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Wasted Words: A Paean to Poetry

Tuesday August 14, 2018

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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culture free verse music lyrics poetry prose Wasted Words Wilf Popoff

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Language Resources for Non-Native English Speakers

Tuesday May 7, 2019

I teach plain language workshops, and I was recently approached by a non-native English speaker. His language skills were excellent. He said he learned English mostly through standardized exams, and he felt there was a gap between the mode of English he was taught and the plain language approach I was preaching. His question was […]

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Aaron Dalton language language learning learning non-native English speakers plain language

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Marion Soubliere

Social Procurement to Woo Female-Led Firms, Among Others

Tuesday May 28, 2019

There’s a short paragraph in Budget 2018 that didn’t garner much buzz last year. But it holds hope for women-owned companies that want a bigger piece of the roughly $20 billion annual federal market. As part of boosting the overall number of female-run firms in this country, the Government of Canada pledged to make sure […]

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business practices editing federal contracts freelancing government editing Government of Canada Marion Soubliere ProServices small businesses

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Novel Medical Treatments

Tuesday June 4, 2019

People with serious health problems are often subject to novel treatments. But that shouldn’t mean being treated like they’re in a novel. Health problems are human problems, and they can be important stories about real things affecting real people. But often, in telling them, we create another problem, because we make the story conform to […]

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heroes James Harbeck linguistics Linguistics Frankly morality

Empirical Editors Bias

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Empirical Editors: Curse of Knowledge

Tuesday March 17, 2020

This article is part of a series that draws lessons from some of the research collected in Aaron Dalton’s “Empirical Research for Editors” list. Do you have the curse of knowledge? The “curse of knowledge” is a type of cognitive bias where someone unknowingly assumes, while communicating, that their audience has the same background knowledge […]

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Aaron Dalton cognitive bias empirical editor knowledge effect plain language user testing writing process

Freelance Editor

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Making the Shift from Student to Freelance Editor

Tuesday March 31, 2020

For novice editors, the transitional year from student to editor is often both remarkable and overwhelming. No amount of experience and education can prepare you for the phenomenon of imposter syndrome, the tendency to undervalue your work, and the persistent fear of failure. Above all, nothing quite prepares you for that first difficult client. Although […]

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copy editing freelance business freelance career freelance editors Natalia Iwanek proofreading student affiliate

Editor Career Builder

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Virginia St-Denis

Career Builder: An Action Plan for New Editors

Tuesday May 12, 2020

A new free resource is available to help you build your new editing career. Experienced editors can use it for giving advice to would-be editors. Launching a successful career just became a little easier for would-be editors, students and novice editors. The Career Builder provides valuable information to guide you through creating your personalized action […]

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career advice career builder career development career resource editing career path roadmap students Virginia St-Denis

Speech bubble with the text "Top 3: Rules, Tools, Channels" on a red background.

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Jake Poinier: An Editor’s Top 3

Tuesday July 28, 2020

In this series, experienced editors reflect on their Top 3 tools, rules and suggestions for clients and colleagues. Jake Poinier is a freelance editor in Phoenix, Ariz., with 31 years’ experience in the publishing industry. He specializes in business copywriting, ghostwriting and non-fiction book editing, and blogs about freelancing business topics at DoctorFreelance.com. Jake is […]

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editor advice Editor’s Top 3 freelance Jake Poinier self marketing

Illustration of two women working together, each with a laptop on her lap sitting on red armchairs facing each other.

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Letitia Henville

How I’m Hiring a Student to Support My Freelance Editing Business

Tuesday December 8, 2020

I’ve never been happy with the look of my website, shortishard.ca. Yet, I’ve never needed to update it, because I get all my work through referrals, word of mouth or my monthly column, Ask Dr Editor. In 2021, though, things are going to change: I’m hiring an undergraduate student to make my website finally look […]

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business practices freelance editors freelancing Letitia Henville students

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Running Out of Words: It’s Not a Slippery Slope

Tuesday January 19, 2021

It’s almost inevitable. People who say “we’ve gotten too PC” about language will, at some point in the discussion, claim that if we stop using certain words or phrases, we’ll run out of words to write and talk. Arriving at this spot Who is having these discussions and how does this line of thinking work? […]

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English language Gael Spivak lexicon linguistics vocabulary