I used to think I didn’t like networking because I detest small talk and won’t walk into a room of people all by myself. But a few conversations and experiences changed my mind. Connections A friend told me that I’m one of the best networkers she knows. This caught my …
I had occasion recently to teach someone how to write effective editorial comments. It was an interesting exercise as it forced me to articulate principles I had absorbed over many years, some learned from painful experience. Here’s what came to mind: Know your place. My job is to help the …
Ever since compulsory staff retirement at 65 ended in Canada, the decision of whether to leave their profession voluntarily has become a conundrum for many people. Some continue working because they need the money, but for others it’s optional. The only people I know who retire “early” are teachers, civil …
For a quick conversation starter today, let’s talk procrastination. “Procrastination is the assassination of motivation,” goes an unattributed quote. But is it? I’ve worked with business writers who, to the contrary, become more motivated the more they procrastinate. With the pressure of an imminent deadline and the looming threat of …
These days, language professionals in Canada are starting to turn to the online Oxford English Dictionary (OED) or other reference books to replace the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, which is now 15 years old and not likely to be re-edited. An interesting initiative has been started at the University of Toronto …
I asked people on Twitter about words they love irrationally much. I got quite a few responses. Actually, I got so many that when I tried to retweet them all, Twitter finally told me I had reached my daily tweet limit. And did again the next day. The words that …
In anticipation of GivingTuesday, Anne Louise Mahoney talks about the Editors Canada awards program and the ways in which it recognizes outstanding editors. Who doesn’t love awards? They offer us a moment to pause and recognize out-of-the-ordinary accomplishments and bask in the reflected glow as colleagues, friends or fans. As …
“Are you a freelancer?” My answer to that question has changed over the course of my career. When I first started editing, I edited learning modules for apprenticeship trades in house at a polytechnic institution. I also wrote freelance projects for newspapers and magazines during evenings and weekends. I loved …
As editors and writers, we are all conscious of the need to consider our target audience. See Understanding My Reading Communities as an example. This requires self-awareness to avoid inflicting our own biases on our readers. If Sun Tzu had been an editor, he might have said, “Know your audience, …
I’ve spent most of my career in-house. Currently I work with dozens of individual authors from all across the organization on a diverse array of document types. Though our editorial team works as a pool, a certain degree of specialization is unavoidable. We need to be able to record and …