THE EDITORS' WEEKLY

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Virginia Durksen

The Inner Editor: Introvert, Know Thyself

November 8, 2016 by Virginia Durksen | 3 Comments on The Inner Editor: Introvert, Know Thyself

Just after parlour games went out of fashion, but before Facebook, a self-employed editor might have used her idle hours for professional developments and introspections of various sorts. In particular, one such editor might have noticed that her clients had entire Human Resources departments dedicated to circulating questionnaires to help people realize who they were […]

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Wilf Popoff

Wasted Words: Channelling Orwell

November 1, 2016 by Wilf Popoff | 2 Comments on Wasted Words: Channelling Orwell

“Insincerity,” says George Orwell in his classic commentary of 70 years ago, is the “great enemy of clear language.” Political discourse is “designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable…” For Orwell, insincerity was more a result of lazy writing than a deliberate attempt to conceal the truth: “…if thought corrupts language, language can […]

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Sharon Skage

Editing at the Legislature: A Look Inside the Hansard Office

October 25, 2016 by Sharon Skage | 6 Comments on Editing at the Legislature: A Look Inside the Hansard Office

Ever wondered what it’s like to work as an editor at Hansard? Well, given that there are 15 Hansards published across the country, it depends on who you ask. The staffing, production processes and timelines vary from one jurisdiction to another, but here’s a quick snapshot of what it’s like in Alberta. Our production team […]

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Melva McLean

What’s in a Name?

October 18, 2016 by Melva McLean | 2 Comments on What’s in a Name?

Last month’s book club choice was from a bunch of bestseller and book club lists. It was one of those “family” stories with a sizeable cast of characters. You know the kind — three or four sisters with partners and/or lovers and children and a couple of pets. I was a hundred pages into the […]

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Rosemary Shipton

Those Unpublishable Manuscripts

October 11, 2016 by Rosemary Shipton | 25 Comments on Those Unpublishable Manuscripts

We’ve all had them – those manuscripts that arrive on our desks that should not be published. They have little merit in either content or expression, and our initial impulse is to return them immediately. How do we deal with them? If the project comes from a trade publisher, the contract with the author was probably […]

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Paul Buckingham

Ours Is Not to Reason Why — Or Is It?

October 4, 2016 by Paul Buckingham | 7 Comments on Ours Is Not to Reason Why — Or Is It?

You’re editing a biography of Lester Pearson, and you see a line that says, “It is a fitting coincidence that Pearson was born the same year another great Liberal leader, Wilfrid Laurier, took the Canadian helm.” You’re drawn to the interesting coincidence of dates and decide to look up the facts. You discover that Pearson […]

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Virginia Durksen

The Inner Editor: The Voice and Its Vices

September 27, 2016 by Virginia Durksen | 3 Comments on The Inner Editor: The Voice and Its Vices

When editors talk about a writer’s “voice,” we usually mean something like a writer’s style or tone or stance. Even if you’ve never given much thought to this term, you’ll know what “voice” means if you can recall a moment when you, as a child, first heard “Don’t use that voice with me, young lady.” It’s a command […]

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Cathy McPhalen

Editing Niches: Back to School With Thesis Editing

September 20, 2016 by Cathy McPhalen | 2 Comments on Editing Niches: Back to School With Thesis Editing

Editors may spurn thesis (or dissertation) work for graduate students, but that shuts off fascinating pathways. Students become academics who need editors for journal articles, monographs, textbooks and grant applications. Those who become non-academics need business reports, web pages, novels and [insert the types of documents you edit here ] edited. Catching them young can forge […]

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James Harbeck

The Ongoing Demise of English

September 13, 2016 by James Harbeck | 6 Comments on The Ongoing Demise of English

English just isn’t spoken as well as it used to be. As people who have to deal every day with the abuses of common users, we will surely all agree with this sentiment: “our unfortunate ears are doomed not only to excruciate in the torments of bad grammar, but to agonize under the torture of […]

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Melva McLean

Writing Wrongs in Fiction

September 6, 2016 by Melva McLean | 1 Comment on Writing Wrongs in Fiction

Last month, Paul Cipywnyk wrote here about plausibility and continuity in novels. But what about in screenwriting? Realistic, plausible details and continuity are equally — sometimes more — important on screen, but it can be challenging to ensure them. Now, it doesn’t matter what you’re writing about or in what time period — the research […]

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