Sub-editing skills: live Zoom course

Refining your sub-editing skills is a crucial part of producing high-quality content, whether that’s a report, news story or press release.

Led by Martin Lloyd, the former head of writing standards at the BBC, this course will take you beyond simple grammar corrections, teaching you how to quickly craft tight editorial that engages your audience.

Learn how to:

• assess stories more critically
• maximise reader engagement
• edit concisely to create compelling editorial
• gain the confidence to rewrite copy
• consider the angle and refocus a story
• write in conversational English
• expel clichés and jargon

Who should take this course?

• Editors, news editors or sub-editors
• Marketing, social media, PR and comms staff
• Executives/managers looking to communicate effectively
• Content designers

Course content

• Simplifying the language used
• Cutting overly long sentences and phrases
• Story structure: making dense copy easy to read
• Editing features and longer news analysis pieces
• Making copy flow and hold the reader’s attention
• Content editing: choosing the right angle and the ‘so what?’ factor

Can’t make this date? We can also run Zoom sessions at short notice for groups of three or more at the same company. Get in touch with [email protected] to discuss.

Alternatively, we offer an on-demand, more in depth version of this class where you can start any time and work at your own pace.

Getting there

This is an online course taking place on Zoom. The course will run on 25 March from 10am-1pm (with short breaks), followed by a longer break from 1pm-2pm for lunch. The second session will run from 2pm-5pm (again with short breaks).

About Martin Lloyd

Martin Lloyd is a Journalism.co.uk and NCTJ trainer.

He spent 10 years as writing standards editor at the BBC’s training division, the BBC Academy, where he trained BBC News journalists, TV and radio producers and senior managers.

He mentored a team of 15 BBC digital content producers, produced writing guides for BBC staff, and was ultimately responsible for training the trainers.

Since leaving the BBC, Martin has trained staff at the likes of Fortune, the UK Government, ITV, Forbes, Global, NICE and the International Olympic Committee.

He has also mentored editors at The Financial Times and Guardian.

For a while, he was a content designer for the Government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

Earlier in his career, Martin edited copy and designed pages for newspapers and magazines including The Metro, Broadcast, New Statesman and Marketing Week.