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Summer Reading/Listening Series 2021: Part 1

Tuesday July 6, 2021

Some of the best book and podcast recommendations come from fellow editors. It’s no surprise — we learn and refine our skills by reading and listening to content. We also read and listen for pleasure (or to make use of those long periods in lockdown). In the spirit of learning, summer and escape, we asked […]

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Illustration of two people using oversized pencils to cross items off a giant checklist.

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Gael Spivak

Using Volunteer Work to Make Yourself More Marketable

Tuesday March 22, 2022

I didn’t volunteer with my editing association to get things out of it for myself. But over the years, I noticed that I was getting a lot out of it beyond feeling good about giving back to my community. This post summarizes what I learned so that you can use it to shape your own […]

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editing community editor advice Gael Spivak networking professional development volunteers

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Merel Elsinga

The Editing Essentials Test Tested: Unlock Your Editing Career

Tuesday April 5, 2022

You have just embraced editing as your new career. You have some editing experience, just not the five years recommended to sign up for an Editors Canada certification test. How can you convince prospective clients or a potential employer that you do have editing skills? The certification steering committee has come up with a new […]

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certification editing essentials editorial skills Merel Elsinga new editors professional development

Illustration of a text document with a rosette adorned with a star at the bottom of the page.

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Aaron Dalton

“Brag docs”: An Aide-mémoire

Thursday January 26, 2023

Performance reviews and discussions around compensation are part of working in house. You can’t just unilaterally change your hourly rate. If you want to get ahead, you need to be able to have uncomfortable conversations and demonstrate your value. But if you’re anything like me, remembering what you did last week, let alone last year, […]

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Aaron Dalton editing career job applications rates resumés

A two-story house is burning, filled with flames that are coming out through the front porch, upstairs windows, and through the roof. Four firemen in gear, with their backs to us, are standing in the foreground, watching the fire.

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Wilf Popoff

Wasted Words: My Hit List

Tuesday February 5, 2013

Wasted Words is a series of musings on language and usage by editor emeritus Wilf Popoff. I have a dream: English users create their equivalent to the Académie Française to mind the language. I’m at the first hearing of this august body presenting a list of words I want banned. The English Academy must acquiesce if […]

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editing redundancies usage

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Victoria Neufeldt

What’s an Editor to Do?

Tuesday January 6, 2015

The vagaries of language can cause even the most experienced editors headaches. Editors as a group are more attuned to the whims and ways of language than the average speaker, but many strange and challenging usages regularly fly under the radar and pass into public text, despite our best efforts. When should an editor accept […]

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editing editor's role grammar language usage word choice

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James Harbeck

Who Let That Word Into the Dictionary? | Linguistics, Frankly

Tuesday August 18, 2015

Every so often, Oxford or Merriam-Webster will release a list of words recently added to one of their dictionaries, and many people become grouchy at what they see as awful — or even fake — intrusions that have somehow been bootlegged into the hallowed halls of the official lexicon. You may even agree that they […]

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language change Linguistics Frankly new words slang

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James Harbeck

The Ongoing Demise of English

Tuesday September 13, 2016

English just isn’t spoken as well as it used to be. As people who have to deal every day with the abuses of common users, we will surely all agree with this sentiment: “our unfortunate ears are doomed not only to excruciate in the torments of bad grammar, but to agonize under the torture of […]

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James Harbeck language change Linguistics Frankly usage

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Marion Soubliere

Attending Conferences at Home and Abroad? Aye!

Tuesday July 11, 2017

For editors, industry conferences are like chicken soup for the soul. Editing can be a lonely profession, but combining learning with camaraderie is a spirit-boosting elixir. Many of us are still brimming with ideas and newfound confidence following June’s 2017 Editors Canada conference in Gatineau. Such learning and networking need not stop with membership in […]

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Conference 2017 editing conferences editing tools editors Editors Canada networking SfEP style usage

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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