This really is a course in editing, rather than writing, copy-editing or proofreading. It may help you in editing your own work. But it is designed to set down some procedures for revising other people's writing, particularly for international organizations.
This involves a lot of reporting on what other people said or wrote. So I won't spend time on many usage questions tackled by other. Instead, I concentrate on approaches to editing you can adopt.
So don't look here for advice about such questions as the difference between "disinterested" and "uninterested" (Fowler 1926:134, Partridge 1947:98, Vallins 1951:190, Gowers 1954:64, Follett 1966:168). The problems I cover are useful rules for simpler English, reported speech, hyphenation and referencing.
* I'll also deal with the difficulties of fitting texts into the Procrustean bed (the too-tight straitjacket) of publishing styles.
Most of my topics are those that have come up in editing for United Nations bodies, and my comments are directed especially at making the texts intelligible for non-English speakers. My general advice is to take from the lessons what seems usable and to forget the rest.
My belief is that if you spend one hour a week on these artificial exercises (which I myself have never done), you can carry over what you have learned into your daily work.