5 Best FREE Proofreading Courses Online with Certificate (2023)

Human Err a lot. It is something we are very good at:-). Writers are no exception to this rule. Hence, proofreading is important to ensure your content is factually, grammatically, logically, and technically correct. Whether you publish online or print some material, you need to ensure that you are delivering the quality that your clients are expecting.

With several Proofreading Courses readily accessible, learners find it difficult to select the best course to suit their needs.

Following is a handpicked list of the Top Online Proof Reading Courses & Certifications to gather knowledge about this subject. The list contains both open source (free) and commercial (paid) courses.

Best Online Proofreading Courses: Learn Copy Editing Free

Course Name	Provider	Duration	Rating	Key Topics	Link
Online Proofreading Classes	Skillshare	Self-placed	–	How to achieve maximum accuracy for proofreading.	Learn More
Kickstart a Freelance Editor & Proofreader Career	Udemy	2 hours on-demand video.	4.4	How you can create an effective bid.	Learn More
Proofreading Power Basics	Udemy	1.5 hours on-demand video	4.3	Learn the basics of proofreading	Learn More
How to Find & Correct Writing Errors: The Proofreading Guide	Udemy	1-hour on-demand video	4.4	How to Find & Correct Writing Errors	Learn More
Udemy Proofreading Courses	Udemy	Self-paced	4.5	Editing and Proofreading	Learn More

1) Online Proofreading Classes (Skillshare)

Skillshare is a free online learning portal that offers many online proofreading classes. The course is designed for real-life usage. This online proofreading and editing course helps you achieve maximum proofreading accuracy.

Key Features:

You can take this copy editing course from wherever you want.
Tests and quizzes help you to remember your lessons and learning.
You will get a course completion certificate to showcase your achievements.

Key Courses:

Writing Editing Masterclass -Content Editing, Copyediting, and Proofreading.
Helps you to find Correct Writing Errors: The Proofreading Guide.
Create Pictures in Your Writing with Strong Nouns.
Master Books Proofreading Skills, Punctuation, and Copyediting.
Original Writer and Avoid Cliches.

Enroll Now >>

2) Kickstart a Freelance Editor & Proofreader Career on Upwork (Udemy)

Specs: Rating: 4.4 | Duration: 2 hours on-demand video | Pricing: $24.99 | Certificate on Completion: Yes

Kickstart A Freelance editor & Proofread career on Upwork. It is an online learning course that discusses how to create a cover letter, bidding principles, and how much to bid to win job contracts in Upwork.

This copy editing course also covers insights, including the philosophy of editing that helps you preserve clients’ ideas and meanings and remove troubling “errors” from their writing. This Online Proofreading course offers more approaches and tips for editing and proofreading that may increase your client’s satisfaction.

Key topics:

How you can create an effective bid proposal cover letter to attract clients.
Learn how to win Upwork contracts.
How you will get good ratings to improve your bidding chances.
How you can speed up your online editing and proofreading career.

Features:

2 hours on-demand video
1 article
Full lifetime access
Access on mobile and TV

Enroll Now >>

3) Proofreading Power Basics (Udemy)

Specs: Rating: 4.3 | Duration: 1.5 hours on-demand video | Pricing: $24.99 | Certificate on Completion: Yes | Level: Intermediate

Proofreading Power Basics is an online course that offers practical application with hands-on exercises and quizzes to learn advanced proofreading skills.

This copy editing course introduces proofreading fundamentals for people who want to enhance their writing skills. This professional course also helps to develop an extra skill for people, like freelance writers and editors who want to expand their services.

An American English instructor taught this online learning class who focuses on American grammar, American spelling. To enroll in this copy editing class, you must have some intermediate grammar skills to complete this online proofreading and editing course. At the end of this copy editing course, you will be a fairly good writer to catch mistakes.

Features:

8 articles
12 downloadable resources
1 practice test
Full lifetime access
Access on mobile and TV

Key topics:

Learn the basics of proofreading.
How to correct common proofreading errors.
Use exercises to practice proofreading skills.
Build proofreading confidence.
Breaking into freelance proofreading.

Enroll Now >>

4) How to Find & Correct Writing Errors: The Proofreading Guide (Udemy)

Writers often forget the importance of proofreading. This Course, “How to Find & Correct Writing Errors,” is designed for professional writers and editors of any genre who want to develop their proofreading skills.

This online proofreading and copy editing course explain how you can have the correct mindset to catch these errors. This course also provides unique techniques for making your proofreading work easier and more effective. This free online proofreading course is designed for anyone who wants to find and remove writing errors from documents.

Key topics:

How to remove typos and spelling errors
Learn about finding errors in design and graphics
Helps you to ensure proofreading consistency
How to work with professional proofreading symbols
How you can develop the mindset to catch common and repetitive errors
Learn some unique techniques to proofread easily

Features:

3 articles
Full lifetime access
Access on mobile and TV

Enroll Now >>

5) Udemy Proofreading Courses (Udemy)

Specs: Rating: 4.5 | Duration: Self-paced

Udemy Proofreading is an online course that helps you learn from business, design, writing, editing, marketing courses, etc.

