No foolin’
Posting a blog entry today, I am, of course, tempted to write something farcical, outrageous, or dare I say, even foolish, it being April 1. But humour can be a dangerous thing when shared with readers unknown. Some so-called jokes…
So what do you do?
Imagine being an IMAX screen cleaner: you’d spend hours every day sucking the dust off the giant screens so we in the audience can get the full, vertigo-inducing effects of all the action. As a professional mattress jumper, you would,…
Mastery in action
Every once in a while, a writing or editing project provides an opportunity to work with a person who is a master in his or her field. Most often, it’s someone who works with words—another writer or editor—but not always…
Correctness versus correctitude
If you are an editor, you likely have an opinion about whether political correctness is a force for good or evil, and will have fought your own anti-bias battles against certain words and phrases. Sociologist BJ Gallagher contends that “While the original…
Happy holidays!
’Tis the season when even hard-working language pros aim to kick back a little. Here are a few suggestions from our partners to help you enjoy this festive month: Merrie-Ellen’s musical offering is The Lamb, John Taverner’s setting of the William…
Cut and paste—collage as thinking tool
When I taught business writing, I found many participants grew weary of the “do-the-exercise-discuss-with-your neighbour” training model. Because the course covered a range of strategies for page fright, I hoped that at least one of them would stick. Enter collage…
Giving thanks for plain language
There are two reasons to toast October 13 this year: it’s Thanksgiving here in Canada, and it’s also International Plain Language Day. Though most Canadians will celebrate the former, few have even heard of the latter. Why is that? After…
Those lazy hazy crazy days of summer
Earlier this summer, editorial blogs and the editors’ corner of the Twitterverse focused on “Weird Al” Yankovic’s music video “Word Crimes,” with its list of grammatical errors and its condemnation of those benighted individuals who make them. Everyone from the…
Get up, stand up
I love my work…except when I don’t. I love that I get paid to read, to work with words, and to collaborate with talented professionals to produce something meaningful. I love the tactile component of editing: consulting reference books, working…
Editing and—beekeeping?
Like other professionals, editors do interesting things when they’re not at their desks. In my “spare time,” I keep honey bees. Now, editing and beekeeping aren’t always the perfect combination. For example, the bees will inevitably swarm just as you…