I think the best thing I have done for my business is committing to classwork. For all the knowledge I have brought with me over the years, there is always something to be refreshed, to be picked up new, to be viewed in a new way.
Included in the term 'classwork', as I use it here, I include a variety of things I do in a week to keep my editing muscles buffed. That means reading - a lot - not just text and reference books for class, but professional group discussions, blog articles, and job descriptions from employment postings. I've learned some great things in the ten minutes I spend slogging through email in the morning.
For example, did you know that using two spaces behind a period is a TYPING thing? As in using an 'old-fashioned' typewriter - the kind we used when we old folks were in school twenty (or so) years ago? Just you try to break that habit if you have it. It's my new proofing exercise - I have to go back in work like this post to get rid of the extra spaces. It was only important for that machine -- related to the typesetting process -- and is not relevant now with software that adjusts spacing automatically.
That little tidbit made me a better proofreader. I'm quite grateful for a lot of people I don't even know, that they share this kind of free information in blogs and groups. I'm grateful for my instructor, who I also don't know because I'm taking a class online, who walks me through these big reference books and gives me great inside hints and tips along the way. Her knowledge makes me a better editor.
Very much enjoying freelancing and all the learning that will always to go with it!
Included in the term 'classwork', as I use it here, I include a variety of things I do in a week to keep my editing muscles buffed. That means reading - a lot - not just text and reference books for class, but professional group discussions, blog articles, and job descriptions from employment postings. I've learned some great things in the ten minutes I spend slogging through email in the morning.
For example, did you know that using two spaces behind a period is a TYPING thing? As in using an 'old-fashioned' typewriter - the kind we used when we old folks were in school twenty (or so) years ago? Just you try to break that habit if you have it. It's my new proofing exercise - I have to go back in work like this post to get rid of the extra spaces. It was only important for that machine -- related to the typesetting process -- and is not relevant now with software that adjusts spacing automatically.
That little tidbit made me a better proofreader. I'm quite grateful for a lot of people I don't even know, that they share this kind of free information in blogs and groups. I'm grateful for my instructor, who I also don't know because I'm taking a class online, who walks me through these big reference books and gives me great inside hints and tips along the way. Her knowledge makes me a better editor.
Very much enjoying freelancing and all the learning that will always to go with it!
