Sometime before I turned 10, my parents “published” my first story at Staples. When I held this spiral-bound, laminated book with my own words and illustrations inside, I felt like an author. Looking back on my progress as a writer, I see my journey dotted with people who believed in …
This post is part of a new series of case studies by and for in-house editors. The focus of this series is on the personal experiences and various roles of in-house editors. A post will appear on the Editors’ Weekly every other month. If you’re interested in writing a post for this series, please …
It’s time for our Year in Review! Check out our list of posts from 2018 and tell us your favourites in the comments. Have you ever thought of writing an article for the Editors’ Weekly? We’re looking for articles on the following topics: How you got started as an editor …
Have you seen this meme? There is no such thing as American English. There is English and there are mistakes. First appearing on Twitter in June 2014, the original tweet was tongue-in-cheek, in keeping with the account’s satirical leaning. The words have since taken on a life of their own, and …
“How can you edit that? You don’t know anything about being an electrician.” I often heard that question and variations of it — carpenter, instrument technician, welder — in my years editing technical instructional materials for apprenticeship trades in Alberta. This is how I answered the question. I am the …
Editors say they love words, with finding just the right phrase for the context, but, ironically, they can only fail with two terms critical to the world of publishing: “editor” and “author.” When someone says she’s an editor, you have no idea what she does. Is she the editor of …
We’ve all as editors had the odd grumble over something an author has written. Maybe a string of noun clusters has pushed us to the limit of our patience, or we’ve broken down over a text awash with comma splices. It’s easy to criticize when we’re on the sidelines, though. …
Writers are often told to “write what they know.” But what about editors? Should we only take on projects that are squarely in our comfort zones? When I asked this question online, I found that many of my editing colleagues endorse the idea of editing in new areas. It’s a …
We editors talk at length about different kinds of editing and who does what, and we generally assume that we’re working on a text written by someone else. Together with the author, we massage the content, the structure and the presentation into the best possible shape for its intended readers. …
There are a heck of a lot of opinions out there. Some days they come at you as thick as blackflies over Lac Ouareau on a July afternoon. Small, insistent opinions: some winging singly and some blackening the sky in noisy hordes. Some are meaningful and some mean well and …