This is the title that the award-winning novelist, essayist and short-story writer, Marion Halligan, has chosen for her talk to our next meeting.
Marion's latest novel, The Point, was launched on 5 March, but she is already hard at work on her next, in which the narrator and main character is an editor. Marion says that the preparation for this work has led her to some interesting thoughts, which she will share with us before talking more generally about her experiences with, and thoughts about, editors.
The venue is, as usual, the Friends Lounge at the National Library; the time, 6 for 6.30 p.m. Afterwards all are invited to join our speaker for dinner at O Stratos, a Greek taverna in Lonsdale Street, Braddon. There will be a show of hands for that at the start of the meeting.
Next meeting
President's column
One thing and another
New member
News and notes
XML document structure
Australian Publishers Association training
Dates for your diary
Copyright and deadlines
There's no front-page report on our February meeting because our scheduled speaker, Kerrie Nairn, took ill with flu on the day of the event and so had to withdraw. The many members who arrived for the first meeting of the year were disappointed but sympathetic, and expressed the hope that she might be able to speak to us later in the year.
So what did we do at the February meeting? Well, we had some good food and acceptable wine, and then, following the usual business of a general meeting, we had a productive and quite lengthy discussion on a range of topics of interest to the society. and the profession. Indeed, it was so productive that it occurs to me that it might be useful to have such meetings at least once a year.
One of the main topics of discussion was the CASE working group on accreditation and its activities. Janet Salisbury, our delegate to the group, gave us a summary of where things stand. They are well advanced.
Some models for implementing accreditation have been proposed. They range from a deceptively simple points-type model to an evidence-based procedure that would be rigorous but perhaps (though only perhaps) too time- and labour-intensive: we need to be practical.
I was gratified to see the high degree of interest in accreditation. I'd thought that, unlike our sister societies, all of which seem to have put substantial effort into the topic, accreditation was dead in the water in Canberra. Not so, and it was agreed that a special meeting to discuss it should be held. We're organising such a meeting, and I hope that many members of the society will participate. As far as I'm concerned, accreditation, certification, or whatever it's eventually called, is the single most important next step in advancing the editing profession in Australia.
The publication of the Australian standards for editing practice in 2001 was a first big step forward for us. As I mentioned at the February meeting, Janet Mackenzie, convener of the CASE Accreditation Working Group, recently sent me a copy of an essay by Ms Haya Husseini, a Monash University master's student, that researches our standards and compares them with similar moves in Canada and Britain. It's an interesting story but too long for the newsletter; therefore, with the permission of the author, I've put Australian standards for editing practice: a comparative critique on our web site.
Some committee news. Greg Baker has taken on the job of newsletter production editor. We thank him for that, and for the work he is also doing in promoting corporate membership. I regret to report that Claudia Marchesi, who was one of the society's training coordinators, has resigned from the committee, for reasons that she has had insufficient time to devote to the position in recent times and will shortly be going overseas.
We thank her for her substantial contribution to our training program over the past few years, The position of catering officer remains vacant. I'd like to rename it 'Victualler', a supplier of victuals for which see the extract from the New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary below.
Clearly, it's a key position then. There has to be somebody out there with the talent and experience to take it on. If not, I'm afraid it might be chips and nuts only at most future meetings.
The speaker at our March meeting will be Marion Halligan, well-known author and Canberra resident, fresh from the launch of her latest novel, The Point. Marion has chosen a title for her talk that should be appealing to all editors (see page 1 for details). I look forward to seeing you at the meeting, and hope that many of you will be able to continue-over dinner after the meeting-what I'm sure will be stimulating discussion.
victual n. (vit'l) n. ME. [OFr. vitaille, (later and mod.) victuaule f. late L victualia neut. pl. of victualis, f. L victus livelihood, food, f. base of vivere live: see - AL1. Sp. assim. to L original, while pronunc. still represents older forms vittel, vittle] 1 Whatever is required or may be used for consumption to maintain life; food, sustenance. Now rare. ME. Ýb Produce of the land able to be used as food. LME-LI8. c Grain, corn. Sc. L15. 2 In pl.. Articles of food; supplies, provisions, now esp. as prepared for use. ME. Ý3 In pl. Animals used as food. rare. M16-M17. 4 An article of food. rare. M16.
