Courses teach professional presentation

A new suite of courses aims to help companies present themselves professionally and effectively and help them to avoid mistakes that could cost them their reputation

Professional presentation is one of those aspects of marketing that's often ignored.

It's either passed down the chain of command to the newly recruited marketing assistant or, worse still, overlooked altogether.

In a brave new world of CRM systems, email marketing and search engine optimisation, proofreading your promotional material can seem like the poor relation.

And yet anyone who has been in marketing for any length of time will have experienced one of those heart-stopping moments where a colleague or client has just spotted a hideous mistake in the glossy new brochure.

What's more, we now operate in a climate where standards of English are increasingly seen as important.

It's therefore not just typos that can cause serious injury to your reputation.

Customers are now, more than ever, less likely to be forgiving about lapses in grammar.

Of course, a conversational style characterises a great deal of marketing copy, so things that might otherwise be regarded as 'technically' wrong, such as starting a sentence with the word 'and', are always likely to be forgiven.

However, the rekindled interest in all things grammatical, fuelled by everything from high profile media campaigns to publishing phenomena, means that in marketing we now have to be one step ahead.

Note that this doesn't always mean following the rules slavishly.

For one thing, it's not always clear what the rules are.

Split infinitives are a good example (such as 'to quickly run'); whether or not there is a rule that says you shouldn't use split infinitives is debatable and, in fact, there's very little to justify such a rule.

However, seeing a split infinitive jars for so many people that it's always best to avoid them.

You could say something similar about ending a sentence in a preposition - technically, there's no reason why you shouldn't do it, but lots of your customers will hate to see it.

At the end of the day, it's all about preserving that precious commodity - your reputation.

It doesn't take much to give yourself a grounding in skills such as proofreading and editing, or to ensure you understand the fundamentals of grammar.

But making sure that you do is vital for your reputation and your business.

Editorial Training runs courses in proofreading, editing and grammar.

It has recently launched a range of one-day courses aimed at helping businesses to get the most out of their printed and online documents.

They are: Know Your Grammar (27 September), Proofreading in a Business Environment (4 October), Editing in a Business Environment (18 October) and Editing and Writing for the Web (23 October).

Each event costs GBP225 and will be held in central London.

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