AboutWarren D. Miller Expertise I believe I can answer nearly any question about business writing. That goes in spades if the target audience is a lay readership. I make my living writing and speaking. N.B.: I DO NOT ANSWER QUESTIONS MARKED 'PRIVATE' because I believe that knowledge should be shared, not hoarded. I also believe such questions are likely to be submitted by people trying to cheat. In addition, don't waste your time asking me to write something for you. You don't learn anything if I do that. I'm happy to critique something that YOU write, of course. That's the best way for you to learn how to write well.
Experience My profession is business valuation, which means appraising businesses whose shares are not publicly traded. This requires in-depth knowledge about a number of disciplines, including economics, finance, strategic management, accounting, anthropology, statistics, and psychology. The left-brain part of me must conduct rigorous research and financial analysis. The right-brain side must then separate what matters from what doesn't and then explain it all in writing (and in everyday English) to people (usually business owners, but sometimes judges and juries) who do not have the expertise that I have been lucky enough to acquire over the years. I love what I do and consider myself fortunate to live in a country where I can do what I love doing and make a nice living doing it. I am glad to help with writing issues, but NOT, please, with any valuation, business consulting, or other non-writing questions.
Organizations CFA Institute, American Society of Appraisers, Strategic Management Society, Academy of Management, Institute of Management Accountants
Publications My writing has appeared in the Harvard Business Review, American Fly Fisher, Business Valuation Review, CPA Expert, Academy of Management Executive, CFA Digest, and others.
Education/Credentials MBA - Oklahoma State U. (1991);
BBA - U. of Oklahoma (1975);
Chartered Financial Analyst designation (2006)
Accredited Senior Appraiser (2006)
Certified Management Accountant
Certified Public Accountant (1992)
Awards and Honors Business Valuation Volunteer of the Year (2001) - American Institute of CPAs
Winner - Statewide Humorous-Speaking Contest - Oklahoma - Toastmasters International (1971)
Question Mr. Miller,
My college-bound son is interested in pursuing a career in proofreading/copy editing. Can you tell us if there is a requirement to be certified as a proofreader in order to find
employment in the field? If so, is there a definitive proofreading certification program widely accepted among the publishing community?
Any help is appreciated,
Jerry
Answer Dear Jerry--
First things first: Please accept my heartfelt and most sincere apology for taking so long to respond to your most interesting question. And I hope you will pass my apology along to your son. I have been traveling incessantly since Sept. 1, plus I have a book manuscript due to Wiley on Oct. 1, and life has overwhelmed me a bit. Those aren't excuses, mind you, and I'm not making any. I'm just trying to explain why this delay, which is most uncharacteristic of me, occurred.
Now, before I provide some specific guidance, let me pass along some of the hazards of "certification programs." First, "alphabet soup" is an epidemic running amok on the U.S. business community. Everyone, it seems, loves letters after her/his name. Heck, I do, too - I have a few. But the challenge is for a designation to be meaningful and have substance. Alas, too many today do not. On the 'Technical Writing' forum of AllExperts.com, where I also offer my services, I offered some advice to someone on the subject of substance in designations. Here's a link: http://en.allexperts.com/q/Business-Technical-Writing-1516/2009/9/Signature-bloc... I hope it speaks for itself.
In your son's situation, I see three risks of "certification":
(1) that it might be perceived as trivial - some folks might say that anyone can be a proofreader if s/he just learns how to read, write, spell, and punctuate, and then takes a college class in newswriting, so what's with the designation?
(2) that such a certification might pigeonhole your son into a narrow specialty with not-much upside professionally; and
(3) that certification might lull your son into a false sense of educational security. Inasmuch as this is the most important concern I have, let me elaborate on it. First, I draw a wide, bright line between "training" and "education." An educated person can be trained to do almost anything. But the reverse is not true. Just look at the displace autoworkers around Detroit or the tens of thousands of steelworkers in Pennsylvania whose lives took a severe economic nosedive when our steel industry went south two decades ago. Education is the only defense a person has against economic change and technological innovation. The ONLY defense. So my first piece of advice to your son is to get a four-year college degree.
But not just any four-year degree. He should go to the very best college that he can get into. The very best one. In most cases these days, cost should NOT be a consideration. A good student can get offers for scholarships and grants to go to almost any college or university. Then, and only then, should s/he consider low-interest loans.
Even then, some students might be tempted to hold down a part-time job. Unless that job is ON THE CAMPUS, I'm generally opposed to students working while going to school, unless there's no other way that they can afford to go. That is seldom the case with students of traditional college age. I taught seniors at Oklahoma State U. for four years and at the U. of Oklahoma for another; I also adjuncted teaching seniors @ the U. of Tulsa. I've seen these kids miss out on essential college experiences because they had to work. It's a shame because some of what makes college so meaningful is experience OUTSIDE the classroom. There are friendships to be made. lectures to attend, debates to engage in, organizations to join and be part of the pluralism that is at the heart of who we, as a people, are.
