I finished UC San Diego’s copyediting program last month, and my copyediting certificate has arrived! This has been on my wish list to do for over a decade. It’s surreal that I’ve actually done it!

I’ve been studying copyediting in UC San Diego’s highly respected program for the past year. It is an intense, one-year long program consisting of four required courses (Grammar Lab, Copyediting 1, Copyediting 2, and Copyediting 3). I also took several electives and will take Copyediting Fiction in the fall.

I highly recommend this program to anyone who’s interested in the copyediting field. It is intense and will make you not only a good editor, but a better writer. I went into it thinking it would be a breeze—I have never got anything below an A in an English course, I got a perfect score on the language portion of the SATs (we won’t talk about the math score), and I have a BA in English and an MFA in creative writing. But let me tell you, I struggled in Grammar Lab. There was so much more to learn and to know than I’d imagined. I quickly realized I would have to devote a lot of time to studying.

Although I took the courses pass/fail to take pressure off myself after five years of working full-time and attending school, I am proud to say I rose to the challenge and got over 90% in all of my classes. This feels good because I eventually want to transition to editing full time, and I have quite enough imposter syndrome, thank you very much, without lacking the education and skills to back me up.