Language & Editing

Lately there has been a fair bit of news coverage dedicated to Canadian English as a language—what it is, why it’s important, and how it fits in as part of our culture. But while our use of “eh” as a fitting end to a sentence and our (alleged) habit of pronouncing “about” as “aboot” might be what we’re most known for internationally, many Canadians might not realize some of...

Office Happenings / Social Media & Community

It is mid-July and FIFA has come and gone (sorry, Argentina)!   In June, we attended several informative professional conferences and reported our findings in a series of blogs: the Berkshire Conference on Women Historians; the Editors’ Association of Canada’s Conference; and the Indexing Society’s Annual Conference.   Team editor Lesley-Anne ran her first 5K ever (congratulations, Lesley-Anne!) and is training for her second run of the season. Our intern...

Business

Part of my job here at TEC is keeping up with some of the company’s social media outlets—namely, Pinterest and senior editor Beth’s business Twitter account. This means that a big chunk of my Wednesday each week is spent scouring the Internet for new stories, entrepreneurial tips and tricks, and out-of-the-box business stories to share with others.   I read a lot of business articles and online information that offer...

Editing

“Tracking Change: e-Merging Methods and Markets” was the theme of the Editors’ Association of Canada Conference held in Toronto this past June. Well over 200 delegates from across the country attended informative sessions, panels, and workshops on topics pertinent to navigating the changing publishing landscape.   The key message: adapt and flourish. Learn the new technologies, explore new ways of doing things, and build a strategy. In case...

Indexing

Back in 1990, Craig Brown, columnist for the Times Saturday Review, wrote, “When I tell people that I am working on an index for a book, they tend to hang their heads in sorrow. ” Reaction to the news that I was planning to attend this year’s two-day indexing conference in early June was similar. What, my friends wondered, could possibly be the attraction of an event with the...

Office Happenings

The Library   One of my first jobs was working in a library in downtown Toronto. Every morning after riding the packed subway then dodging pedestrians and honking cars, I slipped through the great doors and entered a world of peace … and quiet. Outside, the furious city roared on, while I found refuge in a soaring atrium that rose up seven floors. Carpet hugged the stairs from top...

Editing

So, you’ve decided you want to be an editor. You love books, working with words, and maybe even enjoy all the grammar rules that might drive other people insane. You have visions of working on beautiful manuscripts, possibly while sitting in front of a fire, or at a great big desk stacked with books. I know you’ve had these visions, because I had them too.   Working...

Event

The 16th Berkshire Conference of Women Historians was held in Toronto this past week. It was the first time in its 70-year history that the conference was held outside the United States. The host institution was University College on the University of Toronto campus. Over a four-day period — Thursday to Sunday — 2,000 delegates from around the world met to discuss and explore the dynamic history...

Technology

For months, I’ve been pondering the notion of buying an e-reader: should I buy one, and if so, which? I’m so late to this party, and still, I’m standing outside on the porch, my index finger hovering in front of the doorbell, reluctant to push it. When I mentioned my ponderings to TEC senior editor Beth, she offered to let me borrow TEC’s resident e-readers, a Kindle Touch and a Kobo...

Office Happenings

Finally! Spring has arrived in Toronto, and with it comes a host of professional conferences: the Berkshire Conference on the History of Women runs from May 22 to 25; the Editors’ Association of Canada’s Conference is scheduled for June 6 to 8; the Indexing Society’s annual conference is June 5 and 6; and Book Summit is on June 19. For more info, visit our homepage.   Meanwhile, here at The...

Book Reviews

  Back when I was learning the nuts and bolts of copyediting, one of the tenets our instructor came back to repeatedly was “The Five Cs”: our goal as copy editors should always be to render text that is correct, consistent, clear, concise, and complete.  So when I spotted a slim volume entitled The Subversive Copy Editor on a colleague’s shelf, I was instantly intrigued.   Editorial subterfuge? Track changes turned...

