Honorary president: Judith Butcher Honorary vice-president: David Crystal OBE
SfEP mentoring scheme
The SfEP mentoring scheme was established to provide supervised training to newer members of the Society who are seeking to become proofreaders and copy-editors.
Experienced proofreaders and copy-editors from within the membership act as mentors. They provide copies of their existing or past work for mentees to proofread/copy-edit and then review the mentee's work, providing feedback and advice and answering any questions that mentees may have.
Pre-mentoring training
Before applying to take part in the scheme as a mentee, an applicant is expected to have attended the following SfEP training courses:
- Introduction to
proofreading and Proofreading
problems
or - Introduction to copy-editing and Copy-editing problems.
Completion of either of the two relevant Publishing Training Centre distance-learning courses – Basic proofreading or Copy-editing – is accepted in place of the SfEP's 'Introduction to' courses, but all applicants must attend Proofreading problems or Copy-editing problems. The 'Problems' courses include an informal assessment process. This ensures that potential mentees show some aptitude and have acquired sufficient knowledge to make the best use of further training with a mentor.
Mentoring begins
When a mentor becomes available, potential mentees are contacted by the co-ordinator of the scheme to check their current situation before their application form is passed to a mentor. Mentors then contact mentees in a manner similar to a publisher offering work, and the training proceeds.
Funding
The training provided by the scheme is funded mainly by the SfEP but mentees are asked to contribute £100 + VAT towards the cost of this funding.
Mentors are asked to ensure that the type of work they give mentees is such that it gives the mentee a true reflection of the work they may be asked to do. Mentors will give feedback on quality and accuracy of the work carried out. Mentors and mentees can make private arrangements to fund a continuation of the training beyond that covered by the SfEP scheme.
Becoming a mentor
If you would like to become a mentor in either proofreading or copy-editing, or both, please contact the SfEP Office. Mentors in many different subject areas are needed for the scheme to be fully viable.
