Julian Cribb, Director, National Awareness, CSIRO, who has been a journalist and newspaper editor since 1969, will speak to us at the society's meeting on 29 August. Come to the Friends' Lounge of the National Library at 6.00 for 6.30 p.m. for a fascinating talk on the perils of the junk information age.
We are fortunate that Iain Brown, co-founder of the Electric Editors email community, is visiting Australia from UK. He will address our next general meeting, on 25 July at 6.30 pm at the Friends' Lounge of the National Library, following the usual opportunity for socialising from 6.00 pm.
Iain is the Lecturer in Electronic Communication and Publishing at University College London where he runs an MA degree looking at the theoretical and practical use and availability of electronic information. lain is also involved with publishing societies, charities and projects other than the Electric Editors, and has worked for several international publishers.
After the meeting, Lee will take Iain to Tim's Restaurant at the Italo-Australian Club, Forrest, and members of the audience are welcome to join them.
Next meeting
The President's column
Our case for CASE
Editing the Word
By the way...
National notes
Editors rebel!
Bureau jargon
Membership notes
New © ruling
More editing courses
Electric Editors
Weird science
Dates for your diary
Copyright and deadlines
Blandishments in the form of door prizes and extra fuel may have helped to bring a good turnout for our June meeting, but time did not let us get past the first three items on the agenda.
Consensus is hard to reach in open meetings unless precise motions are put to the gathering and there have been prior discussions; nevertheless some interesting opinions came forward. It is clear that accreditation is desirable enough to some for them to consider paying higher membership fees towards its achievement at a national level. During a consideration of the structure that would ensure maximum efficiency for the Council of Australian Societies of Editors (CASE), it was proposed that the initial C be dropped and the current body be abandoned altogether in favour of an Australian Society of Editors with state branches. These state branches would still have the autonomy to run their local activities, but the national association would handle matters of mutual interest to the profession in Australia. This is not a new concept but it is worth debating to see if it would suit us.
On the other hand, we have the model of the Standards Working Group (essentially a subcommittee of CASE), which summoned enough will and energy to bring about our first truly national achievement. So the prevailing system does work, even if it could use some fine-tuning.
To help us move ahead on some of the issues of national importance, we're giving all members of the society a chance to record their opinions. 'Not another survey', I hear you moan. Well yes, but we've deliberately kept it short and to the point-and we hope that you'll return it to the PO Box address or bring it along to the July meeting.
Changing the subject, freelance editors rejoice! The battle between web and print brought about a happy decision at the last committee meeting. As a service to members, and to fulfil a demonstrated need among prospective employers, we've decided to take all entries for the freelance register and all those recorded on the web site and publish them in a new print edition, FREE. So, as soon as you can, get your details to Margaret Pender, mcpender@ozemail.com.au. We want to get this on shelves as soon as possible so the final deadline is absolutely the last week in August. Any cheques already tendered will be returned or reimbursed.
After a rocky start that delayed his departure from the UK, Iain Brown, a moderator of Electric Editors (composed of LANGline, EDline and Grapevine), has reached Australian shores. The good news for us is that he has agreed to speak at the July meeting. I'm sure a great many of you are subscribers to these truly invaluable lists and would like to meet the man himself. If you're not already in the fraternity I know that you will want to be, after hearing what lain has to say. Elizabeth Murphy and I will be taking him to dinner afterwards to a delicious Chinese banquet at Tim's Restaurant in the Italo-Australian Club. Please join us. To better plan the meal, Tim would like to know in advance how many will be at table so please call me on 6262 1551 or email lkirwan@nla.gov.au, up to 24 July if you are coming.
Lee Kirwan
CASE, the Council of Australian Societies of Editors, was formed in 1998. It consists of the presidents of all the eight societies, or their delegates, and meets at least once a year, generally in Melbourne or Sydney. The societies each pay a proportion of the costs of CASE, according to their membership income. CASE has three subcommittees, including the Standards Committee that recently published the nationally approved Australian Standards for Editing Practice. The other subcommittees deal with accreditation, and education and training.
About 32 members of the society met on 27 June to discuss the four resolutions devised at the recent 'Partnerships in Knowledge' conference for urgent discussion by CASE. In outline, CASE is being asked to consider (a) its own structure and role; (b) training and accreditation; (c) publicity for the national editing standards, and a review process for them; (d) contact with the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee to seek a ruling on the ethics involved in editing undergraduate and postgraduate work. Lee Kirwan and Pamela Hewitt moderated the meeting. Discussion was brisk, and focused on points (a) and (b) above, but time ran out before we had talked about the remaining two points.
