The speaker at our May meeting will be Dr Amanda Laugesen, a historian at the National Dictionary Research Centre within the ANU (and a member of our society). Dr Laugesen's book Convict words: language in early colonial Australia was published earlier this year. She has also worked on a glossary of First World War slang, and is currently researching Australian war slang from the Boer War to Vietnam.
Friends Lounge, National Library of Australia, 6.00 for 6.30 pm.
Editors and indexers: maintaining the links
President's column
AGM notice
Why German is a relatively easy language
New members
Time to smile: lexicology?
News and notes
One thing and another
Corrections we'd rather not have to make
Letter to the editor
National editors' conference progress report
Call for papers
A brief introduction to XML schema
Proofreading course
NPT
Dates for your diary
Deadlines and copyright
Indexers and editors have much in common. The highly successful joint national conference held in Canberra in 2001 was a paradigm of the sorts of activities in which the two professions can collaborate. Ted Briggs reports on our 30 April general meeting, when we were joined by members of the Society of Indexers to explore common ground and possibilities for working together.
The event was a lively panel session with Geraldine Triffitt and Lyn Farkas from the Australian Society of Indexers (AusSI), and Peter Judge, Cathy Nicoll and Janet Salisbury from the Canberra Society of Editors (CSE). We heard about the history of the two societies, how they go about maintaining and enhancing professional skills, and how the societies foster professionalism in their members.
The general thrust of the aims of both societies is similar. AusSI aims to represent the interests of indexers and to provide training and other resources to all Australians and New Zealanders involved in indexing, whether they are freelancers or employees, full-time, part-time or casual. CSE aims to promote contact between editors, encourage the exchange of ideas, maintain editorial standards, promote the use of editorial services, and cooperate with other societies of editors and related bodies.
Both societies appeal to people with similar interests, and there is some overlap between the memberships. There can also be overlap in the type of work that members do - indexers can sometimes find themselves delving into editing and vice versa. But there are many more editors than indexers. While CSE, just one of seven State and Territory editorial societies, has some 170 members, total membership of AusSI across Australia and New Zealand is around 200.
In both societies practitioners tend to come to the professions later in life, and usually after at least one degree in an unrelated subject area. The consequence of these midlife changes is that formal training is not an attractive option, and for indexers, it is not one that is even offered by higher education institutions. A show of hands found that none of the indexers or editors present had a formal qualification in what was now their bread and butter.
For indexers, training has traditionally been provided by State branches, usually by some of the more experienced members. However, as experienced trainers are aging and will soon retire, the indexing profession is about to face a crisis in training provision. The indexers are aiming to meet the challenge head-on by developing a training package and are currently examining a number of overseas packages which they might use directly, or adapt to Australian needs.
Editors are slightly better off in that we do have some institutions to which we can turn - such as RMIT, Macquarie and Griffith universities. Even so, training for older members is provided 'in house' by the State societies on the basis of members' needs. In the ACT, courses are offered for members and others in response to popular demand. Past courses have included project management, indexing for editors, electronic editing, literary editing and HTML. Courses in proofreading and plain English, to be held in June, are the next training events for editors.
Indexers have a registration process, which is distinct from membership of a society, and that has driven the need for training in many cases. The move to accreditation of editors might possibly see the same level of demand for training in all things editorial.
The registration scheme for indexers is based on an assessment of an example of an applicant's work - applicants submit an index for assessment plus details of at least two other published indexes. Under a proposed accreditation model for editors (to be presented to the State and Territory societies for consideration by the Council of Australian Societies of Editors (CASE) later this year) accreditation would be by a points-based system, based on (for example) qualifications, experience, portfolio, testimonials, and professional participation.
The societies have slightly different histories and organisational structures. The Australian Society of Indexers appears to me to be more centralised than the Societies of Editors. It was founded in Melbourne in 1976, taking over from the Society of Indexers in Australia, which had operated since 1972. Since then branches have been formed in Victoria, New South Wales and the ACT. Region, and there are members in all States and Territories, and in New Zealand.
