Next meeting
The President's column
'Listen to the song in the work'
Editing at UTS
Post-graduate Certificate in Editing (Macquarie University)
By the way...
A Blue Nurse is not a shark
EndNote
Important Word information for Mac users
'Styles: the Gollum of onscreen editing'
News and notes
Dates for your diary
Subscriptions are now due!
Copyright information
(for the purposes of this newsletter) was 27 June
During the 'Partnerships in Knowledge' conference in April, editors from all over Australia discussed matters that are common to us all. The conference then drafted four resolutions to be put to CASE (Council of Australian Societies of Editors) for immediate attention. They concern: national coordination; moves to accreditation; the new standards, and a protocol for work on university theses. See our previous newsletter for more detail.
Now, it is time for all members of our Society to pool our ideas and expectations, so that Lee Kirwan, our president, can speak on our behalf at the imminent CASE meeting.
Come to the Friends' Lounge at the National Library of Australia on Wednesday 27 June at 6 p.m. (meeting starts 6.30 p.m.) for a structured discussion, with the aim of producing a Canberra viewpoint on each of the resolutions. There will be finger food and wine as usual, and intriguing door prizes to stimulate the grey matter.
I hope you will agree that our meetings this year have been interesting and varied.
It was a delight to share ideas over lunch with the interstate editors who attended our joint conference in April, and we have had some excellent speakers: Dr Anna Gray, now head of Australian Art at the National Gallery of Australia; Dr Tom Frame, recently elevated to Bishop of the Defence Forces; Gail MacCallum of the publishing firm Duffy & Snellgrove and her friend Ashley Hay, Assistant Editor of the Bulletin and author of a book about Lord Byron's wife. The last two brought their fresh ideas and keen perceptions of the current publishing scene down the track from Sydney, to a great turnout.
Now it's time to do some work that will ultimately benefit everyone. The CASE (Council of Australian Societies of Editors) meeting pencilled in for Sydney in June has slipped to August, but the five-point agenda is still in the foreground. The Society of Editors (New South Wales) has surveyed its members for their views and I would like to follow that example by devoting our June meeting to an open discussion of the issues. Your membership subscriptions help to fund CASE, so think of yourselves as shareholders and take this opportunity to record your views. To refresh your collective memory the issues are:
• What structure should CASE adopt to maximise its effectiveness as a national body?
• What types of training are needed to qualify for accreditation, and where are they to be found?
• What form will accreditation take and how will it be administered?
• How should the new Australian Standards for Editing Practice be publicised and reviewed?
• What steps should be taken in opening a dialogue with the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee about the ethics of editing academic theses.
As usual, our catering officer will provide delicious finger food and wine, so come along, call for the roving microphone, and have your say! The session will be moderated in an informal way in case anyone succumbs to excessive eloquence, or passionately held opinions lead to homicidal behaviour.
To end on a practical note-by now every member should have a copy of the Australian Standards for Editing Practice. The society holds backup stocks and extra copies can be obtained from Ann Parkinson for the nominal sum of $5 each.
Lee Kirwan
At the Society's May meeting, Gail MacCallum and Ashley Hay joined us from Sydney for a lively discussion of authors, editing and publishing. Here Alexa McLaughlin summarises the talk, which was called 'Show me a critic without prejudices and I'll show you a case of arrested development: an editor's lament'. It drew a large audience.
Gail is senior commissioning editor at the small innovative publisher Duffy and Snellgrove and she edited Ashley's last book, The Secret, about Lord Byron's marriage. Ashley also has a day job as an assistant editor of the Bulletin.
Speaking about editors, Gail pointed out that editors have been accused of having no respect for true writing, not caring about linguistic flights of fancy, and believing in the essential nature of mundane terms such as 'the' and 'and'. She suggested that 'they really like punctuation, they censor, they nitpick, they may be vampires'.
