Editing / Grammar / Usage / Proofreading / Usage

Pretty much everyone uses punctuation marks in their day-to-day life, whether it’s in texts, emails, professional communications, business writing, letters, birthday cards, notes…the list goes on and on! Periods, commas, question marks, exclamation points—these marks are familiar, and their usage is likely firmly cemented in your mind.   However, for some less-common punctuation marks/word treatments that perhaps don’t get used quite as often, it can become easy to mix them up...

Editing / Usage / Proofreading / Usage / Language & Editing

The ways that linguistic conventions change over time are sometimes obvious. New dialects and turns of phrase crop up, and many of them gradually change their meaning. Contextual changes throughout history often drive this kind of linguistic shift, but linguistic conventions also change in a subtler way. For instance, changes to the ways words are spelled tend to favour shortening rather than lengthening, presumably because people prefer...

Proofreading

  In August 2017, Beth wrote this blog when our TEC offices were located on 27 Carlton to express her frustration at spotting  obvious – or perhaps not so obvious – typos that are missed in storefront signs, newspapers, and final pages of a book manuscript. Sometimes we spot them when others don’t, and vice versa!   *****     We editors can't help that our eye will fall on misspelled words or faulty punctuation....

Editing / Usage / Editor/writer / Proofreading

Why Do We Fact-Check?   As The Chicago Manual of Style points out, in publishing, the author is ultimately responsible for the accuracy of a work. And while most publishers do not perform fact-checking in any sort of systematic way or expect it of their editors, obvious errors should always be pointed out to the author, as well as any questionable proper names or other dubious details that might take away...

Editing / Usage / Style / Editor/writer / Publishing

Editorial work entails a variety of different jobs. These include substantive editing, line editing, and proofreading. Because the process of editorial work occurs largely through written exchanges — through emails and through editorial comments left in the manuscript’s margin, for example — it’s critical that writers and editors share a common glossary of editorial terms.   Editorial work, like work in most industries, employs an ever-expanding list of technical...

Editing / Style / Editor/writer / Publishing / Proofreading

Editorial work entails a variety of different jobs. These include substantive editing, line editing, and proofreading. Because the process of editorial work occurs largely through written exchanges — through emails and through editorial comments left in the manuscript’s margin, for example — it’s critical that writers and editors share a common glossary of editorial terms.   Editorial work, like work in most industries, employs an ever-expanding list of technical...

Proofreading

You know the feeling, don’t you? You’ve composed an exquisitely worded email, tinkered with the phrasing to get it just right, and read it through several times to make sure it’s error-free. You’ve clicked on Send, and just as you’re about to lift your finger off the mouse, you spot it: an egregious typo that is irrevocably on its way once you lift your finger—which you’ll have to do...

Proofreading

“Anthropology!” said a chatty tech support guy who insisted on doing small talk rather than fixing my bank account problem. “That’s, like, about the human body and stuff, right?”   No. Not quite that. Sorry.   Is anthropology such a mystery to the average person? Based on the confused face I get whenever I mention my degree, that might just be the case.   Perhaps people can’t help picturing an explorer...

Proofreading

Even in the few short weeks I’ve been here at The Editing Company, I’ve gotten to wear a lot of different hats on the job. One of my favourite tasks so far has been helping to proofread a manuscript for UTP Higher Education. I’ve always had a fondness for editing, and I was excited for the opportunity to get to help out with such an interesting project. ...