First on the list of topics was the composition of CASE and how much we are prepared to spend on its operation each year. Lee Kirwan said that at present the members of CASE change regularly, but if CASE is to drive the long-term task of developing training and accreditation it will need more continuity of membership. There could be extra members from each society who stay on CASE for several years, or a paid national secretary or director. Some of the audience at our meeting supported the idea of a paid central coordinator, and described successful models used by other professional societies. Other people objected to the rise in membership subscriptions that such a paid position would entail. One member would like to see the societies combine into one national society, ASE, with eight branches; several others agreed with him. Teleconferencing was suggested as an option for CASE meetings, but the conclusion was that it is not as effective as meeting face-to-face*. Pamela Hewitt put forward the idea that CASE should have a web site on which national matters could be discussed.
As one member said, a way of looking at the question of national coordination is to ask how much are we prepared to pay, in membership subscriptions, to get a suitable accreditation scheme into operation. Another member said that the full costs of accreditation are high. Accreditation, it was pointed out, is not a one-off affair. Members mentioned other professional societies that have ongoing assessment. In these societies, an accredited member must report a certain amount of professional development each year to maintain accreditation; the initial accreditation comes from qualifications, experience and competence.
'Does training have to come via a university degree?' it was asked. In fact, most editing courses available at present are at postgraduate or TAFE level. 'If courses are already in operation, why can't their teaching staff be asked to declare whether or not their courses comply with our national standards?' asked another member. This seems a sensible approach; however, it was commented that if the editors' societies recommend courses on that basis, they will also be relying on the course organisers' ability to understand the depth intended by the standards. When one remembers that editing courses range from one eight-hour day to two years in length, it is clear that courses can vary hugely in their substance.
Issues other than training are involved in accreditation, but not all were discussed at our meeting. If CASE establishes an accreditation mechanism, what form will it take?* Who is to run and maintain it? Should it be partly based on experience? Should it have several levels (e.g. proofreading, copy editing, structural editing, online editing)? Can a new member be a full member if they fail an accreditation test? If an aspiring member fails the test, should they be directed to a course to build up their skills? Should there be a sunset clause for existing members? How much would members pay to go through a process of accreditation? Who accredits the accreditors?* How shall we assess the performance of the scheme?*
Some of the information below may be useful for readers as they answer the survey included in this newsletter (see also President's column, page 3). The asterisks above indicate points derived from Cathy Gray's report on the April conference and on previous work done by the NSW society's accreditation working group when she was president. The report was in the June issue of Blue Pencil.
Renée Otmar of the Society of Editors (Victoria), the education and training representative for CASE, has made an informal study of education and training needs for editors in Australia. She presented the results at the 'Partnerships in Knowledge' conference in April and in the May 2001 issue of her society's newsletter. According to that article, vocational education and training are offered mainly by the TAFE/CIT system, while professional development is available in four postgraduate diplomas - in NSW; Queensland and Victoria. Otherwise the societies and some educational bodies run occasional short courses/seminars/workshops. From her study, Renée observes that editors want a unified national system of accreditation; and an approach to vocational education and training with a national focus, with courses specifically designed for editors. Renée talked to the president and/or representatives of each society to gain her information. For some other information on courses, see below.
At our meeting, as part of general business, Pamela Hewitt reported preliminary results of a survey she had distributed at the 'Partnerships in Knowledge' conference. Forty-four editors responded: ACT 14, WA 12, Victoria 7, Queensland 6, NSW 4 and SA 1. In outline, the respondents:
Pamela will continue to collect responses from all the societies (combined Australian membership of approximately 1300), and will circulate and web-mount a detailed analysis later in 2001.
Ann Milligan
When people ask me what I do for a living I answer hesitantly that I am an editor. The questions that usually follow are: 'What do you edit?' 'What type of books?' 'Translations of what type of books?.' Translations of what?' I get some interesting responses when I tell people that I edit translations of the Bible.
The Bible Society in Australia is part of an international network of almost 120 Bible Societies working in about 200 countries. Each Bible Society translates, publishes and distributes the Bible in its own country, and contributes in various ways to projects in other countries. Publications can range from complete Bibles to compilations of biblical 'books', or just a few paragraphs. They can be in print, electronic, audio or film format.
