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Cold Call Case Files

Tuesday May 13, 2014

Cold calling. I’ve heard arguments against it — it doesn’t generate work, it’s better to network in person, only word-of-mouth referrals reliably lead to jobs. But I haven’t yet discovered a downside. I can pick and choose all the companies I’d like to work for and start calling them. A phone call only takes a […]

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cold calls editing freelancers freelancing getting work writing

An open dictionary shows the letter A on the left page and the letter B on the right page.

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Wasted Words: Careless Pirates

Tuesday May 27, 2014

To create a great language simply plunder other tongues of their attractive words, assimilate them and profess longstanding ownership. English proves this. Oxford has half a million distinct words. Add technical and slang and you’ve topped one million, says the Global Language Monitor. Most are swag. Unfortunately, piracy can be thoughtless. We are all accomplices, […]

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language tautology usage Wasted Words word choice

Path through snowy trees

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Wasted Words: The Elements and Style

Tuesday December 2, 2014

It’s the time of year when heeding weather reports is a good idea: setting out with meagre insulation can be foolhardy. (News flash: “Hypothermia Blamed When Editor Vanishes.”) I glean data from all sources and sally forth properly kitted, but meteorological claptrap can be irritating. A local CBC station announces that temperatures overnight will go […]

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language redundancy reporting usage Wasted Words weather reports word choice writing

Piggy bank and money

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Time, Money and the Freelance Life

Tuesday March 24, 2015

For a creative professional or craftsperson, the business side of freelancing can be challenging. “I don’t want to run a business. I just want to write!” Or edit, or photograph, or paint or sing. Yet by selling your services or products, you are running a business. Why not run it well? So well that the […]

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business editing Facets of Editing freelancing marketing rates

Writing with quill

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Rosemary Shipton

Should Editors Be Able to Write?

Tuesday April 28, 2015

We editors talk at length about different kinds of editing and who does what, and we generally assume that we’re working on a text written by someone else. Together with the author, we massage the content, the structure and the presentation into the best possible shape for its intended readers. But should we also be […]

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authors book publishing copy editing editing editor's role structural editing stylistic editing substantive editing writers writing

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Virginia Durksen

Inner Editor: Tasks Without Edges

Tuesday February 28, 2017

As the oft-paraphrased Leonardo da Vinci would have it, art [or poetry or writing or editing] is never finished, only abandoned. Writing is like a teenager. Eventually you have to send it out into the world to fend for itself. (Or should I say it’s like a young adult? Most North Americans freak out at […]

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boundaries budget business practices deadlines edges editors at work Inner Editor tips Virginia Durksen

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The Hardest Language

Tuesday April 11, 2017

What language is the hardest to learn? The hardest for whom to learn? The world has many languages of many different kinds, but one thing they all have in common is that kids grow up speaking them fluently and think of them as the natural way to say things. Some languages have many inflections — […]

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culture English language grammar inflections James Harbeck languages Linguistics Frankly pronunciation

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Tracey Anderson

Editing Technical Instructional Material: Do You Need to Be an Expert?

Tuesday January 23, 2018

“How can you edit that? You don’t know anything about being an electrician.” I often heard that question and variations of it — carpenter, instrument technician, welder — in my years editing technical instructional materials for apprenticeship trades in Alberta. This is how I answered the question. I am the target audience The goal of […]

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author-editor relationship editing editor's role editors subject matter experts writers

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Eye Rhymes and iRhymes

Tuesday September 11, 2018

Or: Can You Rhyme Emoji? An eye rhyme is when two words that only look like they rhyme are used for a rhyme. This was an early annoyance from my childhood, when elementary poems rhymed good with food. Another famous one is from Shakespeare: If this be error and upon me prov’d I never writ, […]

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emoji eye rhymes iRhymes James Harbeck Linguistics Frankly rhyming visual puns visual rhymes