Professional Writing and Editing: Perform Writing and Editing Tasks

Content

Perform writing and editing tasks lays the groundwork for success in all other writing and editing work in the Certificate IV. You will learn the skills and knowledge that are fundamental to writing clearly, concisely and consistently in a range of forms for different purposes and audiences. This involves exploring the principles of good writing common to all genres and examining how language and structure create tone and mood. Through sequenced exercises, you will develop your understanding of English grammar. We look at the function and structure of sentences and, from this, parts of speech and punctuation. We examine common errors, including frequently confused or misspelled words, redundancy, cliché, problems with subject–verb agreement, run-on and fragmented sentences, dangling modifiers and inconsistent tense construction.This unit also introduces you to formal copyediting and proofreading conventions and techniques.

Assessment

Four assessment tasks:

•Sentence structure: Respond to short answer questions designed to assess understanding of sentence structure and other points of grammar.

•Punctuation: Respond to a series of questions about punctuation,sentences, and some differences between US and Australian conventions.

•Writing and editing: Submit a first and final edited draft of a 2500-word piece of original writing, accompanied by a discussion about what you  have changed.

•Editing: Edit a 4000-word report according to a strict set of editorial guidelines. Submission will include responses to a series of short answer questions and a discussion of how the structure of the report could be improved.