9.1 Final review of content

After probably spending a considerable amount of time writing, rewriting, reading and rereading your course, it’s incredibly important to have the content reviewed by someone else, with a fresh pair of eyes. You may have the resource to send this work to a professional editor. Or you may simply find it useful to ask someone who hasn’t seen the content before to look at it with a fresh pair of eyes.

When briefing this person, it is important to be specific about the level of changes you want them to make or comments you would like them to offer. For example, you may only have time or opportunity to have typos corrected. Conversely, you may want someone to test your course from the viewpoint of a learner and to highlight anything that could be made clearer.

Unless briefed otherwise, generally the person doing the final proofread of your course should carry out the following:

• proofread the text for consistency and sense
• ensure that spelling and grammar are correct
• ensure that the text adheres to any house style guides/conventions
• check references and correct if necessary
• check cross-references and correct if necessary
• check headings
• check numbering and sequences
• check web links.

Depending on who is doing the final review of content, you may want them to carry out a final check of the accuracy of your content, especially if they are subject experts. Again, though, you will need to decide if this is feasible depending on time and resource.