I myself missed most of that because I joined the Marine Corps six months out of high school. Later, when I decided to go back to school, I HAD to work just to get through. During my last two semesters of undergraduate school at the U. of Oklahoma, I worked three jobs, took 40 semester hours of credit, had 54 on-campus job interviews, and was a doting Dad to my young daughter most weekends (I went through a divorce with a year to go in my education). The night I graduated, my bank balance was $3.07. It was a million-dollar experience I wouldn't take a million bucks to go through again. I graduated when I was 31.
Since your son is interested in journalism, I strongly recommend that he take some courses in the field. He will NOT learn how to write as an English major. Trust me on that one. English departments on the vast majority of U.S. campuses are highly politicized and more interested in such silliness (in my less-than-humble opinion) as "queer studies" and the like. Few English professors can write well. After all, that's not what they're paid to do. They're paid to do research and publish it. Now, nearly four hundred years after the death of Shakespeare, I'm not sure what else can be "researched" about old Bill. But you can bet your last dollar that there is some dweeb out there trying to attribute a quatrain in one of his sonnets to his sexual orientation when he was 12.
To be sure, English departments do have some redeeming virtues. Any course that focuses on "the great books" or "the classics" is well worth taking. Great writers read a lot. And the best way to learn to proofread, it seems to me, is to read great writing. It makes the awful stuff really bellow at you. I know - I write for a living for clients. Some I'm really sensitive to writing clarity, being able to explain arcane and esoteric subjects in everyday English to a lay audience without sounding patronizing or condescending, and just telling a good (true) story.
Another suggestion I have for your son is to take a course in "technical writing." Unlike the goofiness that passes for normal behavior in many English departments, the substance of course work in technical writing should be right up your son's alley. By 'technical writing,' we're talking about writing for business, for science, for engineering, and for technology purposes. Anyone who's ever read a calculator manual for an early Hewlett-Packard calculator and then compared it to the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) available today for, say, Word or Excel can see the just a stunning difference. That is because the late Bill Hewlett wasn't content with owning a major stake in a company that built the world's best and most advanced calculators. He wanted to make sure that his company explained to customers how to use those gadgets. So, before any H-P calculator was released to the public, he read every word on every page in the Instruction Manual that went with it. He was a fine writer himself and also a demanding editor. H-P's calculator manuals were exemplars of how good technical writing can be. I've not bought one in quite a few years, so I don't know how they are today. But even when I bought a second HP-12C financial calculator a decade ago after I lost my first one, the manual was terrific.
Now, if after all that I've said, your son still wants a "certification" in proofreading, let me give some closing tips. First, DON'T do it on-line. Second, TALK to people who have gone through whatever certification programs he's considering - get their opinions about their experience (and he should be sure to check them out through Google before he contacts them so that he doesn't end up talking to shills and stiffs who actually work for the company offering the 'certification'). Third, he should listen to his Dad and his Mom about what their ideas are. After all, I'm assuming that you folks will be the check-writers financing what he does.
Finally, I Googled "proofreading" and "certification" and came with a few bazillion hits. I've spent NO TIME vetting these links, so DO NOT take them as any recommendation from me or as having my imprimatur. THEY DO NOT.
1. Metroproof - www.metroproof.com
2. www.powerhomebiz.com/vol53/typos.htm
3. http://ezinearticles.com/?How-To-Become-Qualified-As-A-Proofreader&id=40590
4. www.blogtoplist.com/rss/proofreading.html (in the third entry, note the spelling of "professionals" ["preofessionals"] - these proofreaders need a proofreader!)
In closing, let me urge you to urge your son to GET AN EDUCATION FIRST. Proofreading is training, pure and simple. And if technology ever does away with the demand for proofreaders--and your son shouldn't kid himself - it CAN happen--then he'll be like those autoworkers and steelworkers: up the creek without a paddle or a canoe. If he has his own children then depending on him for support, he'll be angry, embarrassed, and miserable about the choice HE made many years before. I hope for your sake that he doesn't make what I see is a very bad, constraining, and dead-end choice.
Again, please accept my most sincere apology for taking so long to get back to you. I hope that you and your son will forgive me. I also hope that the length of this reply and the energy and passion I put into it are redeeming virtues for your deferred gratification.
Please do me a favor by completing the rate-the-expert e-mail you'll receive about the same time you get this reply from me. Your ratings and, especially, your comments help me do a better job of helping folks like you who ask such interesting questions!
