Adra Writes

Back in March, I decided to take a course on proofreading. I wanted to sharpen my skills, branch out, and work towards a more freelance career. 

I did my research and decided that Proofreading Academy’s Becoming a Proofreader online certification course was most suitable for me. It won me over for several reasons. 

1. It is aimed at beginners who are just starting out. 
2. It is a comprehensive course. 
3. You receive a certificate upon completing the course and taking the test. 
4. You get hired on with their sister company, Proofed, if you pass the test with an 80% or higher mark. 
5. It is a highly praised course by all the blogs and editing sites I researched. 

With all that taken into account, I decided to purchase the 295USD course. I felt that it would be an investment in my career growth and had the potential to pay itself off when/if I started working as a proofreader. 

The following two sections go over some basic information about the course and course content. You will find my personal thoughts and review of the course listed after the course content. Feel free to scroll if you already know about the course. 

Course Information: 

Price: 295USD 

If you cannot afford the fees but want to take the course, contact the company. I have read that they are willing to set up payment plans. 

Time: 45 hours on average to finish all the materials 

Assessment: You have three attempts to pass the test. 

There are three documents in the test. Two documents are short academic essays (less than 500 words) that you will have to proofread in either US or British English. All referencing and in-text citations are done in APA style. The other document is formatting ONLY. 

It takes 7 – 10 business days to get your score back. You receive an email with your score and feedback. You also have the option to meet with a tutor to further discuss your test, ask questions, and get more insightful feedback to improve your score. This is highly recommended if you want to improve your score. 

Contact and Support: 

They have 24/7 support online if you have any questions about the course. You do not need to pay for the course to use this feature on their website. You can also email a tutor if you have any questions while taking the course.

They also have workshops you can attend. You sign up for a date and time, and you will be with a live tutor to ask questions. The tutor will go over some important information from the course and show you how to use it in practice. It is not mandatory, but it is highly recommended. Even if you cannot attend the course, you can sign up for it and receive a video recording of the session to watch on your own time. This is what I did. 

Course Content:

There are 15 modules to work through to complete the course before taking the final assessment. You can also check out their webpage with an overview of each module here. Each module is thorough with many examples, practice materials, common questions answered, and tutorial videos. Here is my brief overview of the main points for each module and some personal comments if you would like to read them. Otherwise, keep scrolling to see my personal review after this section. 

Module 1: Introduction to Becoming a Proofreader. 

This module is short and sweet with some basic information about the course. 

Module 2: Proofreading and Editing

Here, you will learn the difference between editing and proofreading. It also outlines the different stages of the editing process. 

Module 3: The Basics of Microsoft Word 

This is an introduction to using Microsoft word for proofreading so you can complete the assignments throughout the course. They show you how to use track changes and set a clean copy and a tracked changes document. This is the preferred system of their sister company Proofed. 

Module 4: Common Spelling Mistakes 

As the name suggests, you will focus on spelling mistakes and differences between the different English dialects. They go over American, British, and Australian differences. This module also goes over compound words, letter addition and omission, and other common issues. 

Module 5: Common Grammar Mistakes 

This module goes over faulty agreement and parallelism, fragments and modifying clauses, adverbs and adjectives, determiners, prepositions, and pronouns, regional grammar, grammar myths, and common questions. This is a great module to really show you how little you know about grammar. 

I have had an intensive grammar course as part of my traditional education, and I still learned something new. I think this is a very informative module.

Module 6: Common Punctuation Mistakes 

This module goes over all things punctuation and how different regional dialects use different punctuation. You will learn how to use: colons, semicolons, apostrophes, quotation marks, hyphens, dashes, ellipses, parentheses, and lists. 

For myself, learning about the different types of dashes and how to use them was very interesting. 

Module 7: Other Common Errors 

In this module, you learn about Latin terms, acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, how to use numbers, and other common issues. 

These are the nitty-gritty and miscellaneous aspects of grammar and writing that I personally lacked. I definitely needed this module. 

Module 8: Proofreading in Practice – Style 

Here you will learn about tone and formality, vocabulary, sentence structure and length, and paragraph structure. 

Module 9: Academic Proofreading 

This module is a decent introduction to academic language, tone, and style. 