The three full-time editors based at the Translation and Text Division in Canberra have a unique role in the Asia-Pacific region. They provide editorial and technical support to numerous translation teams in Australia, Papua New Guinea, the South and South-West Pacific, and parts of South-East Asia. The translation teams are located in many countries from Burma across to the Marshall Islands and from Western Australia across to the Cook Islands.
Between them, the editors have editorial responsibility for about 30 translation projects. Some of these projects are complete Bibles with introductions, glossaries, maps, illustrations, footnotes, cross references and the like. Others are smaller first-time translations of a few biblical 'books'. Some of the more challenging projects include the Kriol Bible (the first time an Australian Aboriginal community will have a full Bible); the Indigenous Bible (several Australian Aboriginal translations compiled as one Bible); the Auslan ' Australian Sign language' mini-Bible on video (the first major translation into Auslan); and the Bible in braille individual books produced for several people in parts of the South Pacific (a very labour intensive project).
For print translations, the editor's work entails receiving the translation as handwritten text or - if you are lucky - electronic text, and preparing it for review and publication. In the first instance, the editor goes through the text, codes it for the typesetting program, and sets up the page according to the project specifications (page size, font size, etc.). The editor then checks that all the chapters and verses are accounted for, and checks that footnotes and cross references are appropriately placed. The editor also checks for inconsistencies in spelling, punctuation and layout. This process is usually done over several proofs and many years. The editors face many challenges not least of all the fact that they are editing the Word of God in a language unfamiliar to them. The editors must be careful not to change or lose any words or verses inadvertently; to do so would depart from the original translation and change the meaning of the text. For many Christian communities the Bible is a sacred and authoritative text, the cornerstone of a person's faith. The editors must treat this text with extreme care.
In addition, the editors must consider the audience. For example, some communities have poor eyesight and therefore require a very large font. This is no mean feat; a large font requires large page sizes and with such a large volume (and some very long words!) this can be awkward. The editors must also consider how the Bible will be used, and advise the publishing Bible Society about the most appropriate 'packaging'. For example, in dry and dusty areas such as outback Australia the volume must be hardwearing; in other places the volume must be able to withstand high humidity. All the while the editors must be conscious that the publishing Bible Society may have only a very small budget.
The indigenous translators often can give only a certain amount of their time each year to translate and review. As a result, translations can take a very long time to complete (some have been known to take up to 20 years!). In addition, the translators generally do not have access to telephones or computers. Therefore, all material and correspondence must be left to the perils of 'snail mail'. And then of course there is the frustration of time; frequently the editors need to juggle several projects at the same time. It is not surprising that I hesitate when asked what I do for a living. In many ways my experience as an editor is very different from those of most others. However, despite all the challenges and frustrations, the job is worthwhile. At the end of the day, it brings me a great deal of satisfaction and joy to know that I am helping people to read and understand the Bible in a language that is familiar to them and in a format they can use.
Susannah Hill
When I went to school and university, it was understood that every word I wrote in an essay or assignment was my own - that nobody had helped me with it at all. The only exception was that I could show a draft to my tutor who would check my thinking and guide me to the research tools available in the libraries. School essays would be shown to Mum and Dad, but only after they'd been marked. University assignments and theses grew out of a deep interest in a particular field of study, and were on topics that would stretch one's knowledge or even break through the existing boundaries of knowledge. They were written with words chosen carefully to give meaning and impact to the arguments propounded, nurtured through draft after draft, then checked and double-checked for spelling, grammar, typos, layout.
Never did anything I ever wrote at school or university get into the hands of an editor. But I was lucky - I was taught well. It's been different since then. Many students have come through a school system that has neglected to teach them how to think and how to write. They have ideas, but their ideas are tumbling over themselves for expression. They have little idea of order or of reason or of a logical presentation of material in writing. They don't know how to put a complete sentence together - and they often don't care about these details. It is so bad that I have heard university lecturers in leading MBA courses say 'We have given up - we have to award marks for content and ignore the way it's presented, or nobody would pass'. Perhaps that's what's needed - for nobody to pass.
Instead, editors have come to the rescue. Is this right? My feeling is that the student's work should be identifiably the student's work, including the writing. I have no hesitation in helping a student to structure an assignment - from outline through several drafts - that's tutoring, not editing.
But when the assignment is 'finished', I baulk at re-structuring or rewriting whole slabs of text because the fundamentals of planning, emphasis, appropriate citation and coverage of the question still haven't been addressed. For students who are familiar with English, I hesitate to do more than proofread and suggest improvements at such a late stage in the production of an assignment. Students whose English is a second or third language, and students visiting from other cultures need special assistance. I don't think it's fair to compare the two.