The Canberra Society of Editors is much younger, dating from 1990, when Loma Snooks, then Principal Editor of Kinhill Engineers, moved to Canberra and began looking for well-qualified editing staff for the company. Discussions with freelance editor Chris Pirie and publications manager Dr Sandra Child firmed up the idea of a society of editors in Canberra, similar to those already existing in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide. The first general meeting was held in May 1992. The Council of Australian Societies of Editors (CASE), comprising the presidents of the eight societies, was formed in 1998 to address a number of issues at a national level, such as professionalism, training and eventual registration or certification
It was a stimulating discussion and it left me determined to find out more about what indexing involves. Until then I confess I had been thinking 'Indexing? How hard can it be?' It certainly reinforced for me that there is a lot to be gained by increasing the cooperation between the two societies and looking for opportunities to share resources.
Ted Briggs
We had an interesting and enjoyable joint meeting with members of the Australian Society of Indexers (AusSI) on 30 April. It was a surprise to me, given the relatively high activity and profile of AusSI, that it is so small a group: less than 200 members across the country. The indexers got started in 1976, somewhat earlier than us, and now, well ahead of us, have a formalised state and national structure. I suspect that this is what has allowed them, despite their small mass, to run several very successful conferences and training events, some of which have attracted international participants. Anyone more interested in AusSI's aims and activities can visit its website at <www.aussi.org>. We didn't get very far down the track of discussing how our societies might collaborate more closely, but we made a start, and I believe that there is strong potential for us to work together, especially in training.
I had hoped to announce here that the conditions and an entry form for our best-edited annual report competition were on our web site - we were ready to do that, but the letter from Ann Parkinson in this issue of our newsletter prompts me to postpone progress. There was insufficient time or space to respond here to Ann's letter but I will do so, on behalf of the committee, on our website <www.editorscanberra.org>, and we can discuss the matter at the next general meeting.
Our speaker for May is Dr Amanda Laugesen, a historical researcher at the ANU National Dictionary Centre. Dr Laugesen's monograph Convict words: language in early colonial Australia was published earlier this year by OUP. She is going to tell us about her work and findings for that book and on a new project on Australian war slang from the Boer to the Vietnam wars. I imagine that there will be some wonderful stuff in there.
Our plan for the June meeting remains to give a full progress report on the recommendations of the CASE Accreditation Working Group. As CSE delegate Janet Salisbury was able to tell us at the April meeting, the group has been making remarkable progress. She circulated details of a draft scheme through which, by various routes, Australian editors could achieve accreditation. The scheme generated considerable interest and discussion at our meeting, and I think that it's fair to say that reaction was generally positive.
The July meeting will be the AGM, and the workers behind the scenes tell me that it will be followed by a 'Christmas in July' dinner and festivities. The venue will be University House. Better get that one in your diary. There will be several committee vacancies to be filled at the meeting, including the president and treasurer, both of whom have come to the end of their statutory two-year tenure. Think about serving on the committee. It's essential and rewarding work.
With the recent withdrawal from sale of many herbal, vitamin, even analgesic, preparations, the alarming message for many people is 'stop taking your medication'. These preparations are classified as 'complementary medicines', because they are seen by authorities on therapeutics as complementing, rather than replacing, the mainstream variety. It's disappointing to see even that national treasure the ABC fall into the trap of calling them 'complimentary'. Free they ain't. We spend billions on them - three times as much, apparently, as on the prescription stuff. Well, I'm off now for a bexless cup of tea.
Ed Highley
Note Wednesday 30 July in your diary for a 'Christmas in July' Annual General Meeting and dinner at University House.
Enjoy mulled wine and nibbles in front of the open fire from 6 pm. The meeting will start at 6.30 pm. All members welcome!
Dinner after the meeting will be a convivial affair, with good food and the opportunity to chat with fellow editors in warm and cheery surroundings. And to add to the merriment, all diners are asked to bring a small wrapped gift to swap - costing no more than $2.50, please. Make it fun, imaginative or just plain silly!
To book for dinner, contact Helen Topor on email
<helen.topor@cit.act.edu.au>, or phone 6207 3414 (work) or 6292 8016 (home).
