Category: Skills

Posted on

Effective Onscreen Editing: Vol 4 of 4

Geoff Hart

Identifying additions and deletions

One of the thornier problems in moving to onscreen editing involves communicating your proposed changes to authors—and I use the words communicating and proposed advisedly. Few of us have the authority to simply impose changes; most of us must let authors review and perhaps reject our edits. Since whatever corrections you make onscreen will look just like the text the author originally typed unless you somehow make the comments stand out, how do you identify where you’ve made a change? By making the appearance of what you type differ from what the author typed.

Continue reading “Effective Onscreen Editing: Vol 4 of 4”

Posted on

Electronic Prepress Viewed by a Book Editor

Cynthia Thompson

Introduction

Since I entered publishing in the early 1980s as an editor for a small publisher of religious books, computers have caused immense changes in the business. Many elements of the editor’s duties in prepress have been transformed by:
(1) electronic submission,
(2) electronic workflow management,
(3) desktop electronic operation, and
(4) electronic proofing.

Continue reading “Electronic Prepress Viewed by a Book Editor”

Posted on

Discovering the Field of Scientific Editing

Nancy Titus Napierala

I had no idea that technical editing could be a career path, yet that is what I learned when I took a class in this field as a graduate student at Northern Illinois University. Considering for the first time the possibility of specializing in the field of technical communication, I recalled my impression that scientific writing and editing must be highly difficult and specialized. People with traditional humanities backgrounds (like mine) are also thought to be averse to anything connected with such hard sciences as mathematics, chemistry, physics, or engineering. Yet I had already experienced another seemingly high-tech field — accounting.

Continue reading “Discovering the Field of Scientific Editing”

Posted on

The Editor as Leader: How Expanding Your Role Can Boost Your Profession, Your Employer, and Your Career

Marcy Pack

Whether you are a full-time editor or simply someone who believes in the importance of editorial vigilance, you have a lot to gain by becoming a visible leader. Even if you’re not in a supervisory position, taking an active role in stressing the value of high-quality editing can improve your company’s products, boost the reputation of the editing profession, and often provide some payoffs in your career as well.

Continue reading “The Editor as Leader: How Expanding Your Role Can Boost Your Profession, Your Employer, and Your Career”

Posted on

Ask the Editor: With Geoff Hart

Geoff Hart

Q: Are there any good online discussion resources for editors other than copyediting-l?

A: A colleague recently pointed me towards “EDline”, a discussion group run by the “Electric Editors”. I haven’t had the time to monitor the group and form a personal opinion, but I’ve heard good things about this group over the years from colleagues whose opinions I respect. EDline deals with editorial matters, covering everything from spelling and hyphenation queries to business issues of relevance to freelances.

To subscribe send a blank e-mail to: ee_edline-subscribe@listbot.com or send a message to ElectricEds@bigfoot.com with “Subscribe EDline” in the subject line.

As with all mailing lists, turn off your e-mail software’s signature feature before sending the message to reduce the risk of confusing the list management software.

Do you have a question related to editing? Send any short query that you’d like to appear in the newsletter to my work e-mail address geoff-h@mtl.feric.ca with the subject line “Ask the Editor.”