She relayed the views of Sue Hines of Allen and Unwin, expressed at the recent Canberra Word Festival, that American editors see themselves as 'quarterbacks, generals going into war'. Gail sees this as a defence against authors charging towards editors with difficult manuscripts.
Speaking about authors, Gail likened them to children, although she said that even children see reason eventually. She feels authors have a 'stubbornness which is unseen anywhere in the rest of the universe, clinging onto special protected pieces of interesting grammar, strange narrative'.
She amused us with an example from The Secret where Ashley insisted on including a number of references to a hippo, against her own vehement opposition. However, there's one left-on page 217.
Many authors benefit greatly from editing. Gail cited the crime writer Raymond Carver whose initial drafts contained long involved sentences. It was his editor who whipped them into the readable stories we know.
She said: 'Authors are shockingly jealous, stroppy, rude about each other. They're clearly able to see their own skills but unable to see the art of anyone else.'
Gail identified that some authors will accept an editor's word as law, especially keen first-time authors, and there are those who quibble over every word. But the best ones are those who listen, query and discuss, which is easier for the editor.
Her advice to editors was to 'listen to the song in the work' to understand what the work is about, then communicate that back to the author and build more reasonableness into the process.
Ashley pointed out how much authors depend on editors, and that appropriate thanks are acknowledgments in their books.
She suggested that good editing is about avoiding red ink, and that, instead, a good editor should convince authors that she (or he) likes them and their work. Then the authors may follow editors' advice and trust them, especially about where to stop reworking.
Ashley believes that the best editing is where the end product has only the author's 'voice', even though the editor may have had an impact on every sentence. She likened a good author-editor relationship to a 'good martini', an alchemical mix of two things that should make you fall over but is actually quite nice to experience. She especially enjoys the structural editing conversation.
Speaking about publishing, Gail described the way Duffy and Snellgrove works, retaining editing, design and now publicity in-house. She and Michael Duffy read each book that is being seriously considered for publication, and one of them has to love it, and the other not hate it, for it to be published.
Gail considers there's little market research on the book market in Australia. There's a sense that 'what sells, works'.
There's also a short sales period in Australia-around two months. In the US and UK, approximately 50% of a publisher's income is from its backlist, while in Australia that income is only around 10%.
The average print run in Australia is around 4000 copies and there's a long lead time from commissioning, through advertising, to printing and publication. Because the advertising precedes publication, it's damaging to delay release dates.
Duffy and Snellgrove actively publishes poetry because Gail considers it to be the 'most readable form of writing', though she isn't able to edit it herself. She feels it may be endangered now that poets are being mainly read by other poets and not reaching a wider audience. Duffy and Snellgrove actually receives a large amount of unsolicited poetry, fiction and memoirs. Asked whether many memoirs should not be published, Gail reported comments she gives to young writers' groups. She distinguishes self-expression and communication in writing. She says: 'the question is not whether it's good or bad but whether it's powerful enough'.
When assessing a manuscript, Gail is looking for good writing and she may not read more than 10 or 12 pages unless impressed. Where the writing's good, she may commission on only a good idea. So she asks for a sample of the writing and the idea for a story. Books always have to have a good story and Gail finds it important that a book is specifically located, no matter where.
For nonfiction works, she suggests providing a chapter, a synopsis and a vision statement of what the author wants to achieve with the work. While authors sometimes cherry-pick the best writing from all over a work to submit, she prefers to see the first 60 pages, rather than discontinuous sections, to see how the work flows.
Gail was critical of self-publishing because it often falls down on editing, layout and design, and has such small print runs that not enough review copies are distributed, and marketing is inadequate.
She cited Susan Wyndham of the Sydney Morning Herald saying that it would have to be an extraordinary circumstance for them to review a self-published book because their readers would have to be able to purchase it readily, which is often not the case.