This amusing article by Gila Scheffler appeared in the April 2003 issue of Book Worm, the Western Australian Society of Editors newsletter, and is reproduced with the author's permission.
German is a relatively easy language. If you know Latin you're used to declensions and can learn German without great difficulty. That's what German teachers tell you at the first lesson. Then you start studying the der, die, das, den ... and they tell you that everything follows a logical order. So it's easy. And to prove it, let's look at an example more closely: you sign up for first-year German and go out and buy the textbook. It's a beautiful, expensive, hardbound book, published in Dortmund, which talks about the customs of the Hottentots (Hottentotten in German).
The book tells us that when opossums (Beutelratten) are captured, they are placed in cages (Kasten) with bars made of wood slats (Lattengitter) to keep them from escaping. These cages are called Lattengitterkasten in German, and when there are opossums inside them they are know as Beutelrattenlattengitterkasten.
One day, the Hottentot police arrested a would-be murderer (Attentäter), who allegedly tried to kill a Hottentot mother (Mutter). Her son is a good-for-nothing stutterer (Stottertrottel), so his mother is, therefore, a Hottentottenstottertrottelmutter and her would-be murderer is a Hottentottenstottertrottelmutterattentäter. Easy, right? So the police captured the suspect and put him, temporarily, in an opossum cage (Beutelrattenlattengitterkasten) for safekeeping until they could take him to jail. But the prisoner escaped!
A search ensued and a Hottentot warrior cried out, 'I have captured the murder suspect (den Attentäter)!'
'Yes? Which one?' asked the chieftain.
'The Beutelrattenlattengitterkastenattentäter!' replied the warrior.
'What? The murder suspect who was in the opossum cage?' asked the Hottentot chieftain.
'That's right,' said the warrior, 'the Hottentottenstottertrottelmutterattentäter.'
By now you know enough German to understand that he's talking about the would-be murderer of the mother of the good-for-nothing Hottentot stutterer, right?
'Oh, I see,' says the Hottentot chieftain, 'why didn't you say so right away? You could have begun by saying that you had captured the
Hottentottenstottertrottelmutterbeutelrattenlattengitterkastenattentäter!'
As you can see, German is a very easy language. All you have to do is pay a little attention.
Welcome to our new associate member Amanda Laugesen and new full member Shona Batge.
1. A bicycle can't stand alone because it is two-tyred.
2. What's the definition of a will? (It's a dead giveaway.)
3. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
4. A backward poet writes inverse.
5. In democracy it's your vote that counts; in feudalism it's your
count that votes.
6. A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.
7. If you don't pay your exorcist you get repossessed.
8. With her marriage she got a new name and a dress.
9. Show me a piano falling down a mineshaft and I'll show you A-flat
minor.
10. When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds.
11. The man who fell into an upholstery machine is fully
recovered.
12. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in
Linoleum Blown apart.
13. Local Area Network in Australia: the LAN downunder.
14. He often broke into song because he couldn't find the key.
15. Every calendar's days are numbered.
16. A lot of money is tainted. 'Taint yours and 'taint mine.
17. A boiled egg in the morning is hard to beat.
18. He had a photographic memory which was never developed.
19. A plateau is a high form of flattery.
20. The short fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small
medium at large.
21. Those who get too big for their britches will be exposed in the
end.
22. When you've seen one shopping centre you've seen a mall.
23. Those who jump off a Paris bridge are in Seine.
24. When an actress saw her first strands of grey hair she thought
she'd dye.
25. Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead to know basis.
26. Santa's helpers are subordinate clauses.
27. Acupuncture is a jab well done.
28. Marathon runners with bad footwear suffer the agony of
defeat.
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,
email <webindexing@optusnet.com.au>
or phone (02) 4739 8199.
More information: <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.
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
Phone: 02 9281 9788 or email <Libby.Odonnell@publishers.asn.au>.
