Editors Canada launched the John Eerkes-Medrano Mentorship Program in the spring of 2017. For information about how you can become a mentor or a mentee, click here. Let’s begin with three playful suppositions. First, the best kinds of editing involve learning. Second, the best editors have learned from mentors. Third, the …
The prevailing orthodoxy in online editors’ groups, I have noticed, is one of huge respect for, and empathy with, the author. The author is king/queen. We, as editors, primarily serve the author’s vision, the author’s voice. However, in my own work (both in-house and freelance, primarily as a copyeditor of …
I received the Claudette Upton Scholarship* in 2012 at a critical point in my career path: I was nearing the completion of my Master of Publishing coursework at Simon Fraser University and preparing to move from Vancouver to Toronto to take on a summer editorial internship at McClelland & Stewart. …
I had a lot of reasons not to attend the Editors Canada 2018 conference, held in Saskatoon on May 25-27. I was struggling with low energy and caregiving duties (spouse). Also, I have been retired — or at least semi-retired — for a decade. But since Saskatoon is so close …
As a Mac user, I’ve often read Twitter and Facebook feeds enviously where other editors enthused about Intelligent Editing’s proofreading software, PerfectIt. Adrienne Montgomerie’s review of PerfectIt 3 in 2015 particularly made me drool. Well, my drooling days are over! Intelligent Editing has just released PerfectIt Cloud, the first version …
In 1988 I found myself at a career crossroads. I put a small ad in the Irish Times seeking editorial work, hoping to learn on the job. One of the (very few) responses was from a man I’ll call John, who was running a free newspaper in South Central Dublin …
Letitia Henville of Vancouver, B.C., is the recipient of the Editors Canada 2017 Claudette Upton Scholarship,* which recognizes promising emerging editors. The “promising” part of the description definitely applies to Letitia. The “emerging” part, not so much: she has hit the ground running. Like many editors, Letitia entered the profession …
When I heard an Indigenous style guide was being published this year, I was excited by the opportunity to learn a framework for approaching the works of Indigenous authors. I am a non-Indigenous editor — a settler — and in recent years I have become very aware of my long-standing …
Now that I am officially middle-aged, I can say that the most pressing urge is not the need to buy a convertible or meditate under the moon or urinate (thankfully). It is the desire to Pass Along Advice. Here is the top tip I wish I’d stumbled across when I …
There are many ways to get things done. Given the nature of our work, productivity is crucial for editors; many of us grapple with multiple projects in fluid, distraction-filled environments. The passage of time and how to manage it has preoccupied me since the arrival of my daughter, as I’ve …