Description
This course introduces beginning proofreaders and copyeditors to The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS), focusing on practical problems of grammar and citation. Students should have a solid grasp of college-level grammar as this course will show how CMOS extends and clarifies the rules found in standard grammar guides. Familiarity with MLA or APA citation is recommended but not required; the basics of the CMOS notes-and-bibliography system will be covered. This course focuses not on the business of proofreading and copyediting, which is covered to some extent in part 1 of CMOS, but on the practicalities of correcting a typical author manuscript.
At the end of this class, students will be able to:
- Learn how to solve advanced syntax and punctuation problems.
- Learn how to use numbers, including monetary amounts and dates.
- Learn to identify the most common abbreviations.
- Learn how to treat words and phrases from other languages.
- Learn about bias and sensitivity issues.
- Learn how to set up and, when necessary, properly alter quotations.
- Learn how to use titles with headline-style or sentence-style capitalization.
- Learn the basics of the notes-and-bibliography citation system.
The class consists of 15 lessons. Each lesson consists of an overview, a list of relevant CMOS sections to study, a quiz, and a quiz key.
Required texts: CMOS 17, online version recommended.
“Self-paced” means that students read the lessons and do the exercises at their own pace. There is no instructor feedback. You will have six months to access the course materials, which can be downloaded for your future reference.
Registrations will be taken until September 1, 2020, at which time the class will be closed to new enrollment.
Within 1-2 business days of registering for the course, you will be added to the course site and access the materials. If you do not receive emails from Sakai within that time frame, please reach out to the EFA office.
Course designer Kirk Perry has an MFA in poetry from UMass Amherst, where he taught Business Communication at the Isenberg School of Management. Currently he teaches writing at Portland Community College and works as a freelance copyeditor. His clients include the University of New Mexico Press and the Huntington Library Quarterly.
Our online courses are conducted through Sakai, a learning management system (LMS). Self-paced courses are undertaken by the student at their own pace and no instructor feedback is provided. Students will have six months to access the course site and may download the course materials for later review. Information on how to access the course will be provided one to two business days after registration. All participants in EFA courses must abide by our anti-harassment policy, which you can find here.
