A lot of copy you edit could be read by people from other countries, especially if it’s going on the internet.

So, we tell our proofreading course students to make sure they consider the implications of the copy, rather than just the words and sentences.

Our proofreading course encourages students to:

  1. Avoid English idioms like: ‘I won’t beat about the bush’.
  2. Avoid nationalistic jokes such as Irish jokes. In general, avoid jokes, as overseas audiences rarely understand them.
  3. Be careful with symbols, as they can mean entirely different things to different cultures.
  4. Avoid any kind of racial stereotyping.

See our proofreading courses