Copyediting II
WCWP-40237
Copyediting I is a prerequisite for this ten-week online course. In Copyediting II you will practice judicious and defensible editing so you can master how to thrive as a copyeditor (or 'copy editor') in the modern-day workplace. This class will prepare you for Copyediting III and acquaint you with a medium edit, one of the three levels of copyediting covered in the program. It will also give you a solid grounding in fostering healthy author-editor relationships, recognizing bias in language, mastering common editorial practices, and addressing subjective writing errors. Copyediting II is focused not only on acquainting you with the purpose of a medium edit, but also conducting a medium edit. You will be continually challenged to maintain the author’s voice and meaning, while correcting subjective errors that result in convoluted writing. This course will also introduce you to the professional art of querying so you can practice communicating with the author through sensitive and appropriate copyediting inquiries. We will study parallelism and sentence structure to address bias in language and math or statistical information, and how to best edit and present factual information. You will also have the opportunity to understand copyediting as a business venture, as well as how to freelance copyedit and best practices associated with both.
What You Will Learn:
- Gain additional practice with style sheets and electronic editing.
- Delve deeper into The Chicago Manual of Style, editing for standardized content style.
- Explore varying editorial best practices.
- Perform a medium edit—revising and improving those language elements identified in class.
- Find answers to usage questions in The Chicago Manual of Style.
- Use professional queries to provide feedback to authors.
- Nominalizations and tackling wordiness.
- Apply bias-free language usage.
- Demonstrate the essentials of web editing.
Quarters Offered: Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall | 10 weeks | Online
Prerequisite: Grammar Lab (WCWP-40234) & Copyediting I (WCWP-40236). You may enroll in a future section of Copyediting II while currently taking Copyediting I. Passing grades of prerequisites will be verified before the quarter begins.
Requirements: Microsoft Word 2016/Office 365 (PC or Mac) or higher required. Access to a printer and scanner or scanning app required.
Next class: To continue progress in the Copyediting Certificate, the next class is Copyediting III.
Note: Fulfills 3 units toward requirements for the Copyediting Certificate. This online course is not self-paced. There are assignments and readings with weekly due dates. Please purchase textbooks before class begins.
Course Information
Course sessions
Section ID:
Class type:
This course is entirely web-based and to be completed asynchronously between the published course start and end dates. Synchronous attendance is NOT required.
You will have access to your online course on the published start date OR 1 business day after your enrollment is confirmed if you enroll on or after the published start date.
Textbooks:
The Copyeditor's Handbook 4th
by Amy Einsohn and Marilyn Schwartz
ISBN / ASIN: 9780520286726
The Copyeditor's Workbook 1st
by Amy Buky, Marilyn Schwartz, Amy Einsohn
ISBN / ASIN: 9780520294356
The Chicago Manual of Style (ONLINE SUBSCRIPTION ONLY, DO NOT USE PRINTED BOOK) Edition: 18th
ISBN / ASIN: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
You may purchase textbooks via the UC San Diego Bookstore.
Policies:
- No refunds after: 7/11/2025
- 1st no meeting date: 9/1/2025
- Early enrollment advised
- Prerequisite required
Note:
Schedule:
Instructor:
Lourdes Venard, M.A.
A news editor at Newsday, overseeing a team that copy-edits the business pages and a Sunday news-feature section, and has worked at the Chicago Tribune.
Lourdes Venard has more than 40 years of writing, editing, design, and project management experience. She currently works as the education editor for the News Literacy Project, a nonpartisan education nonprofit. Before that, she worked as a copyeditor, and copy desk supervisor at major newspapers, including The Miami Herald, Chicago Tribune, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and Newsday, and also as a freelance fiction editor. She served on the advisory committee for the 18th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style.
She has been a UC San Diego Extension instructor since 2012 and she is a lead instructor for the Copyediting Certificate Program. She teaches Copyediting I, Copyediting II, Copyediting III, Copy Editing with Associated Press Style, and Copyediting for Fiction. Venard holds a master's in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a bachelor's in communications from the University of Miami.
You can reach her at LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/lourdes/.
Section ID:
Class type:
This course is entirely web-based and to be completed asynchronously between the published course start and end dates. Synchronous attendance is NOT required.
You will have access to your online course on the published start date OR 1 business day after your enrollment is confirmed if you enroll on or after the published start date.
Textbooks:
The Copyeditor's Handbook 4th
by Amy Einsohn and Marilyn Schwartz
ISBN / ASIN: 9780520286726
The Copyeditor's Workbook 1st
by Amy Buky, Marilyn Schwartz, Amy Einsohn
ISBN / ASIN: 9780520294356
The Chicago Manual of Style (ONLINE SUBSCRIPTION ONLY, DO NOT USE PRINTED BOOK) Edition: 18th
ISBN / ASIN: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
You may purchase textbooks via the UC San Diego Bookstore.
Policies:
- No refunds after: 7/11/2025
- 1st no meeting date: 9/1/2025
- Early enrollment advised
- Prerequisite required
Note:
Schedule:
Instructor:
Andrea Ordonez
Andrea Ordonez is an award-winning editor currently based in Fort Worth, Texas. A Dow Jones News Fund alumna, she currently works as a copy editor and web producer at Texas Monthly. Andrea was the deputy copy chief of BuzzFeed Inc. and an assistant editor at Newsday in New York. She is a member of ACES: The Society for Editing's diversity, equity, and inclusion committee, and the Asian American Journalists Association's programming committee. At UCSD Extended Studies, she teaches Copyediting I and II in the Copyediting Certificate Program.
Section ID:
Class type:
This course is entirely web-based and to be completed asynchronously between the published course start and end dates. Synchronous attendance is NOT required.
You will have access to your online course on the published start date OR 1 business day after your enrollment is confirmed if you enroll on or after the published start date.
Textbooks:
The Copyeditor's Handbook 4th
by Amy Einsohn and Marilyn Schwartz
ISBN / ASIN: 9780520286726
The Copyeditor's Workbook 1st
by Amy Buky, Marilyn Schwartz, Amy Einsohn
ISBN / ASIN: 9780520294356
The Chicago Manual of Style (ONLINE SUBSCRIPTION ONLY, DO NOT USE PRINTED BOOK) Edition: 18th
ISBN / ASIN: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
You may purchase textbooks via the UC San Diego Bookstore.
Policies:
- No refunds after: 7/11/2025
- 1st no meeting date: 9/1/2025
- Early enrollment advised
- Prerequisite required
Note:
Schedule:
Instructor:
Lee Davidson
Lee Davidson brings more than 12 years of copyediting experience to UC San Diego Extension’s Copyediting Certificate and is an early graduate of the program herself. Lee is currently the managing editor for digital content at a global business education association, where she plans and develops editorial content, manages an editing team, and copyedits marketing and research materials. Lee occasionally edits scholarly manuscripts on a freelance basis, which is how she began her editing journey and discovered her love of the craft.
In addition to having a UCSD Extension Copyediting Certificate, Lee holds a BA in English from the University of South Florida and an MA in English with a focus in professional and technical communication from the University of Central Florida. She is a longtime member of ACES: The Society for Editing, from which she was awarded a copyediting scholarship during her master’s studies. She attends ongoing training in editing best practices, with special interests in inclusive language and digital content.
