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Professional Editorial Standards: What Does an Editor Do Today?

Tuesday January 29, 2019

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’ve always found the granularity of PES daunting; I’m more inclined to “find the voice and let it sing.” But comparing the 2016 revision […]

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copy editing editing editing standards Professional Editorial Standards proofreading Standards at Work structural editing technology Tilman Lewis

Illustration of hands on a keyboard. In the background is a world map with bubbles of individual people, implying the person typing is connecting to people around the world.

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Brendan O’Brien

My Network

Tuesday February 12, 2019

I went freelance at the start of 1993, working from my house in Dublin. I didn’t have a computer till midway through that year — work arrived at first by courier or in the mail, on paper. I had some reference books and, if I was lucky, a publisher’s style guide to consult. For many […]

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Brendan O'Brien editing editors’ network flexibility freelancing networking

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Freedom to Read, Willingness to Edit

Tuesday February 26, 2019

Good stories, for me, have never been treacly. My father, an RCMP officer, put people in jail; my mother, a halfway house director, put them back into society. My childhood was one of sensational publications and limited adult supervision. By age 11 I’d read Jaws, Helter Skelter and The Eden Express, a memoir of schizophrenia. […]

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Book and Periodical Council Carreen Maloney editing Frances Peck Freedom to Read Week taboo subjects writing

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No Perfection Unless You’re a Sunset

Tuesday March 26, 2019

Those who read are an exacting bunch. We grew up with professionally proofread books, back when publishers could still afford to pay someone to make sure no spelling mistake got by, no errant comma, sneaky typo, sloppy grammar or lazy punctuation. We had high expectations of our reading material. Now we tend to notice when […]

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Digital Enhancement for Numbers (Go Figures!)

Tuesday April 9, 2019

At the ACES conference in Providence, Rhode Island, in late March, the Associated Press announced changes to their recommendations for handling numbers and debated some others. About sixty percent of those present gasped when one of the recommendations was made — in fact, it might have been 70 percent. No, I’m going with 80% of […]

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ACES AP style conferences James Harbeck Linguistics Frankly readability speech sounds style style guides

Illustration of a long-haired person in red heels and a tight red dress over a white collared shirt walking a tightrope. They hold a long bar for balance: a clock is hanging from one side, and a dollar sign from the other.

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Getting Paid a Living Wage: The Editor’s Constant Challenge

Tuesday April 16, 2019

I have been retired, or semi-retired, for almost a decade now. My career as a freelance writer and editor has gradually given way to new and different pursuits. But recently, a couple of projects for pay showed up in my inbox, and I succumbed. One was related to local history, a lifelong passion of mine. […]

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Anita Jenkins business business of editing editing editing fees freelancing living wage

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Letitia Henville

Introducing Editor and Poet Margo LaPierre

Tuesday June 25, 2019

“Everything’s happening at once,” laughs Margo LaPierre, the winner of the 2018 Claudette Upton Scholarship. She’s chatting with me while her husband refuels their car, three-quarters of the way through their 15-hour drive back home to Ottawa after the 2019 Editors Canada Conference in Halifax. A week before finding out the results of the competition, Margo […]

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Claudette Upton Scholarship editing Letitia Henville Margo LaPierre networking new editors poetry

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PerfectIt 4: Faster and More Customizable Than Ever

Tuesday July 2, 2019

When I joined the publishing department of Legal Aid BC last year, none of my colleagues had used PerfectIt. But I have used it for years; I was hooked the first time I ran it on a manuscript and saw how quickly and accurately it found the one U-less “neighbor” in a sea of “neighbours,” […]

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beta testing consistency editing Intelligent Editing PerfectIt PerfectIt 4 proofreading review software style Wendy Barron

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Brendan O’Brien

The Aging Editor

Tuesday August 20, 2019

A few months ago, some editors shared articles on Facebook about editing and aging. I didn’t read them properly, but I saw some of the comments. I recently turned 59 and have been a professional editor for more than three decades. I’m getting quite close to an age at which many people retire. What has […]

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age Brendan O'Brien editor editors work-life balance