Knowadays Reviews 538

Did not realise what was involved in proofreading professionally. I was a typist for 20 years plus, accurracy essential. The course IS harder than I expected, BUT, well written, easy to follow, quizzes. Began the course last year, stopped due to ill health, told to complete at my pace. The course is keeping me occupied (60% now complete) and could give me a part time income. GO FOR IT

The feedback given on the tests was very detailed, which is of course very useful for future progress as well. Thanks!

I have had an excellent experience with Knowadays. Becoming a Proofreader was an extremely helpful course, and I highly recommend it. I have now purchased nearly every other Knowadays course, and I am excited to dive into them.

I can't speak to the guaranteed work trial with Proofed because I haven't gotten that far, but I did enjoy the Becoming a Proofreader course. It took me 11 days to complete the coursework, including all the practice exercises, and then another 2 weeks to finish the final assignment, have it graded, and go over what I got wrong with one of the tutors. I passed with distinction (over 80%) on my first try with a few points to spare, which was great because it costs $75 each for a second and third try. My favorite parts of the proofreading course were the number of quizzes and practice exercises with accompanying answer keys to test whether you fully understood the material in each section and the wide-ranging information about the different industries where a proofreader can find work, as well as the different types of documents and styles that might be required. I'm looking forward to starting the Becoming an Editor course.

Writing is hard work.
(Note: I'm a little nervous here in this review as I hope to avoid any grammatical errors:)
That said, I think Knowadays has delivered an effective online program that thoroughly covers and teaches the art of writing, or should I say, the artistry in support of the writing.
I have completed the Proofreading course and am now in the middle of the Editing course. The lessons are all easily digestible, with mini-quizzes and useful exercises. Support staff: All great!
Already working a business from home, I'm hoping to hone my previous writing skills into another pursuit. Whether it is with Knowadays/Proofed or independently, the learning gained here has been worthwhile.

I am beyond pleased with the proofreading and editor courses through Knowadays. Their tutors are top-notch and always available for questions and concerns. I feel the cost of the courses are well worth the education provided.

Tutors are always ready to give constructive feedback after assignments.

My experience with Knowadays has been very positive so far. I passed the proofreading class and am working on the editing class. My goal is to gain experience through their guaranteed work program with Proofed. I hope that will work out as advertised.
The customer service has been excellent. They even refunded a portion of the course fee I had already paid when a sale came along. I have contacted tutors when I had questions and to review my final project. They have all been friendly, professional, and very helpful.
The “proof” will be if I can find work when the course is complete.

I absolutely loved this course. It took me from a scared beginner to a confident new proofreader and editor.

I feel like the program made everything easy to follow. I also appreciate the helpfulness of the tutor team.

Excellent course! Highly recommend. Really comprehensive and up to date. Tutors were brilliant.

Knowadays' proofreading course is a gem! Aside from its comprehensive materials and reasonable price, the best part of the course is the accomplished Tutor Team, who is there to, patiently and thoroughly, answer all your questions via email, 24/7.

I was impressed with the course. I came in thinking I knew what was involved due to my prior education, but it's significantly more in-depth and complex. Would definitely recommend if you're thinking of getting into proofreading and don't have a proofreading background.

Knowadays is super comprehensive. The tutor support is very helpful.

The content was well put together, and the exercises very helpful, but what impressed me most was the responsiveness of the tutor team. Top notch.

Amazing experience. It was extremely helpful.

In the year I have been using them, I have found Knowadays to be a friendly and responsive organisation. I have been given a lot of help and advice by all the Knowadays people I have had dealings with.

Positives:
Subject matter was well presented.
Reasonable price when compared to courses offered at local college and universities.
Extremely helpful and patient tutors.

I'd give the Becoming a Proofreader course itself four out of five stars.

