Honorary president: Judith Butcher Honorary vice-president: David Crystal OBE

Mentoring

Mentoring director  

The SfEP's mentoring scheme offers supervised training to associates and members of the Society who are new to professional proofreading or copy-editing. Experienced members act as mentors: they will provide each mentee with a copy of an existing or past job for them to proofread or copy-edit. They will then review the work, giving feedback and advice and answering any questions. Successful mentees gain 10 points towards upgrading their membership.

Becoming a mentee

Before becoming a mentee, you must have had some initial training. You are normally expected to have successfully completed two SfEP training courses:

• Introduction to proofreading and Proofreading problems
  or
• Introduction to copy-editing and Copy-editing problems.

The Society accepts the Publishing Training Centre distance-learning courses – Basic proofreading or Copy-editing – in place of the SfEP introductory courses. If you think you can show evidence of equivalent training, you can ask for this to be considered (contact the ).

However, all applicants must attend the appropriate 'Problems' course. Both these courses include an informal assessment process to ensure that potential mentees show some aptitude for proofreading or copy-editing and have acquired sufficient knowledge to make the best use of further training with a mentor.

Costs

Through the Whitcombe Training Fund, the Society pays half the cost of mentoring. Mentees pay the other half:

	1 instalment	2 instalments
Proofreading	£125	£130 (£65 x 2)
Copy-editing	£240	£250 (£125 x 2)

If you pay in two instalments, the second is due 30 days after the mentor sends out the job. All prices are inclusive of VAT.

Any mentor and mentee can make private arrangements to continue training beyond that.

How to apply

When you successfully complete the relevant 'Problems' course, you will be offered the chance to apply for mentoring. You must fill in the relevant application form:

• Application form: mentored proofreading
• Application form: mentored copy-editing

Send your completed form – with a cheque as appropriate – to the SfEP Office, marking the envelope 'SfEP Mentoring'. For enquiries, contact the or telephone the SfEP Office on 020 8785 5617.

There is a waiting list and it may be several weeks before a mentor becomes available. Your mentor will then contact you direct, like a new client offering you work, and you will discuss the task, agree a deadline and start the job.

To top