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Mourning the Demise of Newsroom Copy Editors

Tuesday February 16, 2016

I was fortunate to get my initial on-the-job training in journalism in the days when writers worked with desk editors, copy editors and proofreaders. At least three sets of eyes perused every story after it had been written, and sometimes four or five. Three or more brains worked on massaging and polishing copy and checking […]

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copy editing editorial workflow journalism newsroom editing Paul Cipywnyk

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Katharine O'Moore-Klopf

How to Become a Medical Editor

Tuesday May 3, 2016

As a medical editor, I think I have the best job in the world. While I’m getting paid to edit medical manuscripts, I get to keep up with the latest research findings and treatment practices. There is a lot of this kind of work if you know where to look. Although there is no single […]

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career path editing associations editing societies Katharine O'Moore-Klopf medical editing resources training

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Film Adaptation Is Just Another Kind of Editing

Tuesday May 10, 2016

Several years ago, I was a reader for a couple of book publishers, and I had the opportunity to read a collection of short stories by the late Emily Givner. Joan Givner, Emily’s mom and a writer of note on her own, wanted to publish Emily’s stories posthumously and shopped the collection around. I was […]

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film adaptation filmmaking Melva McLean

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Dwain Richardson

English Editing in Quebec: All About Style (Part Two)

Tuesday May 24, 2016

Last November, I underlined major stylistic differences between English and French. Here are a few more. To combine or not to combine English articles with French ones? When incorporating French names in English copy, remember two rules: Do not lowercase French articles (e.g., La Presse, not la Presse). Do not combine French articles with English […]

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Dwain Richardson English Editing in Quebec French to English phrasal verbs style translation

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Perilous Punctuation: The Email Salutation

Tuesday May 31, 2016

An old friend from Ottawa recently visited me in Vancouver. We hadn’t seen each other in years. “One thing I’ll never forget about you,” said Ann (who is not an editor), “is that you taught me the right way to begin an email. Every time I write ‘Hi comma So-and-So period,’ I think of you.” […]

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comma Frances Peck grammar punctuation style usage

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Rosemary Shipton

Mentoring

Tuesday June 7, 2016

What’s the best way to pass skills, experience and business smarts from one person to another? Mentoring tops the list. We humans have always known the value of one-on-one instruction: parents teach their trade or profession to their children, apprentices work for years with their masters and young hires look for an old hand in […]

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editorial skills mentee mentor mentoring mentorship Rosemary Shipton training

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Dwain Richardson

English Editing in Quebec: All About Gender

Tuesday July 19, 2016

If you’re passionate about foreign languages, you’ll know that most of them contain masculine and feminine nouns. Some languages, such as German and Russian, go the extra mile and use neutral nouns. English has its fair share of masculine and feminine nouns, too, though most of them have been eliminated to make way for more […]

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Dwain Richardson English Editing in Quebec French to English gender gender-neutral pronouns translation

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Time to Put the “Free” Back in “Freelance”

Tuesday July 26, 2016

I make my living as a freelancer, which means I work pretty much every single day, all year long. My only breaks are brief visits to out-of-town family. Real holidays are rare — perhaps once every five years. Sound familiar? I suspect many of you are like me. We never know when the next job […]

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editing editor editors at work freelancing sabbatical Susan Glickman

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Rosemary Shipton

Shorten It!

Tuesday August 23, 2016

“Every word is gold,” my author said, “but I suppose you’ll have to shorten it.” Indeed I will: this book manuscript totals 180,000 words, and the trade publisher wants a 40 percent cut. That will be tough. Editors often need to reduce text. Newspapers, magazines, brochures, textbooks and reference materials have strict word limits. It […]

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avoiding wordiness editorial skills Rosemary Shipton structural editing stylistic editing