The Client: Entrepreneur and professional proofreader Caitlin Pyle founded Proofread Anywhere in 2014. Today, her courses help thousands of people learn proofreading skills so that they can work as proofreaders. My journey as an editor started with Proofread Anywhere, and I can vouch for their amazing program!

How I Helped: Proofread Anywhere asked me to proofread and edit their General Proofreading Course. I worked in their LMS (learning management system) to check all content for punctuation, spelling, and grammar errors. I ensured that grammatical concepts were explained clearly and that the examples illustrated the concepts. I also rewrote and edited the Academic Proofreading section. Proofread Anywhere is a brand with an established voice, so I adopted the tone and voice of the brand while as I rewrote the content.

The Experience: My unique position as a former student of the program helped me see the course from the student’s perspective. Prior to becoming an editor, I taught Latin/ancient Greek for 11 years, so I had experience teaching children but not adults. For this project, I leaned into my own experience learning as an adult. Unlike children, adults have a long learning history and expectations about how a course is taught, so gaining their trust from the get-go is very important. For me, it was Caitlin’s encouraging tone and clear explanations that gained my trust. This project taught me a lot about learning design and confirmed why I love education!

Here’s what Caitlin has to say about working with me:

“I really enjoy working with Michelle! In a recent project we worked on together, she was very helpful and insightful, offering great suggestions in a constructive way that made finishing the project so much easier. I felt confident in her ability to put careful attention on not just the content itself but the purpose of the content—helping students learn. It is such a relief to work with a proofreader who really cares. Michelle goes above and beyond to make things sparkle.”