THE EDITORS' WEEKLY

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Marianne Grier

Pink, Blue and the Singular “They”

October 16, 2018 by Marianne Grier | 14 Comments on Pink, Blue and the Singular “They”

I was a late adopter of the singular “they,” once thinking its usage was down to laziness or ignorance. I’ve recently changed my tune. The singular “they” helps streamline sentences, is considerate of those who don’t identify with a gender, and can help avoid the gender-charged language that can be our default. This last strength […]

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Virginia Durksen

Interview with Dr. Suzanne M. Steele

October 9, 2018 by Virginia Durksen | 4 Comments on Interview with Dr. Suzanne M. Steele

Part 2: Suzanne Steele, War Poet It takes courage to be a poet, although not the kind of courage needed on literal fields of battle. For two years (2008–10), Suzanne Steele was Canada’s “war poet,” the first official Canadian war artist poet to be embedded with a Canadian battlegroup — Task Force 3-09 (Afghanistan) — […]

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Standards Communication Task Force

Standards at Work: Fiction Editing

October 2, 2018 by Elizabeth d'Anjou, Standards Communication Task Force | 3 Comments on Standards at Work: Fiction Editing

Editors Canada’s Professional Editorial Standards (PES) describe the responsibilities of an editor. The scope of PES is broad; this series explores how the standards apply to a variety of editing contexts. Karen Conlin is a freelance editor specializing in speculative fiction and young adult fiction (YA). She does structural, stylistic and copy editing, mostly for […]

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Marion Soubliere

New Federal e-Commerce Site: Direct Sales, Clients Galore

September 25, 2018 by Marion Soublière | 4 Comments on New Federal e-Commerce Site: Direct Sales, Clients Galore

The Government of Canada is the first to admit that it’s not easy to do business with them. But change is on the horizon. The latest step toward simpler procurement involves replacing the buyandsell.gc.ca tendering site. In July 2018, the government awarded U.S.-based InfoSys Public Services a contract to build a new Amazon.com-like e-commerce site. Public […]

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Letitia Henville

More Twitter for Wordies

September 18, 2018 by Letitia Henville | 6 Comments on More Twitter for Wordies

A little over two years ago, Lori Burwash sang the praises of Twitter as “a forum where communication must be clear, engaging and concise” — and so of obvious appeal to editors. Since June 2016, Twitter has grown in the public consciousness, with some now seeing it as an echo chamber where extremist political takes […]

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James Harbeck

Eye Rhymes and iRhymes

September 11, 2018 by James Harbeck | Leave a Comment

Or: Can You Rhyme Emoji? An eye rhyme is when two words that only look like they rhyme are used for a rhyme. This was an early annoyance from my childhood, when elementary poems rhymed good with food. Another famous one is from Shakespeare: If this be error and upon me prov’d I never writ, […]

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Virginia Durksen

Interview With Dr. Suzanne M. Steele

September 4, 2018 by Virginia Durksen | 9 Comments on Interview With Dr. Suzanne M. Steele

Part 1: Dr. Suzanne M. Steele, scholar and editor Dr. Suzanne Steele has built her career on words as a librarian, a war poet, a librettist, a teacher and an academic editor working with ESL writers who are often translating their ideas across cultures as well as languages. Virginia Durksen is the editor for Suzanne’s […]

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Trish Morgan

Lifelong Learning for Mentors and Mentees

August 28, 2018 by Trish Morgan | 6 Comments on Lifelong Learning for Mentors and Mentees

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 best mentors keep on learning. […]

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Brendan O’Brien

Is It All About the Author?

August 21, 2018 by Brendan O'Brien | 23 Comments on Is It All About the Author?

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 non-fiction), the emphasis has generally […]

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Wilf Popoff

Wasted Words: A Paean to Poetry

August 14, 2018 by Wilf Popoff | 3 Comments on Wasted Words: A Paean to Poetry

Good poetry, I believe, projects the essence of culture. It conveys profound concepts and articulates observations while captivating the listener with its beauty and power. It does this with a matchless performance of words that blend language with wisdom. The listener is both enlightened and entertained. Bad poetry, on the other hand, has little effect […]

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