THE EDITORS' WEEKLY

Filed under:

James Harbeck

Be on the Ball With the Origins of Phrases | Linguistics, Frankly

October 27, 2015 by James Harbeck | Leave a Comment

My topic today may seem a bit ribald, but I’m sure you’ll have a ball with it. It’s about monkey business with the origins of phrases, and how to make sure you stay on the ball and don’t hit a wall. People love stories about the origins of words and phrases, but many of them […]

Read more »

Tagged

Filed under:

Rosemary Shipton

Real E-Books

October 20, 2015 by Rosemary Shipton | 19 Comments on Real E-Books

E-books are everywhere these days, but how many of them are real e-books, written specifically for that medium? Not many. Most are simply traditional print books that are available on a different platform. At best, like a DVD, they have a few bonus features tacked on at the end or, in the case of children’s […]

Read more »

Tagged

Filed under:

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 […]

Read more »

Tagged

Filed under:

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. […]

Read more »

Tagged

Filed under:

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 […]

Read more »

Tagged

Filed under:

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 […]

Read more »

Tagged

Filed under:

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 […]

Read more »

Tagged

Filed under:

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 […]

Read more »

Tagged

Filed under:

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 […]

Read more »

Tagged

Filed under:

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, […]

Read more »

Tagged