Should we edit at all? Should we edit selectively? Should we combine editing with tutoring/mentoring in the necessary thinking and writing skills? How should such assistance be acknowledged?
Yes, I think we should edit students' work, but I think we should be careful to tell the student how much we are prepared to do while ensuring that the student retains ownership of the writing. Yes, if we're competent to do so, 1 think we should guide the student in the skills that will help him or her to do better next time. However, we're not all teachers, so if this isn't your bag, don't attempt it. Acknowledgement is important. When 1 was running a Study Skills Centre in Canberra, I devised a statement that all students were obliged to include on the cover sheets of their submissions if they received editorial help. It read something like 'I acknowledge that I received editorial assistance from XX (phone or other contact for the editor)'. The lecturer was then able, if necessary, to contact the editor personally to ask just how much assistance was given to the student.
While I can advise a student on how to overcome thinking and writing problems, I would not dream of changing the substance significantly, if that's what the student finally means to say. It's a fine line and sometimes difficult to draw.
Elizabeth M. Murphy
Taking up an idea from a member of the NSW society, 'National notes' will feature snippets from around the country. This month: Western Australia (based on information from Amanda Curtin, president of the WA society).
The Society of Editors (WA) Inc. has been actively recruiting recently, with the result that there are now 65 members. Its new flier lists these benefits of membership: professional development, networking, a listing in the Society's Register of editors, and being involved in developing the proposed national accreditation scheme.
Monthly meeting topics this year have included the publisher's expectation of the editor's role, punctuation, marketing the editing profession, e-publishing and e-books. The web site (under reconstruction just now) carries the latest issue of the Society's newsletter Book Worm, and other information. We will give you the new address next month, once it has been confirmed.
Would you consider forming an Apostrophe Protection Society? John Richard, a retired English copy editor has done just that in Boston, a Lincolnshire town where apparently the local merchants run riot with their grammar. Notices like apple's and pear's, chip's and pea's, appear everywhere. In defence of grammar john founded the Apostrophe Protection Society with his son Stephen and they set out to enlighten the local merchants on the error of their ways. Letters went to offenders, including a librarian, politely setting them straight on the difference between the plural and the possessive.
The Canberra Times (04/06/0 I) reports that the national Daily Telegraph rewarded them with a supportive article and suddenly they were inundated with letters and expressions of support while letters of apostrophe outrage dominated the paper's letters page. Reports of further apostrophe atrocities included: golden deliciou's, in Romford; and chip's, pea's, roll's and egg's,advertised at Bennys Café [sic], in Wratting in Suffolk.
So, says the Daily Telegraph, hang on in there editors, you are not alone in your struggle to save the language from bastardisation. After all, 'without the correct use of the apostrophe it would be impossible to know whether the Pedant's/Pedants' Society was a brave one man band or if there were quite a few of them out there'.
Another defender of the language is Michael Jacobs, who writes in June's Australian Book Review protesting against the use of 'they' as the third person singular pronoun. This is a familiar complaint and Jacob's reiterates the usual arguments. As he says, the usage is no passing fad, and it is easy to understand why not. It is the simplest solution to the problem of the inclusive pronoun. He/She is an abomination, 'that person' is pedantic, though the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel in South Australia uses it in legislation, where it is probably acceptable.
I agree with him that recasting is not always satisfactory and can lead to a more passive voice or lessen the impact of the text. Jacob's wearily says he is now resigned to the fact that we will get used to it being used as a singular pronoun because we have to, and he's probably right. The question is: though we might come to recognise its use as a singular pronoun, can we really, in our editorial heart of hearts, ever view it with anything but disdain? (but see also the Attorney General's views, up on our web site since June last year!)
Sylvia Marchant
'What I intend to do as facilitator is steer an enlightened course through a whole raft of conceptual presentations so that at the end of the day we will present a formulated bottom line resonant with best practice.'
Contributed by Colin Watson
Other contributed examples of bureaucrats' writing will be
welcome.
The society welcomes Colin Boreham and Eileen Dallwitz as associate members, and the following people as new full members:
Lee-Ling Sim now edits tax time publications for the Taxation Office, but formerly she was a scientific editor at the Rubber Research Institute in Malaysia and later with NSW Agriculture in Orange.
Wynne Russell has edited display material for the Australian War Memorial and the quarterly magazine Wartime. At present she edits for English language consultants based in Hong Kong, and a range of other clients.
