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Getting an internship can lead to a job—but it might not be the job you were expecting.

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DISPATCHES 7: Finding Work in Unexpected Places

Wednesday October 2, 2013

Getting an internship can lead to a job—but it might not be the job you were expecting. When I first started taking courses at Ryerson University, I didn’t have a clue about the variety of jobs available to me. I knew I could be an editorial assistant at a publishing company, but there were so […]

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Victoria Neufeldt

Shy Words

Tuesday December 17, 2013

When I took on the commitment, a year ago, of contributing blog postings about language, I began bravely by tossing out a little ditty that came into my mind, inspired by Dr. Seuss: “New words, old words, shy words, bold words.” Well, I’ve talked about old words and new words, but shy words? What was […]

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etymology language lexicon shy words vocabulary

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James Harbeck

Topics, We Front Them | Linguistics, Frankly

Tuesday January 14, 2014

English is normally a subject-verb-object kind of language, but there are some interesting exceptions, especially in casual contexts. Consider examples such as the following: Poodles, we walk them. Labradors, they walk us. Chickens we have; roads, not so much. Not one of the clauses above follows standard English sentence order, and yet we understand them. […]

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grammar language Linguistics Frankly syntax usage word choice

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Susan Glickman

What Does It Take to Start Freelancing?

Tuesday April 8, 2014

If you’re just starting out as a freelancer, whether you’re a writer or an editor, keep in mind that the only way to survive is to be brutally efficient — which means you will have no social life. You should, however, get a gym membership and use it, because you’ll need to keep your energy […]

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editing editor editors at work freelancing writers writing

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Victoria Neufeldt

What’s an Editor to Do?

Tuesday January 6, 2015

The vagaries of language can cause even the most experienced editors headaches. Editors as a group are more attuned to the whims and ways of language than the average speaker, but many strange and challenging usages regularly fly under the radar and pass into public text, despite our best efforts. When should an editor accept […]

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editing editor's role grammar language usage word choice

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Susan Glickman

Facts and Fiction: Artful Flight

Tuesday February 3, 2015

I’d like to recommend two of my favourite books for writers, one ostensibly fiction and the other, not. Except that both are so idiosyncratic, so luminously zany, so full of revelatory insights, humour and poignancy, that generic boundaries seem to melt and what you take away from each is reaffirmation of not only why you […]

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book reviews Facts and Fiction fiction literature writing writing resources

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Susan Glickman

In My Opinion

Tuesday March 17, 2015

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 some are just mean, but […]

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judgment opinions writers writing

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Victoria Neufeldt

We’re All Looking for Style

Tuesday July 14, 2015

What is style in writing? Writers — and their editors, of course — must think about this, but not everyone agrees on what is appropriate. A writer of non-fiction, for example, probably aims for an unobtrusive style in which the language — the words and phrases, the syntax and grammar — takes second place to the content. […]

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informal language register style tone usage voice

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Sue Archer

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

Tuesday September 22, 2015

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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descriptivism Geoffrey Marnell language myths prescriptivism review Sue Archer

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Paul Cipywnyk

Is Editing a Deadly Profession?

Tuesday December 15, 2015

Poison pens, ego-shattering commentary, creative assassination by a thousand edits, cut, cut, slash, slash. Oh, the horror! Well, actually, I’m here to talk about “death by sitting.” Yes, editors tend to sit a lot, and sitting has been declared the new sugar. This is not news, when you think about it. We’ve long been warned […]

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chairs comfort exercise health occupational health and safety Paul Cipywnyk posture

Search results

DISPATCHES 7: Finding Work in Unexpected Places

Shy Words

Topics, We Front Them | Linguistics, Frankly

What Does It Take to Start Freelancing?

What’s an Editor to Do?

Facts and Fiction: Artful Flight

In My Opinion

We’re All Looking for Style

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

Is Editing a Deadly Profession?

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