1 BYRON Laura . . almost lost all appetite for victual. 2 J. ROGERS Slaving over a hot stove to provide you with nourishing victuals. victualage n. (rare) victualling; victuals. E17. victualless /-1-1-/ a. (rare) M19.
Ed Highley
We've all been told it's now OK to end a sentence with a preposition. After all, Sir Winston Churchill himself debunked the notion that you couldn't do so by saying 'This is the sort of English up with which I will not put'. Does it work every time, however? Is it OK to write 'This is the book you wrote in' rather than 'This is the book in which you wrote'? Before I answer that question, let's look at what Churchill might otherwise have said: 'This is the sort of English I will not put up with'. Or another example: 'What shall I write about?'. Should that be 'About what shall I write?'.
In my view, where the prepositions are clearly part of a prepositional phrase such as 'in the book', 'at the corner', the whole phrase is best kept together if possible. However, many prepositions are really working as particles after verbs, so I then don't have a problem with putting them at the end of a sentence as in my example 'What shall I write about?'
There is also such a thing as 'prepositional idiom'-that is, the currently accepted preposition to go with a noun in order to produce the intended meaning. For example, you can be 'responsible to your boss' but 'responsible for the petty cash'. There are many words that function as prepositions, nouns, verbs, adjective and adverbs. For example, how many ways can you use 'down'? (Answer below.)
The very word 'preposition' is its own downfall. It means literally something that is positioned in front of something else-pre-positioned. This is what has governed the thinking of many educators in the past-after all, if it's supposed to be in front of something, it can't be at the end of a sentence, can it? If it's at the end of a sentence, we have to call it something else, don't we? We've moved on from there! I'm happy with the term 'preposition', despite its Latin origins.
And my question in the first paragraph? Yes, I think it's perfectly OK to write 'This is the book you wrote in' just as it is OK to write 'This is the book in which you wrote'. These are individual stylistic variations of the same thing-they' have the same meaning and either version is perfectly clear.
Elizabeth Murphy
Let's walk down the stairs rather than down the ramp. (preposition)
My doona is filled with goose down. (noun)
'Big Arnie' would down me with one blow. (verb)
The down train is due any minute. (adjective)
I put the heavy parcel down on the floor. (adverb)
Hewings, M., 1999, Advanced Grammar in Use, Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge.
Murphy, E.M., 1989, Effective Writing: Plain English at Work,
Pitman, Melbourne.
Snodgrass, G. and Murphy, E.M., 1987, Letter Writing
Simplified, Pitman, Melbourne.
Style manual for authors, editors and printers, 6th edn, 2002,
John Wiley & Sons, Australia.
Welcome to our new associate member Clair Hurford.
An international conference hosted by the Australian Society of
Indexers
Friday 12- Saturday 13 September 2003
Location: Carlton Crest Hotel, Sydney
Cost: Australian Society' of Indexers members $330, non-members
$380.
Contact: Glenda Browne,
e-mail <webindexing@optusnet.com.au>
or phone (02) 47398199.
More information: http://www.aussi.org
Proposed presentation/panel topics: indexing biographies; difficult names; teaching indexing; website, intranet and database indexing projects; information architecture; thesaurus construction; taxonomies and classification; metadata development. Software demonstrations and workshops will be held during the conference.
Entries are now being accepted for the 23rd annual Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition, created to recognise and encourage the efforts of writers who have not yet achieved major-market success. Writers will compete for a $1000 first prize, $500 second prize and $500 third prize in this internationally acclaimed competition. Several honourable mentions are also awarded each year.
Stories in all genres of fiction are welcome. Maximum length is
3000 words, and writers retain all rights to their work. The final
deadline is 15 May 2003; winners will be announced at the end of
July.
For complete guidelines, please visit <www.shortstorycompetition.com>
,
e-mail <Calico2419@aol.com>
, or send an SASE to the
Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition, P.O. Box 993, Key West, FL
33041, USA.
The Society of Editors in South Australia runs an online discussion forum. Editors from other states are welcome to join the group, which aims to provide a forum for debate and exchange of advice. To find out more, visit <http://www.editors-sa.org.au/editalk.htm> .
