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What Do Words Really Mean?

Tuesday February 2, 2016

How discombobulating words can be! You feel certain about what a word means, but then are challenged by another person’s interpretation. Sometimes the discussion, or even argument, is rooted in changing social situations. For example, what does poverty mean? What did it mean 200 years ago? A dispute about words may also be philosophical: there […]

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Wilf Popoff

Wasted Words: Surviving Overkill

Tuesday August 2, 2016

In 1956 SC Johnson (formerly Johnson Wax) developed Raid, an apparently effective insecticide that became a marketing miracle. But most of the credit for the boom belongs to Foote, Cone & Belding (aka FCB), a global advertising agency that created the legendary slogan, Raid Kills Bugs Dead. This whimsically ironic tagline burst into our cultural lexicon […]

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evolution of language language Wasted Words Wilf Popoff

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Frances Peck

Keeping Up With the (Editorial) Times

Tuesday November 22, 2016

As editors, we can never stop learning. Whether it’s to resolve specific questions, maintain a credential or generally stay on top of our field, we have to keep up with a dizzying array of books, articles, blogs, newsletters, interviews, Twitter chats, Facebook posts, webinars — and the list goes on. Ignore that information and we […]

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continuing education editorial skills editorial training Frances Peck PD retreat professional development time management

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Tracey Anderson

Editing the Work of Writers Whose First Language Isn’t English

Tuesday March 7, 2017

Canada is a kaleidoscope of cultures and languages from around the world. As the number of residents whose native language isn’t English increases, the need for editors who can edit their writing effectively and sensitively grows, too. Before my editing career began, I taught English as a second language for over 15 years in China, […]

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author-editor relationship editor's role ESL editing Tracey Anderson

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Frances Peck

Editing and Empathy

Tuesday June 6, 2017

I’m thinking more about empathy these days. So are other editors — witness last week’s post on the editor-author relationship. So are Canadians in general, judging by Google searches over the past decade. Source: Google Trends. Y-axis shows interest over time, defined as follows: “Numbers […]

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author-editor relationship editor's personality editor's role editorial training editors at work empathy Frances Peck

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Wilf Popoff

Wasted Words: The Phantom Client

Tuesday July 18, 2017

For many editors positive client engagement is central to a project — a good work relationship, frank feedback and response, and, finally, appreciation. Such pleasures, alas, are seldom part of my grind. Often I don’t get close enough to an actual client to cultivate such a connection. Communications agencies or consulting engineers who outsource projects […]

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client-editor relationship clients newsroom editing outsourced projects Wasted Words Wilf Popoff

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Rosemary Shipton

There’s No Clarity With Editors or Authors

Tuesday September 5, 2017

Editors say they love words, with finding just the right phrase for the context, but, ironically, they can only fail with two terms critical to the world of publishing: “editor” and “author.” When someone says she’s an editor, you have no idea what she does. Is she the editor of a newspaper or a magazine, […]

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authors editor's role editors ghostwriters publishing process Rosemary Shipton types of editing types of editors writers

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Brendan O’Brien

The Perils of Not Knowing

Tuesday January 16, 2018

One of the downsides of freelance editing is that you’re not there (wherever “there” may be) to explain your thinking on occasions when it might be appropriate to do so. Furthermore, you’re probably unaware that such occasions have even arisen. When I had in-house jobs, I learned a lot from bosses and colleagues. In my […]

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Brendan O'Brien communication freelance editors freelancing in-house editor in-house work long-distance editing remote communication

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James Harbeck

Does Verbing Impact the Language?

Tuesday February 20, 2018

A favourite crank for language cranks to crank is the demon of verbing. It wrecks our language, they protest! They target such usages as impacted and referenced in business-speak and medalled in broadcasting. While liberal-minded linguists may see these words as just more of the odd flowers that bloom in the spring (and spring up […]

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grammar James Harbeck language Linguistics Frankly verbing verbs

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Standards Communication Task Force

Standards at Work: Academic Editing

Tuesday April 24, 2018

Editors Canada’s Professional Editorial Standards (PES) describe the responsibilities of an editor. The scope of PES is broad; this series explores how the standards apply to a variety of editing contexts. I edit academic papers in preparation for submission to journals. My clients are researchers, and have usually settled the structure and content of their […]

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academic editing Amy Brown copy editing editing editing standards Editors Canada PES Professional Editorial Standards stylistic editing