It's not surprising that the subject of authors editing themselves as authors arose at an editors' meeting. Gail was vehement that no authors can edit their own work-a statement with which Ashley didn't completely agree. Gail believes that authors have to let go of critical analysis in order to write effectively, particularly first-time authors. Ashley said that she feels able to edit other people's journalism, but has less confidence about editing her own work.
I've given you many of Gail's colourful descriptions but few of the witty asides and literary quotes which evoked our mirth. At the end her talk I felt we had been warmly entertained and gently informed about the world of writing.
Alexa McLaughlin
The University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) has announced a new Graduate Certificate in Editing and Publishing to begin in 2002. People studying for the certificate are expected to take three subjects on a part-time basis, enabling them to finish it in two or three semesters. The two core subjects are 'Professional Editing' and 'Book Publishing and Marketing'. The third subject can be chosen from the existing UTS subjects 'Narrative Writing' and 'Non-Fiction Writing'.
'Professional Editing' will focus on editing nonfiction manuscripts and literary fiction, with emphasis on editing book-length manuscripts. It can be taken this spring as a non-award subject.
'Book Publishing and Marketing' will provide an understanding of marketing in the publishing industry, especially the marketing of books and magazines.
Information on 'Narrative Writing' and 'Non-Fiction Writing' can be found at http://www.uts.edu.au/div/publications/2000/subjects/, at 50243 and 57031.html, respectively.
Fees for 2002 have not yet been determined but the non-award subject fee for 2001 is $1200. Enrol by 29 June. Greg Baker
I had been employed as a full-time editor for several years before I decided to seek qualifications for my pains. I didn't want much-just an industry-approved part-time or distance course, with a small workload, minimal assessments, interesting topics, and...it had to be cheap. I didn't find anything that matched my criteria exactly, but I was intrigued by Macquarie University's Postgraduate Certificate in Editing; and so I enrolled.
The Postgraduate Certificate in Editing is offered through Macquarie University's Centre for Open Education. It is offered by distance, and over two years. The course is conducted over the Internet and materials include a print guide and weekly lectures on audio tape. There are four evenly-weighted assessments each semester (two online discussions, and two short written assessments). The prerequisites for this course are some editing experience, and (preferably) a degree. There are also opportunities for further study.
The first semester, entitled 'Essentials of Editing', presented a thorough overview of the industry. We began by discussing the varied nature of the editor's work and relationships, and the very relevant topic, accreditation. We also spent some time exploring the intricacies of proofreading and marking up; regional and international style, spelling and punctuation. These basics were interrupted with a very animated no-holds-barred discussion of sexist and non-inclusive language before returning to document structure, typography and legibility.
The second semester was on 'Language and Writing Style' and focused on the principles of language usage. We began the semester with a very useful (and much appreciated!) summary of the basic rules of grammar, spelling, punctuation and usage. We then continued the hard slog with a more detailed look at the principles behind cohesion and coherence, and had some practice measuring language density, and assessing readability. We finished the year exploring ways of maintaining the authorial voice and identifying style shifts in a manuscript, and also attempted paraphrasing.
We enthusiastically launched into our third semester, 'Structural and Electronic Editing'. This was the opportunity to expand our knowledge and explore electronic text. After a brief and enlightening introduction to the differences between reading print and electronic text we were let loose on web site design and usability, visualising and navigating electronic text, and re-versioning printed text for the web. We finished the semester with a look at the pros and cons of onscreen editing and even tried our hand at creating an index.
The fourth (and yet to be attempted) semester is called 'Editorial Issues and Responsibilities'. This semester promises interesting topics, such as writing for advertising and promotion, project management, and copyright and other legal responsibilities. We will also have the opportunity to discuss global publishing and the future of editing.
The Postgraduate Certificate has certainly proved to be more valuable than I expected. The wide range of topics has been stimulating, the instruction has been clear and meaningful, and the student collegiality has been top class. With $3000 in tuition fees, and no HECS, the course has been expensive, but priceless. And above all, I have come to appreciate the scope of the editing industry, and find some confidence in my own editorial skills and abilities.
