Event

What does an editor do?   We can be correctors, arbiters, hand-holders. We can correct spelling errors or rearrange whole chapters, fix dangling modifiers or eliminate a subplot. It is said that legendary literary editor Maxwell Perkins once cut 90,000 words from a draft of Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel – words which, presumably, sank without a trace and were never missed by anyone (except perhaps Mr. Wolfe).   With...

Publishing

So you've decided to self-publish a book. That's great! Self-publishing a book can be quite the journey, and it can also be incredibly rewarding. Here are a few helpful tips to keep you on the right track during the publishing process. Know the Purpose of Your Book Ask yourself, what is the purpose of my book? Do I want to sell lots of books online? Use the book...

Language & Editing

  Still puzzled by the different Canadian vs. American spellings? Drawing on the three blogs Barbara compiled (A to G, H to P, and Q to Z), we have written these sampler sentences to help you practise/practice. We have underlined the Canadian spellings that you would use if writing for a Canadian audience. Remember: some spellings are the same.   Double -ll- or single -l- When it is winter...

Language & Editing

  Q: How many editors does it take to split an infinitive? A: Just one, but he has to really be persuaded. If, as Dr. Johnson said, patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, perhaps it could be argued that grammatical prescriptivism -- strict and unquestioning adherence to rules -- is the last refuge of a pedant. As an editor, I can be one such pedant. I bristle at...

Language & Editing

Stop right there. Did you read "queue to zee"? If you did, you're using American pronunciation. Up here in the land of butter tarts and Nanaimo bars, we say "queue to zed"—which is why we can't ever get the Alphabet Song to rhyme. But we love our alphabet with its odd ending nonetheless. One of our most popular alphabet books is Eh? To Zed: A Canadian...

Editing

  What does it mean when we say an author is "working" the manuscript? It means that we recognize that the author is making the time to rewrite, revise, and reshape the manuscript as often as needed to make it ready for publication. We have the pleasure of working with many authors who seem to know instinctively how to go about doing this, and to watch them at work is...

Book Reviews

  How do you look at a city? What do you see when you walk down its alleys, across its streets, and through its neighbourhoods? When I look out my office window at the skyscrapers and the CN Tower, I see walls of concrete and shiny sheets of glass, but Toronto wasn't always this way.   How did the city come to be? Toronto the Overwhelming I live in the GTA, not exactly...

Language & Editing

The "They" Debate The use of "they" as a gender-neutral singular pronoun has been the subject of much debate in the publishing world over the last couple of years. The 16th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style insists that "the only gender-neutral third-person singular personal pronoun in English is it, which doesn’t refer to humans" and that attempts to find a gender-neutral singular pronoun "won’t succeed" and "invite credibility...

Language & Editing

  Every city has its own peculiarities of spelling and pronunciation. Some things you just have to know – such as the fact that the first syllable of Houston Street in Manhattan is pronounced like "house. " If you say "Houston" as it is pronounced in Texas, New Yorkers will know you are not one of them.   Toronto has its share of places and street names that are commonly mispronounced...

Language & Editing

Variety Is the Spice of Life It's hard to believe that a whole month has gone by since we posted the first part of our Canadian and American spelling list! As before, we're using the Canadian Oxford Dictionary for Canadian spelling and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary for American spelling. Once again, you'll notice that some words are spelled the same in both systems.   And here a confession: we're relying heavily on the Editors' Association of...

Usage

We have been absolutely inundated with work this week at TEC! Because of our crazy schedules, we're re-posting one of our most useful blogs. Barbara wrote this blog over a year ago, but it's still just as applicable today as it was last year! Hyphens can be confusing and tough to work with, even for more practiced writers. We hope you'll be able to refer back to this...

Language & Editing

It's April Fool's Day, and in lieu of pulling pranks, we've got humour of a more literary nature in mind.  With April being National Poetry Month (and in the spirit of today), we thought we'd post a funny little poem Barbara found and shared around the office! As well, Poem in My Pocket Day is coming to Canada for the first time this year, on April 21—perhaps you'd like to...

