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James Harbeck

Illustration of a person in a suit and tie holding up a paper with a question mark on it to obscure their face.

“Pay No Attention to That Man Behind the Curtain”

August 30, 2022 | Filed under: James Harbeck

What’s missing from this sample text? A set of subjects, n = 180, were surveyed using a predetermined questionnaire. Statistical analysis of the responses revealed a statistically significant pattern of association of low-frequency polysyllabic lexemes with greater intellectual value. It’s not short on words, nor on syllables per word, nor …

Illustration of a blank scroll of parchment beside a quill in an inkpot. (magicleaf © 123RF.com)

But what about plural “they”?

September 21, 2021 | Filed under: James Harbeck

Singular “they” is here to stay, and that’s a good thing. There is no decent reason to require that third-person singular pronouns — and only third-person singular pronouns — always specify gender. “He” has never truly covered men and women equally, though starting in the 1800s some people tried to …

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Ask an Award Winner: An Interview with James Harbeck

August 17, 2021 | Filed under: S. Robin Larin

The Editors Canada student relations committee recently completed a series of interviews with Editors Canada award winners. Each month, we’ll bring you the highlights of our interviews in the hopes that those featured may inspire student editors beginning their careers, as well as editors who are already established. This month, S. Robin Larin …

Illustration of hand reaching up from piles of paper. Clock in background.

Don’t Look Busy

March 23, 2021 | Filed under: James Harbeck

It’s a good thing I’m not working in-house anymore. I’ve been far too busy lately to look busy. Those of you who have worked in corporate environments know what I’m talking about: You can spend an awful lot of time and effort looking busy instead of getting things done. There …

Performance of Text

The Performance of a Text

June 23, 2020 | Filed under: James Harbeck

If someone says, “How about some music,” and you say, “Sure — Beethoven’s Fifth?” do you think they’ll be happy if you just hand them a printed copy of the score? A musical score is intended to be performed, and you don’t have a performance without musicians, a conductor, and …

Opening Lines

Sure-fire Opening Lines

April 7, 2020 | Filed under: James Harbeck

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a novel in want of readers must be possessed of a good opening line. A book is a relationship — many of us spend more intimate time with books than with people — and it is important to start the relationship off on …

Artgoes ask if it's art

But Is It Art?

February 11, 2020 | Filed under: James Harbeck

Is writing art? And if it is, what is editing? If we say writing is “artful,” or “artistic” or “an art,” we mean that we appreciate it aesthetically and admire it for the skill it evinces. But if we say not “writing is an art” but “writing is art” — …

Words We Love

Words We Love Irrationally Much

December 3, 2019 | Filed under: General EAC, James Harbeck

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 …

A graphic showing the word "splash" on a blue burst of water coming at the reader to symbolize how to write with a splash

How to Write Gleefully

September 17, 2019 | Filed under: James Harbeck

There are times when you want to make your prose more lively — if not flagrantly flippant then at least glancingly gleeful. James Harbeck discusses how to do that.

Novel Medical Treatments

June 4, 2019 | Filed under: James Harbeck

People with serious health problems are often subject to novel treatments. But that shouldn’t mean being treated like they’re in a novel. Health problems are human problems, and they can be important stories about real things affecting real people. But often, in telling them, we create another problem, because we …

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