Our members often ask: ‘Why should I take the PEG Accreditation Test? And how will it benefit me?’

Well, there are a number of really positive reasons for doing so:

• First, it enables each of us to benchmark ourselves where we would otherwise have no other means of doing so.
• Second, having passed the test and having gained Accredited Text Editor (ATE) status, this puts us in another league from our peers, one that will appear more attractive to clients.
• Third, many of those who have prepared for and taken the test confirm that, whether or not they passed it, doing so turned out to be a substantial learning experience for them.
• Fourth, potential clients are more likely to seek the services of an ATE above those who are not – especially those clients whose protocols insist that only accredited service providers may be used. And since PEG now has at least 60 ATEs among its members, all of whom are using their elevated status to market themselves, this should motivate the rest of us to attain this status as soon as possible, whatever it takes.
• Finally, with an eye on the coming into being of the SALP Council in terms of the South African Language Practitioners’ Council Act and Regulations, which require language practitioners (including us professional editors) to attain, first, the category of ‘professional’ and then that of ‘expert’, all of us will need to undergo accreditation to qualify for these two levels and continue practising our craft so as to earn an income.

In this regard, the relevant wording of the SALPC Regulations is entirely apropos:

Level 3: Expert language practitioner:
This level represents language practitioners who have been accredited at level 2 prior to applying for accreditation at level 3 and have the competency to handle complex technical and sophisticated language-practice work … The standard of an expert will be benchmarked according to international practice.

Note the references to possessing ‘the competency to handle complex technical and sophisticated language-practice work’ and ‘benchmarked according to international practice’ – which encapsulate the essence of PEG’s Accreditation Scheme and Accreditation Test.

In addition to the abovementioned benefits, even very new arrivals in or converts to our profession who have avowedly attended at least one training course in editing, completed a PEG mentorship (which builds not only knowledge and skills but also confidence as a practitioner of our craft) and subscribed to a number of PEG and other webinars have excelled in the test first time round. The reason? Their commitment to acquiring new knowledge and skills and an earnest intention to provide the most superior professional editorial service possible. A service not simply based on experience but on the serious realisation that the sharper their skills, and the more up-to-date their knowledge of their craft, the more competent they will be as improvers of writers’ words – and the more likely they are to receive repeat work from satisfied (if not seriously impressed) clients. This should be a clear message to us all.

Speaking of which, and considering the performance of those who have taken the Accreditation Test during the years 2020–2024, it would appear that many of our members need to brush up on and fine-tune their English grammar skills to a level that can be labelled ‘expert’. Their performance in Question 1 of the test, Language and Grammar (the only compulsory question), paints a rather worrying picture, given that this is really the fundamental skillset required of all of us:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Statistics on PEG’s Accreditation Test for 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024

And since editing is the other fundamental craft we market ourselves as being able to offer as professionals (of which language and grammar constitute an important part), the pass rate in the editing questions in the tests from 2020 to 2024, illustrated above, is also cause for serious concern. Especially since it means that a good number of the test candidates do not perform at least at the internationally benchmarked level of 80 per cent – a level of professional expertise that, at the very least, our publishing houses demand of us as editors and proofreaders if we are to remain on their books.

Happily, a good number of those (18, to be precise) who have failed the test the first time round have passed it on the second attempt. To a large extent, this is the product of having experienced writing the test once and having become more comfortable with its format and contents as a result. But it is certainly also the outcome of being better prepared for the second test, especially after having taken a short course in the relevant knowledge and skills and attended a number of appropriate PEG webinars. This is a significant outcome, one that we should not underestimate: the updating of knowledge and skills which form the essence of the lifelong learning that should underpin our performance as professionals – and prevent clients experiencing our services as ‘overpromising and underperforming’.

Far from believing that the Accreditation Test is too daunting or challenging to undertake, therefore, we should all be welcoming this unique opportunity offered by PEG both to hone our skills and to confirm our worth as improvers of writers’ by-no-means-perfect prose to the highest, most impressive level possible.

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