Indexers, like editors, regularly run into people who think human indexers have been replaced by computers. “Doesn’t Word have an indexing function?” they ask. “Can’t it index the book I’ve just written?” Those same people might also ask, “Why do…
From June 12 to 14, the Editors’ Association of Canada is hosting its annual conference, this year in Toronto (and this year co-presented with the Professional Writers Association of Canada). Dubbed “the first global conference of editors,” the Editing Goes Global…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
’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…
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…
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…
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…