I confidently recommend Macquarie University's Postgraduate Certificate in Editing. For more information contact Macquarie University, Sydney.
Susannah Hill
Well, just what is 'by the way' and what is part of the regular job? Where does the editor's job end and someone else's begin? Is an editor supposed to get involved in design work, or indexing, or decision-making about how documents should be presented?
Why not? Some might contend that doing indexing is not an editor's job-tantamount to stealing the bread from another's mouth. Designers might feel that they are the best qualified to advise on the look and feel of a book-and so they probably are, in most cases. Some publishers I have known have restricted the author to writing the text and not interfering with any other aspect of the publication. Others welcome the author's suggestions.
Many times, I have been asked 'Oh, by the way, would you look at the front bits of the document too, and while you're about it, could you do an index?' Now, I'm sure that if I didn't have some design skills, if I didn't know something about indexing, if I didn't have a feel for the whole document and not just the words, nobody would ask me. But I do, and they do.
It's like plain English. Many people think of plain English as just readable text, but that's only half the battle. Text can be perfectly correct, straightforward, easy to read, yet miss the mark because it's set in uncomfortable surroundings. Anyone editing for plain English needs to take account of white space, paragraph length, typesize, readability of font, placement of graphics, and so on. Without consideration of all these, the text might as well be gibberish.
So I think that editors have a wide-ranging role to play, if they want it. They can be part text editor, part designer, part indexer, part writer, even sometimes English grammar tutor or mentor, all rolled into one. Or they can stick to the narrow path of, say, copy-editing or proofreading on certain jobs. Editing jobs are as varied as that, and the work is the more enjoyable when that variety challenges all of our skills at different times.
Elizabeth M Murphy
In last month's newsletter I reviewed Style Council 2001. I mentioned some terms that are 'tantalisingly meaningless' to non-banana benders (non-Queenslanders): refidex, de-nutting, cent sale, olive peril, beefroad, Blue Nurse. By popular demand, here are the translations! They are taken with permission from Julia Robinson's excellent dictionary of Queensland regionalisms, Voices of Queensland: Words from the Sunshine State (2001) produced in Canberra's own Australian National Dictionary Centre (published by OUP, and on sale at good bookshops for $26.95).
Refidex: a street directory. This was the original brand name in Queensland and has continued to be used as a generic term for any street directory, including the UBD.
De-nutting: the practice of removing growing coconuts from coconut palms. De-nutting is often advertised as a professional service for public and private gardens in Tropical North Queensland, primarily as a safety practice.
Cent sale: a fundraising event, similar to a raffle, often held by community groups. Prizes are offered for which people can buy tickets (originally costing some cents each), for a chance to be drawn as the winner.
Olive peril: a term of insult for Italian labourers collectively, or less frequently, for an individual Italian labourer. The term is now obsolete. It arose because of fear by canegrowers and cutters that Italians were going to take over the industry.
Beef road: An all-weather road built for trucking cattle from remote areas. Until the 1950s droving was the most common way to get cattle to a railhead or market. Increasingly road transport, in the form of road trains, became the preferred means. The Commonwealth Government recognised the need for a network of sealed roads to improve speed, safety, and access to markets. In the 1960s construction began on beef roads in Queensland, the Northern Territory, and Western Australia.
Blue Nurse: a registered nurse employed by the Blue Nursing Service (sometimes referred to as 'the Blues') so named from the colour of the uniform. The Blue Nursing Service was established in 1953 by the West End Methodist Mission in Brisbane. It began as a home nursing service for any member of the Brisbane community and had just one nursing sister. The service is now a multidisciplinary team of some thousands of employees, including nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, social workers, respite carers, and other support staff, in 63 Blue Nursing Centres throughout Queensland.
