Tomorrow I start a copyediting certificate program at UCSD (the University of California, San Diego).  Quite a few people have asked why. I have a PhD, I have years of experience, don’t I know all the stuff yet? That got me to thinking.

These are not my reasons for doing it.

  1. Going to California. I’m sure it’s lovely, and anyone who’s experienced spring in Newfoundland yearns for escape. But it’s an online program.
  2. Feeling wobbly on grammar. I actually feel I know a fair bit about grammar. I’ve taught syntax at university and I haven’t seen anything that’s new to me in the text for the course I am required to take. (Yes, I did ask for a waiver for the grammar course, and my request was declined.)
  3. Too much time on my hands. Very not.
  4. American dollars burning a hole in my PD budget. Also not.

And yet, once I knew the program existed, I couldn’t get it out of my head. Here’s why.

  1.  Many “publishing” (and editing) programs require courses about all sorts of things that are only tangentially related to what I do. But here was a whole certificate in copyediting. My favourite kind of editing! I love copyediting (with a heavy dose of stylistic) : it’s how you make the sentences better! That’s how you make it so the reader doesn’t decide to go and haul out the vacuum or wash the car instead of reading to the end of the paragraph.
  2. I like to think I know quite a lot of the stuff. But there’s always plenty you can forget because you don’t use that specific piece of knowledge very often. And some details just seem to slip away from the outer perimeter of your attention and into the galaxy, every single time. When you’re studying for a course, you have to make lists of those details and deliver your knowledge in the form of assignments.  You have to shoot out there into the galaxy and round up the thorny details on counterintuitive capitalization or the best tech tools or (god forbid) consistency in hyphenation. You have to hop out and round those things up and bring them in and deploy them!
  3. Mediocrity isn’t interesting. I have zero desire to be a so-so editor. I want to be the best damn copyeditor around, and it’s not a gift from God; it’s something you work at. I go to conferences and take courses; I participate in mentorships and online discussions; I collaborate and organize professional development sessions. And I learn something useful every single time.
  4. I like learning. If the content isn’t new, I’ll learn from how the course is taught. (And whatever it’s like, it won’t be as hard as the first-year music theory I took in the winter.)

So tomorrow I will log in at UCSD and download some documents and put the assignment dates in my calendar and make a schedule for the readings. In a few months I will emerge like a butterfly from the chrysalis.  Well, maybe not in quite such a beautiful and fluttery way as that. A learned if substantial butterfly. One that will do its job that bit better as a result of the time invested.