Module 10: Referencing and Citations

This is the largest module in the whole course. You will get an overview of five-plus referencing styles: Harvard, APA, MLA, Chicago, IEEE, and other lesser-known styles. 

APA is the most important section in this module as two of the three test documents have a references page with in-text citations that need correcting. I referred to this module a lot during the tests. 

Modules 11 & 12: Advanced Formatting in Microsoft Word 

Module 11 is Microsoft Word for Windows users. Module 12 is Microsoft Word for Mac users. You only do the module that is relevant to you. 

If you have ever wondered how to make a table of contents, adjust your line or paragraph spacing, or how to start page numbers on a new page, this is a wonderful module. 

It is also an especially important module as one of the three tests is exclusively on formatting a 35-page document. It was also satisfying to learn how to use all the functions Word offers to its users. This was another personal favorite module.  

Module 13: Creative Writing and the Publishing Industry 

In this module, you will learn more about copy editing documents such as manuscripts, scripts, screenplays, and how to work on page proofs. It also goes into the Proofed method for these documents. This is useful if you plan to work with Proofed after passing your test. 

Module 14: Business Writing

This module covers a lot, and I would say it is just an introduction to proofreading business documents. You will learn about different documents and how to proofread in PowerPoint and Excel for Windows and Mac. You will also get an overview of using Google Suite. 

Module 15: Finding Work and the Final Assignment 

This module briefly discusses how to find work as a freelancer using platforms such as Fiver and how to market yourself. It gives some tips on how to handle clients and knowing what to charge for. 

Lastly, you get instructions on the final test(s). 

My Thoughts After Completing the Course Materials, Taking the Assessment 3 times, and FINALLY making an 80% 

How long did it really take to finish and pass the test? 

It took me under 3 weeks to finish all the course materials. That is the easy part. Taking, submitting, and passing the test was the longest part. I took the test 3 times before FINALLY passing on my last attempt. This took a long time because it took 7 – 10 days to get my scores back, then you have to wait to meet with an available tutor before getting the next test.

In total, it took me 2 and a half months (from the start of March until May 14th) to finish everything. 

Is the course content useful and informative? 

Absolutely. I enjoyed the course and felt it was super informative and enjoyable to work through. I have a background in teaching ESL/EFL, so I am already relatively informed on things such as grammar, spelling, and the mechanics of writing; however, I still managed to learn something new from each module. Modules that were most informative to me were: 

• Advanced Formatting in Microsoft Word, 
• Referencing Styles (specifically APA since that is a new style for me), 
• Other Common Errors (learning about the Latin Terms and other fun grammar info is my JAM!) 
• Punctuation mistakes (I am terrible with punctuation), and
• Learning differences between British and American English.

Throughout each module, you will also get practice documents to proofread. It gives you a chance to practice the Proofed method using tracked changes, and it also gives you a good idea of how you are progressing. They give you the fully corrected document to check yourself along the way.  

What about working with Proofed? 

I just passed the test this week, so I have not started working with them as of yet. The onboarding process seems to take a long time. You must submit some basic paperwork, which takes 2 to 3 weeks to process. After your paperwork is processed, you have to wait to take an onboarding session. After that, you can start working BUT you are restricted to documents of 750 words. You must complete 10 documents that are reviewed by another editor. They make sure you are maintaining quality and consistency before they increase your word count. This also seems to take some time, and they can extend this period if you are not submitting work up to their standards. 

However, if you finish the 10 documents and they are satisfied with your work, you can consider yourself officially hired with Proofed.

Overall, it seems that working with Proofed and getting to a point where you are actually making money takes time. It will most likely be 3 or more months before I see a real paycheck from them. 

For me, this is fine as I have a job and a steady income. However, if you are someone who needs to start work now, I would not recommend taking this course to solve your problems. 

Any negative aspects? 

For myself, it would be the time frame to finish everything. Taking the test three times obviously impacted this tremendously. 

I would also say that working with Proofed is a little oversold. They should be more candid about the hiring process and time frame. It feels like they are advertising, “As soon as you pass the test, start making money working with Proofed immediately!” And even though that is NOT what they are saying, it definitely feels a little misleading. 

I think that if you are interested in editing or proofreading and want to take this course, then you should not have the expectation that you will start making some lucrative amount of money from the start. I think it will take time, experience, and patience before you start seeing money come in.