This is an international discussion list about editorial and business matters for members of the publishing community'. The exchanges are often stimulating and amusing, with erudite entries from the likes of Australia's Nick Hudson. You can subscribe to a digest version that organises discussion by topic. Visit <http://www.electriceditors.net> and follow the Edline link.
Woody is a leading expert on Microsoft products. He produces a
free, user-friendly (and sometimes Microsoft-hostile) newsletter with
hints and tips for using Mr Gates's software.
Visit <http://woodyswatch.com>
to find out more. The newsletter about Microsoft Office always has
something to teach the eTextpert.
A useful site by a freelance editor and writer called Jean Weber.
She produces a free monthly newsletter with hints and tips, which you
can subscribe to, but the site has plenty of other useful links.
<http://www.jeanweber.com>.
Extensible Markup Language (XML) documents can represent an unlimited number of information sets. However, the way that XML itself describes those information sets still needs to conform to a standard and predictable pattern. All this means is that real-life XML has more structure than the short piece of information in XML format that I presented in my introductory article:
<description>
<title> XML Ethics</title> <author>Jim Long</author> <format> Book< / format> <id>ISBN 0233576937</id> < / description>
XML structure
Every piece of valid XML consists of two parts: a prolog and a root (or document) element.
The first part - the prolog - contains an XML declaration, then, in no particular order, information about the document type definition (DTD), processing instructions and comments.
Processing instructions are information for the software application that will process the XML after it is checked for validity.. They do not form part of the information contained in the XML document.
Similarly, information about the DTD provides information about the XML document; it forms no part of the XML document itself.
Comments are for human readers of the XML code; although well-designed XML should be pretty much self-explanatory, comments are useful to explain to readers of the code any unusual or obscure features.
The second part - the root element - contains the entire information set being stored or transmitted in XML.
Prolog
The prolog is optional, i.e. it may be empty. However, experienced XML users strongly recommend that the prolog contain at least the following line:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
This is the XML declaration. It tells the software checking the XML syntax, i.e. checking that it is well-formed and valid, that the XML conforms to the W3C XML Recommendation 1.0. This version of XML is the current version; W3C is the XML standards body.
The XML declaration may further include two attributes, one indicating the character set used by the XML document, the other indicating whether or not the XML document is self-contained or needs to refer to outside information. The external information could be the DTD but is not restricted to this.
Thus the XML declaration could be:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes" >
UTF-8 encoding is a superset of ASCII. This is the default if you do not explicitly declare it and is most likely the character set you normally use.
The XML processor needs to know which DTD the document will be validated against. A reference to an external DTD is placed in the prolog. If the XML document is standalone, there will be a document type declaration (DOCTYPE) placed here. This declaration stands instead of an external DTD and fulfils in whole or in part the role of the DTD.
Processing instructions are instructions to the software application that will process the XML. They start with a<? and end with a?> . A processing instruction might for example be used to associate a particular stylesheet with an XML document. Although the XML declaration looks like a processing instruction, purists say that it is not. The reason that it is not is that the XML declaration is information intended for use in checking the syntax of the XML document; the processing instructions are meant to be passed via the software checking the syntax through to the software actually using the XML document.
Comments begin with <!-- and conclude with --> . Thus:
<!-- This is a comment -->
Comments can also be placed within and after the root element.
Root element
The other part of an XML document is the root element or the document element. The root element contains the entire XML information. This is a set of nested elements and their attributes, and the information they describe.
Greg Baker
Elizabeth Castro, XML for the World Wide Web:Visual Quickstart Guide, Peachpit Press, 2001.
Norman Desmarais, The ABCs of XML: the librarian's guide to the extensible markup language, New Technology Press, 2000.
Dan Livingston, Essential XML for Web Professionals, Prentice Hall, 2002.
William J. Pardi, XML in Action, Microsoft Press, 1999.
Andrew H. Watt, Sams Teach Yourself XML in 10 Minutes, Sams, 2003.
XML Complete, Sybex, 2001.
These are the books I have to hand; there are many more in the bookshops. Although each of these books has its merits, I do not necessarily recommend any particular book on XML.
Greg Baker
The new website for the Australian Publishers Association is
http://www.publishers.asn.au
You can now register for APA training online.