Language & Editing

  A 2012 article by Bruce McCall in Vanity Fair attempted to unravel the secret of Canadian humour (or "humor" as the magazine spelled it). The question was raised as to whether such a thing even existed.   Canadian author Terry Fallis had success with his comic novel The Best Laid Plans, an amusing tale of political tomfoolery amongst some honourable MPs in Ottawa. Contrast this with Going Rouge: The...

Language & Editing

  Vive la Différence! We all know that there's a difference between Canadian and American spelling,* and many of us have a basic grasp of the patterns, such as "-our/-or," "-re/er," or "-yse/yze. " But certainty usually ends somewhere around here, and unless you consult a dictionary, you may end up making rather haphazard spelling choices. "Does that look right? Um . I think so . Yeah, whatever. "   To...

Books And Reading

  Oscar season might be over, but the many great movies that were nominated are still just as fantastic today as they were before the Oscars happened. If you're one of those people who are serious about Oscar season, you might still be participating in the annual Oscar challenge: watch every single nominee. In case you're still trying to remember just how many movies that is, the total is...

Office Happenings

  As some of you may know, I am taking a hiatus from editing this spring, as I'm expecting my first baby to arrive any day now.   Although this pregnancy has been no fairy tale – thanks mostly to many months of morning sickness – the past nine months have nonetheless turned out to have quite a literary theme. I've spent this time editing books here at TEC, working...

Writing

  An editor is an expert at revising collections of written words. In fact, one French term for editor is "réviseur. " As a professional editor, revising someone else's text is part of my job. But as a writer, I love revising my own work, and all writers should learn to do this.   The American journalist Ambrose Bierce said that a saint was a just sinner who had been...

Writing

  While drafting the February edition of the TEC newsletter, I found myself flipping through Beth's collection of Editorial Eye back issues, searching for inspiration for our monthly Editors' Tip. I came across an interesting article on transition usage, and there was just too much useful information to fit into one newsletter tip. So, I decided to include the rest of the information in a blog, especially since transitions...

Indexing

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, established on June 1, 2008, issued its final report on December 15, 2015. In over two thousand pages of text (plus hundreds of pages of notes and references), it documents the horrors of Canada's residential school system. The report is, to put it mildly, a very tough read. To read even more than a few pages of it is a crushing experience....

Writing

When reading a document, there are any number of writing errors or distractions that can take you out of the moment and interrupt the flow of your reading. The error I will discuss today is word repetition: how it occurs, and, more importantly, how to avoid it. Read It Out Loud You may have the memory of former teachers or professors scrawling "Word rep!" on your essays, papers, and reports...

Office Happenings

Happy 2016! The end of the year allowed us to take some time to rest, relax, and recharge. We hope your holidays were great and, like us, you are now getting back into the swing of things.     December marked the publication of our first Academic Newsletter, which contains resources, calls for papers, and a list of our most recent projects, specifically tailored to our academic clients. Look...

Usage

  Below are a few of the most common punctuation-related errors or inconsistencies that we see here at TEC. Here is what you need to keep in mind to help keep your prose correct and consistent!                 . ...

Books And Reading

Triptych: From the Greek adjective meaning "three-fold": tri = three, ptysso = to fold, or ptyx = fold. Usually a panel painting that is divided into three sections and hinged together to be folded shut or displayed open. The middle panel is typically the largest and is flanked by two smaller related works, although there are triptychs of equal-sized panels.    Margaret Atwood (MA) has been a...

Editing

The holiday season is like a mercifully distant relative who visits only once a year; I am always glad to see her arrive and always gladder to see her go. Now she is indeed gone, leaving behind bloated waistlines, glassy eyes, and pounding heads. And about time, I say. Good riddance to archaic holiday language until next year. How do you troll a Yuletide carol anyway?...