Voices of Queensland records 500 words of significance to Queensland, with their origins, meanings, and illustrative quotations. Some of the words in the book have become familiar throughout Australia, but many will be known only to Queenslanders. The book opens with the fifty-three words that have been borrowed from local Aboriginal languages into Australian English. One of these words, 'kangaroo', was the first Aboriginal word borrowed into English.
Stefanie Pearce
'Visit www.endnote.com and try out EndNote for 30 days to see how it can help you search online databases, organise your references, and create bibliographies!' The web site says that the EndNote 4 demo is a fully-functional trial version that includes documentation to get you started. After the 30-day evaluation period has expired, the program will revert to a feature-restricted EndNote Viewer. The EndNote trial version is available for Windows 2000/98/95/NT or Macintosh.
Thanks to Claudia Marchesi for this suggestion.
The Canberra Editor last month (page 10) published an item called 'Running Word 97/98 and Word 2000 on the same computer'. It reported that Brett Lockwood, training officer of the Society of Editors (Victoria), suggested installing both Word 97/98 and Word 2000 on the same Windows computer while learning the features of the new software. Brett thought it quite likely that the same could be done on the Mac.
On the Mac, the equivalent software is Word 98 and Word 2001. However, as a user of Word 2001 on the Macintosh, I strongly recommend not having Word 98 and Word 2001 on the same computer because serious conflicts occur when the Word 2001 software mistakenly uses scripts and settings from the earlier version. This topic in all its permutations has been discussed over several months on the Microsoft News Server (Microsoft.
public.word.macword2001). The gurus in the newsgroup recommend de-installing Word 98 totally - and not with the De-install program on the Word 2001 CD but via an upgraded De-install program available from the Microsoft Mactopia website.
I am willing to give more information if any reader wishes to call me on (02) 6247 0672. I also have available a comprehensive set of notes I have compiled in recent months on 'upgrading' to Word 2001 from Word for Mac 5.1. (Many Mac owners have stuck to Word for Mac 5.1 because they consider subsequent versions have been badly implemented and have lost many useful features of this last Mac-specific version.) I have not had any trouble with compatibility with Word 2001 when transferring files between Windows and Mac computers, because the codes in the Windows and Mac versions are now virtually identical.
Clive Huggan
A further note, from Peter Judge:
I use both Mac and PC. On the Mac I prefer Word 5.1, for the reasons Clive states, but have Word 98 up and available as well. I keep the two versions in different partitions of the hard disc and have no problems, as long as I don't try to RUN the two at the same time. In my office in the French Embassy I do the same, but since I don't have the hard disc partitioned I put the 5.1 into my 'Current' folder out of harm's way. Once again, no problems. I don't have 2000 or 2001, and so far haven't needed them. I can usually persuade people to send me material either in a version that I DO have or in .rtf format, which seems to be completely portable between versions and between platforms.
'...you cannot have text in Word that is not set in a style', says Brett Lockwood, in his informative article (title above) in the March newsletter of the Society of Editors (Victoria). He goes on, '...working with styles really means controlling and exploiting them'.
Word has about 90 built-in styles, which cannot be deleted from Word. There are also 'user-defined styles', which we create, name, define, modify and can delete. Brett's article describes how user-defined styles can be viewed as a separate listing within the 'Styles' dialogue box. He also explains the other listing options, particularly 'Styles in use', which may contain more styles than are actually in use in that text.
If we really want to identify the styles currently in use, Brett recommends selecting 'Styles' in the 'Print what' drop-down list of 'File>Print'. Then some user-defined styles that are on the printout but not active can be deleted (using the 'Delete' button in the Styles dialog box). After another search that Brett describes, we can also mark on the printout the built-in styles that are not active. Later, we can return our worked-on document to the client, with a printout of the document's actual styles and with the styles that have been used and dropped, during work on the text, struck out.
Brett suggest adding an identifier to the name of each of the styles used. These newly identified names are the ones Word will use in its Document Map (which Brett recommends for gaining an overview of the document's structure) and its style listings in the Style dialog box.