Hélène Attrill edits Guides for the National Archives of Australia, and has written and edited for the Department of the Parliamentary Reporting Staff in the past.
Janelle Caiger currently edits at The Bible Society in Australia.
Gary Cameron edits for the Australian Taxation Office and formerly worked for Heinemann Education and Penguin Books Australia.
Kaaren Sephton and Ray Adam are a writing and editing team with 20 years experience in the printing industry (Ray).
We regretfully farewell longtime member Leonore Hardy and founding member Sandy Paine. Sandy was an accomplished treasurer and Leonore worked wonders with the Freelance Register. Thanks for your skills, help and patience, and good luck for the future.
If freelance writers have sold articles to print media, their permission is needed before those media can make those same articles available separately as text in an online database or on a CD-ROM. This is a new ruling from the Supreme Court of the United States, in Washington DC. Seven of the nine Supreme Court judges agreed that freelance material that has once appeared in print cannot be reused in electronic form without further permission from the author(s) and, possibly, further fees.
This decision may take away material available on the Internet. Before the decision, large publishers said that they would simply remove affected material from online access, to save having to obtain extra permissions and possibly pay extra fees. It remains to be seen what they will actually do now.
Articles and photographs and illustrations published about ten years ago or earlier are the ones at issue. Recent material is provided for by the wording of recent freelance contracts, but the contracts for older works did not foresee that technological changes would alter the ways in which information can be accessed.
Works by freelance writers that were originally printed as part of a particular collection of items cannot be termed revisions under the copyright law when they are republished individually and in electronic form, according to the court.
Ann Milligan (from articles contributed by Pamela Hewitt)
For those who have a first degree and want training in editing and publishing, the three courses below are available, as well as others described in recent issues of the newsletter.
You can study for a Master of Arts in Publishing or a Graduate Diploma of Arts (Publishing & Editing) at Monash University in Melbourne. At RMIT in Melbourne you can earn a Graduate Diploma in Editing and Publishing in a course that has the support of the Society of Editors (Victoria) and the Australian Publishers Association. None of these courses seems to offer distance education.
The web site descriptions of the three university courses are similar, but the Masters seems to produce potential managers of publishing firms, while the two Graduate Diplomas appear to provide skills suitable for editors, managers, publishers and small publishing businesses. These three courses take two years part-time (Monash courses can be one year full-time) and cost about $6600 each.
For further information, check the web sites: http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/ncas/teach/pubed/ (Monash Diploma), http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/about/communications/postgrad/grad_publishing.html (Monash Masters), http://ac.rmit.edu.au/ (RMIT Diploma).
Ann Milligan (from information contributed by Maureen Wright and Greg Baker)
John Bangsund described the Electric Editors' email lists for our email discussion list recently. He joined in 1997, and has found their Grapevine list (concerned with anything to do with computers that affects editors) most useful. EDline, concerned with general editorial matters, is less useful and much less active, but is worth subscribing to, he says-if only for Nick Hudson's comments. LANGline is for editors involved mainly in translation work. The three lists are posted as individual messages or weekly digests (your choice) John recommends an as-they-come subscription to Grapevine (that is, individual messages). He finds the weekly EDline digest sufficient, but says that if you want to join the discussion you should choose the as-they-come option. Visit the Electric Editors' web site (http://www.electriceditors.net) to join up.
School students have trouble distinguishing words, it seems. A teacher sent these examples to the science communicators' email list
'The body consists of three parts - the branium, the borax, and the abominable cavity. The branium contains the brain, the borax contains the heart and lungs, and the abominable cavity contains the bowels, of which there are five - a, e, i, o and u.''Three kinds of blood vessels are arteries, vanes and caterpillars.'
'The pistol of a flower is its only protection against insects.'
'Momentum: what you give a person when they are going away.'
25 July Society's July meeting
31 July Last date for return of enclosed survey form
27-31 August Final week for freelance register entries
29 August Society's August meeting
The Canberra Editor is published by the Canberra Society of Editors, PO Box 3222, Manuka ACT 2603.
Copyright: Canberra Society of Editors 2001
ISSN 1039-3358
The deadline for the next regular issue is
30 July 2001.
Mail contributions on a 3.5 inch disk, using Word for Windows
(essential) or email (preferable) to:
Ann Milligan
Science Text Processors Canberra
PO Box 3161, Belconnen MDC, ACT 2617
phone/fax: (02) 6259 3080
email: scientex@actonline.com.au
If mailing, always provide a printout as well.
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