Area(s) of Improvement (aka the reason the course gets four out of five stars):
Since Knowadays has partnered with Proofed with a work guarantee, having a module devoted to proofreading/proof-editing non-fluent English would go a long way toward preparing learners for working with Proofed. In addition to having that module, having multiple practice documents would allow learners to put knowledge to action. The Becoming A Proofreader course consistently repeats proofreading is the nuts and bolts of grammar, so the only changes should be spelling/grammar issues. However, Proofed receives quite a bit of non-fluent English documents that require what they call “proof-editing” as part of their standard proofreading remit. This is nothing like proofreading and I felt woefully underprepared and undereducated in this aspect.

Hard Analysis (aka the reason the experience gets three out of five stars overall):
I invested in this course, in part, because passing the final assessment with 80% or higher guarantees a "paid work trial to fast-track client experience." On the Becoming a Proofreader information page, where you can Try For Free or Buy Now, Knowadays makes a point of saying professional proofreaders make an average pay of $25/hour per salary.com. Having lost my job earlier in the year, this guarantee had a lot of appeal: a flexible schedule, working from home doing something I'm passionate about, and paid work (all dollar amounts are USD).

However, you have to dig through Knowadays's blog archives to find an article titled "How Much Can You Earn with Proofed?" (originally published in April 2023, updated in August 2023, accessed in December 2023). It says:
>Proofed pays $9/1,000 words, which comes out to $.009/word, regardless of document type (creative, non-fiction, business, academic, other). (Note: $.009/word appears to be lower than the industry standard for freelance proofreaders. As of December 2023, editorninja.com, grammarist.com, omproofreading.com, and scribbr.com indicate the standard industry rate for proofreading is $.01–$.04/word for most types of writing. Fiction and non-fiction pay on the lower end with business/sales and medical/STEM writing on the higher end. Yes, Proofed is a proofreading agency and should take their cut because they are bringing clients to you, managing the billing/invoicing, and running a business so you don’t have to.)
>At Proofed, beginning freelancers can make $12–$16 per hour once they start working with confidence.
>At Proofed, pay can increase to $18–$24 per hour with experience.

Knowadays's blog further notes, "As you can see, by working with Proofed, you can take on your first documents as a professional proofreader and start paying off the cost of training with Knowadays not long after you complete your courses." While technically true, it could be a very slow road to paying off the $499 course cost. Here’s my current timeline:

>I completed the Becoming a Proofreader course with 80% or higher in May 2023.
>My Proofed onboarding began in mid-June 2023 and was finished in mid-July 2023.
>My paid, 10-document trial (all documents were under 1k words) began in mid-July 2023 and was completed in early October 2023. It took nearly two and a half months to pick up 10 documents to work on.
After passing the trial, my word count limit increased to 5k. As of mid-December 2023, five months after starting at Proofed, I have not picked up enough work to pay for the Knowadays's Becoming a Proofreader course. Some freelancers have noted that, even after a year with Proofed, they sometimes aren’t able to pick up work for a month at a time.

I include this as part of my review because I think there are a lot of people like me who believed the work guarantee would allow me to earn a more sustainable income sooner. Fortunately, I am in a position where my husband makes enough money to support us both while I use this opportunity to gain work experience. However, not every person considering the Becoming a Proofreader course is in that position and they might be extremely disappointed in how the work guarantee may pan out.

I just completed the Becoming A Proofreader and Becoming An Editor course bundle. I have learned so much more than I expected to! Both classes were challenging, well-organized and focused on preparing me to work as an editor or proofreader which is exactly what I wanted. I had very helpful interactions with several different tutors and I felt like help was available whenever I had a question. My favorite part of the courses was the review session with a tutor after finishing the final assignments. I met 3 different times with Simon and found our sessions so inspirational. I wholeheartedly recommend Knowadays courses if you are looking for a real challenge and a path toward work in the profession.

Knowadays excels at providing the knowledge and skills necessary for a successful proofreading and editing career. Their tutors are always quick to respond to questions and are more than happy to provide any additional assistance as needed. I would highly recommend Knowadays to anyone pursuing a career as a proofreader and editor.