones spanning four categories: Logical, Database, Math & Trig, and Lookup & Reference. We'll start today with an overview of functions, take a look at the Insert Function dialog box, and then practice working with the IF function, nesting functions, the DSUM function, and the VLOOKUP function—all of which will come in handy when you need to perform a quick, thorough analysis of your data.

In this lesson, you'll find out all about importing external data. We'll begin with a practice exercise to get you comfortable with importing data from another Excel file, during which you'll see how to use the Microsoft Query Wizard. You'll test two methods for refreshing the target area for the imported data and find out how to edit an Excel query. After that, you'll do an import from an external database. Finally, you'll learn how to perform a Web query, which—you guessed it—allows you to import data from the Internet. The Web query feature is another fantastic feature in Excel 2013.

It's time to look at data tables, which let you compare the outcomes of different versions of the same formula without slogging through the process of calculating each of them. Data tables are very powerful what-if analysis tools that are great for analyzing potential outcomes of personal or business financial decisions. In this lesson, you'll learn how to use two types of data tables: a one-variable data table (which lets you substitute just one variable into the formula calculation) and the two-variable data table (which allows you to change multiple aspects of the formula).

Today we'll explore three more of Excel's what-if analysis tools: Goal Seek, Scenario Manager, and Solver. You'll find out how to use Goal Seek to solve formulas backward—for example, you might want to do this if you knew the result you wanted but needed to determine how to change a single input cell in order to get that desired result. After that, we'll practice using Scenario Manager to create and save different input values and their results as scenarios (great for working on budgets). And finally, you'll put Excel's Solver to work to discover the optimal solution to models that have multiple variables and constraints.

In this lesson, you'll discover how to use PivotTables, which are excellent for summarizing massive amounts of data and viewing different cuts of the information quickly. There are two methods for creating PivotTables, and you'll practice using both. You'll also learn how to edit a PivotTable, how to filter the table to create individual reports, how to format a PivotTable to make it reader-friendly, how to insert a Timeline, and how to create and use calculated fields and items. After this, you'll create a PivotChart based on the data fields in your PivotTable. We may not be quite done with the course, but after mastering PivotTables and PivotCharts, you'll certainly be able to count yourself an advanced Excel user.

We'll begin our final lesson with a look at the functions available in the Analysis ToolPak, including two of my favorites: the Moving Average and Sampling tools. You'll complete an exercise using advanced filters, and then I'll show you some of my favorite Excel tips and tricks. You'll find out how to work with the View Side by Side tool and how to use the Watch Window to keep tabs on your data when you're updating a workbook. We'll wrap things up with practice exercises using array formulas and the AutoSum Tool. When you're done with this lesson—and the course—you'll want to pass along the techniques you've learned to friends and colleagues who are still wrestling with Excel!

Chad Wambolt

Chad Wambolt is a graduate of Boise State University, where he obtained his bachelor's degree in accounting. He has spent his entire professional career in the finance field, working for both privately and publicly held companies with sales rangin... Read more

Read Chad Wambolt's Profile

Frequently Asked Questions

Once you've made the payment, we'll send you a confirmation email with a link to start your course. Feel free to get started whenever you're ready!

You'll have 3 months access to your course. In that time you are free to study at your own pace. The course duration is 24 hours.

Of course! We offer a 7-day money back guarantee. As long as you haven't completed the course, you can get a full refund within 7 days of enrolling.

The Learning Environment

From the moment that you enrol in the Microsoft Excel 2013 Advanced you will become an integral part of our learning community. You'll find yourself with the freedom to learn at a speed that suits you, on any device, from anywhere in the world. Achieving your career goals no longer has to mean compromising family and work commitments.