THE EDITORS' WEEKLY

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Victoria Neufeldt

Undue Care and Attention

October 13, 2015 by Victoria Neufeldt | 4 Comments on Undue Care and Attention

Are you ever guilty of writing with undue care and attention? If you didn’t spot the clunker in the preceding sentence, prop your eyes open and attend! We think we know the language and may even make our living by writing and editing, but the ways to slip up are infinite, providing sport for many […]

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Paul Cipywnyk

Tips for Dealing with Freelance Isolation

October 6, 2015 by Paul Cipywnyk | 7 Comments on Tips for Dealing with Freelance Isolation

Freelance editors are a mousy, introverted, cat-loving lot. They’re pale creatures who are often confined to mouldy basement offices where they stare with glazed eyes at glowing computer monitors, barricaded from the world by stacks upon stacks of dusty tomes. Right? Ha! If that’s what you think, you’ve never been to an Editors Canada conference. […]

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Dominique Fortier

Biais, biaiser/biaisé, par le biais de

September 29, 2015 by Dominique Fortier | 2 Comments on Biais, biaiser/biaisé, par le biais de

  Biais Le nom biais est, comme bien d’autres, susceptible de nous faire trébucher lorsque l’on a à l’utiliser dans une phrase. D’un côté, on peut l’employer sans crainte lorsqu’il a, par exemple, le sens de « ligne oblique, oblique » (ex. : Elle a taillé la flèche en biais.). De même est-il correct dans le sens de […]

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Sue Archer

Review: Correct English: Reality or Myth? by Geoffrey Marnell

September 22, 2015 by Sue Archer | 4 Comments on Review: Correct English: Reality or Myth? by Geoffrey Marnell

I’m sure all of us, as editors, have encountered heated discussions about the notion of “correct” English. It’s an inescapable occupational hazard. With the prescriptivists in one corner and the descriptivists in the other, the debate continually rages on. I was curious to know if Geoffrey Marnell would bring anything new to the discussion with […]

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Dwain Richardson

English Editing in Quebec: Mind Your Noun Strings, Please!

September 15, 2015 by Dwain Richardson | Leave a Comment

If you regularly work with French copy, you know that French emphasizes nouns more than English does. This results in our Gallic official language constantly using noun strings — that is, strings containing several nouns in a row. They will often take the form [noun] + of + (the) + [noun]: la gestion de la […]

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Wilf Popoff

Wasted Words: Considering the Case for Verbosity

September 8, 2015 by Wilf Popoff | 2 Comments on Wasted Words: Considering the Case for Verbosity

Is it necessary to waste a word or two to command attention? Are people apt to disregard phrases not couched in officialese? I shudder at the very notion, but former co-worker Cam Fuller, who fulminates against misusage as The Word Nerd, got me thinking. A recent lecture reveals he is currently contemplating a vacation. After […]

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Melva McLean

The Invisible Vocation in Books

September 1, 2015 by Melva McLean | 2 Comments on The Invisible Vocation in Books

Well, our blog post about Colin Firth playing the great Maxwell Perkins in the upcoming film Genius had a one-day reach of 3,000 viewers. We editors are the invisible and unsung celebrities of the publishing world, so it feels great to get some recognition in print or on film. Hell, we’ll even take word of […]

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Sue Archer

Interview With Grace Yaginuma, Winner of the Tom Fairley Award

August 25, 2015 by Sue Archer | 2 Comments on Interview With Grace Yaginuma, Winner of the Tom Fairley Award

This post is part of our “Editors in the Spotlight” series, spotlighting editors who have won awards or participated in award-winning projects. In this post, Sue Archer interviews Grace Yaginuma, who won the Tom Fairley Award for Editorial Excellence for editing the book A Discerning Eye by Carol E. Mayer. ~~~ Sue Archer: To start, […]

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James Harbeck

Who Let That Word Into the Dictionary? | Linguistics, Frankly

August 18, 2015 by James Harbeck | 1 Comment on Who Let That Word Into the Dictionary? | Linguistics, Frankly

Every so often, Oxford or Merriam-Webster will release a list of words recently added to one of their dictionaries, and many people become grouchy at what they see as awful — or even fake — intrusions that have somehow been bootlegged into the hallowed halls of the official lexicon. You may even agree that they […]

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Sara Peacock

Editing Goes Global: A British Perspective

August 11, 2015 by Sara Peacock | 1 Comment on Editing Goes Global: A British Perspective

I still vividly remember my first experience of an editorial conference. I came away with a very strong sense of belonging and of being part of a community. I probably learned some useful facts or techniques, but more importantly I was able to have discussions with colleagues and make strong connections with a number of […]

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