Presenters: senior publishing staff
Sydney: 15 April, 9.00 -12.30; Melbourne: Thursday 17 April, 9.00 -
12.30
Cost: $195
Techniques for working effectively with freelance staff.
Who should attend: editors, publishers, publishing managers, art
directors, production managers, HR managers.
Presenters: senior staff from various printing companies
Sydney: Tuesday 20 May, 4.00- 7.00 p.m. Cost: $150
Preparing files effectively for the printer, troubleshooting.
Who should attend: Editors, designers, and production staff.
Presenters: senior designers
Sydney: Friday 6 June, 9.00 -12.30; Melbourne: Thursday 5 June, 9.00-
12.30
Cost: $150
Issues and practice in book design.
Who should attend: editing, publishing, production, sales and
marketing staff.
Presenter: Jo Bramble-Bramble Marketing & Communications
Sydney; Friday 13 June, 9.00- 4.30; Melbourne: Wednesday 11 June,
9.00- 4.30
Cost: $350
Effective writing for promotion.
Who should attend: editing, promotions and publicity publishing
staff.
Registration forms are available from The Australian Publishers Association.
For more information or to make a booking, contact Libby O'Donnell
at the APA.
Tel. (02) 9281 9788 or email <Libby.Odonnell@publishers.asn.au>
This workshop will be held using IBM/PC. The course is focused on editing for publication using Microsoft Word. Extensive experience in Word is not required. The course is suitable for new or experienced editors and writers, and numbers are limited to allow for individual tuition and questions. Each student works at their own PC and parts of the course are taught using a data projector.
On-screen editing versus hard-copy editing - what the differences are, what you need to be careful about; establishing good editing procedures; working with styles; different word versions and the editing process; using Macintosh files on the PC; identifying font incompatibility between documents; exploiting the Find and Replace function; cleaning up documents efficiently; disabling problematic automated features; optimising screen settings; using Track Changes/Revisions; exploiting custom dictionaries in editing; document navigation techniques; common problems with PCs and how to avoid them.
Two-day workshop. Further details are at http;//www.wordbytes.com.au
Presenter: Brett Lockwood
Sydney: Tuesday 1 and Wednesday 2 April; Melbourne: Monday 14 April
and Tuesday 15 April
Cost; $460 Members (APA, Society of Editors, Galley Club, AGDA); $540
Non-members.
20% discount applies when five or more attend from one company.
Flyer and registration form available online at: http://www.publishers.asn.au/
training.cfm?doc_id = 130
Assessment of projects - suitability for overseas markets; establishing what rights you have to sell; where and how a product will sell. Distribution versus rights sales; comparative costs; co-editions; advantages and disadvantages of each. Attending book fairs - logistics, costs, advantages and disadvantages. Using rights and distribution agents - advantages and disadvantages, comparative costs and logistics. How to negotiate rights and distribution deals - royalties, advances, freight costs, cost effectiveness.
Presenters:
Sydney: Angela Namoi, Rights and Export Manager, Allen & Unwin;
Nerrilee Weir, Rights Manager, Random House Australia.
Melbourne: Sandy Grant, CEO, Hardie Grant Books; Tamara Silver,
Thomson Learning.
Dates: Melbourne-Thursday 8 May 9.00 -12.30; Sydney-Thursday 8 May
9.00 - 12.30
Cost: $150 Members (APA, Society of Editors, Galley' Club, AGDA):
$190 Non-members.
20% discount applies when five or more attend from one company.
Flyer and registration form available online at: http://www.publishers.asn.au/ training.cfm?doc-id =133.
Enquiries: Libby.Odonnell@publishers.asn.au Ph: 02 9281 9788
26 March Next meeting
30 April April meeting
The Canberra Editor is
published by Canberra Society of Editors, PO Box 3222, Manuka ACT
2603.
© Canberra Society of Editors 2002. ISSN 1039-3358
The deadline for the next regular issue is 4 April 2003.
Mail contributions on a 3.5 inch disk, using Word for Windows (essential) or email (preferable), to:
Ara Nalbandian
c/- Canberra Society of Editors, PO Box 3222, Manuka ACT 2603
ara.nalbandian@defence.gov.au
If mailing, always provide a printout as well.
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