You can develop new skills by achieving new goals and by learning from the extensive library of various courses created by expert instructors to teach various subjects available in Udemy.

This online course offers various types of online proofreading and editing courses that can be viewed on all devices connected to the Internet. You do not need any prequalification to take any of these online free copy editing courses.

Key Features:

How to find vocabulary, typography, punctuation, and grammatical errors in your document.
Learn the essential parts of proofreading and the basic techniques of proofreading.
How to learn the importance of style and consistency and the difference between editing and proofreading.
You will earn a course completion certificate at the end of the course to showcase your skills.

Key Courses:

How to Find & Correct Writing Errors?
Proofreading Power Basics
The Complete Proofreading Course: Editing and Proofreading
Editing and Proofreading Course: Proofread Errors Like a Pro
Proofreading: A MUST for Newbie Writers
Basic of Proofreading
Practical Tips on Proofreading Effectively.

Enroll Now >>

6) Writing for Young Readers: Opening the Treasure Chest (Coursera)

Specs: Rating: 4.7 | Duration: Approx. 13 hours to complete | Pricing: Free | Certificate on Completion: Yes

Writing for Young Reader is an online proofreading course for curious students and aspiring authors who have a passion for writing content.

This free online proofreading course helps you to enhance your proofreading skill with a combination of video lectures, peer reviews, and guest appearances from many world-renowned authors.

At the end of this online free copy editing course, you will have ten to twelve extracts of writing which helps you to develop your portfolio.

Key topics:

Your Writing Identity
Genre, Form, and Audience
Editing and Proofreading

Features:

100% online
Flexible Learning Plan
Approx. 13 hours to complete
Languages: English, Arabic, French, etc

Enroll Now >>

7) Becoming A Proofreader (Knowadays)

Knowadays provides online courses developed by experts to help learners build the confidence and skills they need to start a new, fulfilling career. Their courses have opened the doors for more than 6,000 learners seeking highly flexible work and extra income.

What makes them unique is their top graduates are offered guaranteed work with partner companies. For their two existing courses, Becoming A Proofreader and Becoming An Editor, they partnered with Proofed, a proofreading and editing services business.

Key Benefits and Features:

Guaranteed Work with our partner company, Proofed, for all our graduates who pass our final assignment with a score of 80% or higher.
Best-In-Class Courses written by PhD-level industry insiders with extensive work experience.
Interactive and Visual Learning Experiences designed to engage the learner with interactive quizzes, real-life ‘Try It Yourself’ exercises and model answers, videos, tutorials, and webinars.
One-On-One Tutor Support with industry experts with real-world experience and are there to help our learners succeed.
Tutor-Graded Final Assignment with detailed feedback is provided on the learner’s strengths and areas for improvement, all linked to the relevant course content.
CPD-accredited certificate showing their official classification that is globally recongnized.
Post-Graduation Support via lifetime course access, one-on-one support calls with our tutor team even after graduation, and access to our private online community of graduates
We offer a 7-day free trial so that future learners can see why a Knowadays course is a reliable choice.
Knowadays offers a 14-day, no-questions-asked refund policy.

Enroll Now >>

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FAQ

❓ What will you learn in these proofreading classes online?

Here are some important things to learn from proofread classes online:

It provides you all the basic skills which are possibly needed for proofreading.
You will be aware of the step-by-step instructions to copyedit or proofread your text.
Provides all the essential tips that help you to become a professional copyeditor or a proofreader with minimum practice.
You will have the right knowledge of applying your newly acquired skills.
It helps you with the tips to copyedit and proofread various types of writing, like blogs, articles, and fiction.
Helps you learn how you get the right skill to start your own copyediting and proofreading business.
Practice exercises will give you an idea of implementing your new skills.

⚡ Who should take up this proofreading training online?

All the above-proof reading courses are designed for everyone, irrespective of their background, education, and experience, so if you have copyediting and proofreading skills, then these courses will certainly help you to enhance your written communications.

🏅 How do you become a certified Proofreader?

You can become a certified proofreader by gaining experience in writing and grammar.
You can also complete a degree with a master’s in the English language.
Take journalism courses, including copy editing and online editing.
You can also learn from the wide range of available online free copy editing courses.

🚀 What are things to look for when proofreading?

Professional proofreaders look at the following things: typographical errors like grammatical mistakes, run-on sentences, punctuation marks, hard-to-read sentences, spelling mistakes, comma usage and splices, capitalization, tenses, structure, readability, and appropriateness for the audience.

❗ Do I get a Printable Certificate?

Yes, you will get a printable certificate in many courses. Some course providers will ship a hard copy of the certificate to your desired address.

💻 What if I miss a class?

All the classes are prerecorded and can be replayed later.

👉 How can I ask my doubts or questions?

Most courses have a forum that allows you to raise questions that are frequently answered by course authors.