Language & Editing

Why do Canadians persist in spelling certain words the way we do? Is it a Canadian quirk that we keep all of our British “-our”endings but also borrow the “-izes” from our American neighbours? Maybe like the cliché often used to describe us — we’re just too darn nice. Maybe we just want to get along with everybody.   Maybe … but sometimes it is annoying to work with American...

Office Happenings

I call my decision to change careers in mid-life my “second beginning. ” I realize it’s an oxymoron, but for me it defines the place where I now am. It’s also about coming full circle and being a late bloomer. I grew up surrounded by books and newspapers, and I was a secret writer who dreamed of having her first novel published by the age of 21. ...

Office Happenings

It’s hard to believe that the first three months of 2014 are heading into the fourth. Spring for most of us still hasn’t arrived, but hope springs eternal, and won’t it be grand when it arrives? And with it comes some great conferences—The Editors’ Association of Canada’s annual conference is in Toronto this June, and the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians will be at the University of Toronto in...

Editing Numbers

   As TEC’s business editor, I edit a variety of documents containing in-text, tabled, charted, and graphed calculations, statistics, or results. I love working with numbers (I even used to be a math teacher), but through my business editing experience, I’ve learned that some numbers are much nicer to work with than others.   Basically, the easier your numbers are to read, the quicker and more accurate your editor’s check of...

Editing

In the world of editing, the exchange between authors and editors is a conversation, not in spoken words but in written words. It takes place through the editing process when a manuscript exchanges hands at least twice between the editor and the author. It is a conversation that teaches both the editor and the author. The editor learns about the author’s subject, and the author learns how...

Guest Blogger

I wish to share my experience about writing my first book. Picking up my first run of 30 copies, seeing the cover, seeing the barcode, realizing that this is real and that I am now a published author has been a very rewarding experience.     Deciding to Write   I had put writing a book on my bucket list about 10 years ago. I started to write a fiction novel in...

Office Happenings

  It's January 2014! From all of us here at The Editing Company, many good wishes for a prosperous New Year.   We’ve had a busy few weeks — not to mention the ice storm that swept through the City of Toronto on December 20. Many, many of us were without power, some for as long as 10 days. Now that the holidays (and, for the moment, storms) are behind...

Language & Editing

There’s no question that, for better or worse, texting has brought about a whole new kind of written communication. Certainly, the way we speak heavily influences the way we text. But what should we think about our increasing tendency to speak the way we text? Some Examples A former colleague of mine was fond of saying "BRB" when she left the office. While there's absolutely no doubt that she,...

Language & Editing

As editors, we use style guides and resources for particular projects to ensure that we follow consistent guidelines. Every now and then acquaintances ask me for simple answers to questions about grammar and spelling. I often have to say that “there is no right or wrong response; the answer to the question will depend on a few factors. ” Yes, it’s true that sometimes there are clear answers when...

Business

With the advent of self-publishing, authors are seeking out good advice from editors who can help them navigate the process. There is so much to know when setting out to self-publish your own work.   Here at TEC, we have edited the works of several self-published authors. Each one has brought a different set of questions and concerns to our attention. Based on these discussions, I would like...

Guest Blogger

This year, after many years of procrastination, failing, and heartbreak, I decided to give myself one last chance at success: I was going to win NaNoWriMo.   For those unfamiliar with this perilous and crazy endeavour, NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month: www. nanowrimo. org) is a challenge that comes about every November and entails writing 50,000 words in a 30-day period. All these words should amount to a novel, or...

Business

When I launched my small business over five years ago, I took a course at the Toronto Business Development Centre. One of the first things I learned was this: be sure you have three good people in your corner — a good bookkeeper, a good accountant, and a good lawyer.   I have been fortunate to have met and worked with each of these professionals over the past five years....

Language & Editing

 I’d like to take a look at two pairs of words that are increasingly, incorrectly interchanged. No, I’m not talking about your/you’re and it’s/its — not that it doesn’t hurt a little inside every time I read “your welcome” in online correspondence, or when a parking lot sign tells me that “Management is not responsible for any vehicle or it’s contents. ” No, these are two pairs of words that,...