Brett sees styles 'as the Gollum of desktop editing. They are endearing, malleable and deceptive...but we can't shake them'.
His article gives useful detail about dealing with styles, and the outline above only touches on the edges of his information. Please look at our web site, www.editorscanberra.org/Word_styles.htm, to see the full text of the article, which is too long to print here. We are grateful to Brett and the Society of Editors (Victoria) for permission to reproduce it.
If you were at the 'Partnerships in Knowledge' conference and want an updated list of conference delegates and their email addresses, send a stamped self-addressed envelope to Maureen Wright (Contact List), PO Box 251, Lyneham, ACT 2602.
To build on the good relations established during our joint conference in April, the Australian Society of Indexers ACT Region Branch invites members of our Society to their mid-winter dinner, on 10 July. It will be at the Indian Affair restaurant, 64 Colbee Court, Phillip, at 7 p.m. for 7.30 p.m. Dinner will be a banquet at $25.00 per head and will include a range of north Indian foods and coffee/tea. The restaurant is BYO or licensed for wine or beer to be purchased on premises. Partners and guests are welcome.
The guest speaker will be Jack Waterford, editor of the Canberra Times, who will speak about what the future holds in books and publishing, and where we fit!
RSVP with payment using the tear-off slip below, by 3 July.
The Australian Publishers Association (APA) is running a seminar called Managing Freelance Staff, in Sydney on 26 June (pm). The topics are: how to recruit and retain good freelance staff; what a contract with a freelancer should cover; understanding that the cheapest price is not necessarily the best quote; how to deal with a poorly performing freelancer before the project becomes a disaster; practical exercises; opportunities to ask the experts for help with particular problems. Cost: editors societies' members $125; nonmembers $140 (both GST incl.). Phone Ross Karavis (02) 9281 9788 ext. 3.
The University of Canberra Professional Management Program will run a one-day course on editing on 21 August 2001, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The course, given by Dr Jennifer Webb, lecturer in professional and creative writing, aims to provide a practical guide to editing for those involved in producing texts for publication. Phone 6201 2977. Cost: $330.
Limited supplies of The Oxford Australian Writers' Dictionary ($9.95), by Shirley Purchase, a former member of this Society, and the Oxford Illustrated Dictionary of Australian History ($14.95), by Jan Bassett, and the Oxford Companion to Australian Sport ($14.95) are available on remainder now at Clouston & Hall Booksellers in Kembla St, Fyshwick and Garema Place, Civic. Thanks to distant member John Bangsund for this information, via the email discussion list.
For a limited time, members of the Canberra Society of Editors can subscribe to Australian Book Review at last year's rate of $60.50 for ten issues AND receive a free hardback copy of Arabella Edge's The Company (shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Prize), courtesy of Pan Macmillan.
Australian Book Review is Australia's leading magazine of literary review and comment, and the only literary magazine devoted solely to Australian books, writers and commentators.
Highlights in forthcoming issues include a provocative essay on Manning Clark by James Griffin, a review of Nadia Wheatley's biography of Charmian Clift by Kerryn Goldsworthy, and an essay on Sylvia Plath by Peter Porter.
This is a limited offer while stocks last. Please contact Aviva Tuffield, Assistant Editor, Australian Book Review, PO Box 2320, Richmond South, Victoria 3121, ph (03) 9429 6700, fax (03) 9429 2288, abr@vicnet.net.au.
26 June: APA Seminar, Sydney
27 June: Society's June meeting
10 July: ACT indexers' mid-winter dinner
25 July: Society's July meeting
Please pay your membership subscription for 2001-02 as soon as possible, using the enclosed renewal form. Subscriptions are due on 1 July 2001. Please send the form and your cheque to The Treasurer, PO Box 3222, Manuka, ACT 2603.
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
2 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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