We all know that hyphens are used to join words together, to avoid ambiguity of meaning, and to split long words at line ends. There are endless 'rules' about the use of hyphens, and just as many exceptions to those 'rules'. As recently as twenty years ago, the 'rules' were quite strict - thankfully nowadays there is more freedom of choice. As a descriptive linguist (and definitely not a prescriptive grammarian), I have to say that I use as few hyphens as possible. I even go against the current tide of opinion that seems to favour e-mail - I prefer email because there is no possibility of mispronouncing it or mistaking it for any other word. Nevertheless, I would write e-commerce and e-zine because they are less commonly used, because the e sometimes needs extra emphasis and because the e could be mispronounced.
Sir Ernest Gowers wrote: 'The author of the style-book of the Oxford University Press of New York (quoted in Perrin's Writer's Guide) says "If you take hyphens seriously you will surely go mad". I have no intention of taking hyphens seriously.'1
Compounds evolve over time in English. An example is headmaster, originally the two words head master, then hyphenated as head-master. Finally the hyphen was dropped. Similarly, while many words consisting of a prefix and another word contain a hyphen (re-enter, pre-eminent for example), more commonly used compounds have dropped the hyphen (cooperate, coordinate), despite having two of the same vowel next to each other.
When a compound phrase is used adjectivally in front of the modified noun, the convention is to hyphenate, as in an up-to-date edition, but when it is used adverbially it is set out as separate words, as in this edition seems to be up to date.
If confusion could arise without hyphens, put them in. For example, you recover from an illness, but you re-cover your favourite chair. You advertise a little-used car rather than a little used car if you mean that it hasn't been used much. And you ask your students to bring four foot-rules and not four-foot rules or even the perfectly correct four foot rules if you want to be clear that they are to provide four rulers each a foot long.
Many recommendations appear in the 6th edition of the Style Manual,2 and there are a few useful conventions in my book Effective Writing: plain English at work.3 But some constructions defy attempts to hyphenate meaningfully. Take this one, sent to me by our own Newsletter Editor:
'The ADF has always organised some functions into networks. For example, the offensive fire support system is a very good example of how sensors gain information on targets that can be attacked by joint fire support assets.'4 What are the real meanings of offensive fire support system and joint fire support assets? Do you use hyphens anywhere to clarify them? Does offensive-fire or fire-support help? No. The whole paragraph needs to be recast for clarity.
As Gowers recommends, we should watch out for ambiguity that can occur when a hyphen is omitted in a construction such as: When Government financed projects in the development areas have been grouped …5 Here, the reader is sent off on a false trail and has to re-read to make sense of the words. A hyphen between government and financed would have clarified the main subject and verb.
The hyphen is useful, but shouldn't be overused. A lot of line-end hyphenation on a page is not as attractive as carefully cast sentences that make sense within the marginal boundaries and have a good visual effect even with a ragged right margin.
The hyphen used to be all we had on typewriters to indicate word joins and dashes in text. Now, with computers, we have em and en rules and we should use them. The main use of the en rule is to show a range, as in pages 1-16, and the main use of the em rule is as a dash -- to indicate an afterthought, perhaps. In emails, we still have to make do with hyphens for nearly everything; I recommend a double hyphen with a space on either side for a dash -- like that, but there are various points of view on this. When in doubt, follow your house style.
Whatever the hyphen is used for, use it sparingly and to enhance meaning.
Elizabeth Murphy
Endnotes
1 Gowers E, 1973, The Complete Plain Words (rev. edn by Sir Bruce Fraser), HMSO, London, p. 183.
2 Style manual for authors, editors and printers (6th edn), 2002, revised by Snooks & Co, Wiley, Australia, pp. 88-94.
3 Murphy E M, 1989, Effective Writing: plain English at work, Pitman, Melbourne, pp. 52-3.
4 Nalbandian A, 2003, personal communication (email 9.4.03).
5 Gowers E, op. cit. p. 184.
The following appeared in The Canberra Times Sunday magazine, Relax, on 4 May:
Cornish correction
Last week's report in Relax on the Cornish festival to be held in South Australia from May 12-19 contained a number of errors. It is the Kernewek Lowender not Kernel Lander. It will be held in Kadina, Moonta and Wallaroo, and is held every second year, not every year as implied. The Grand Bard is the head of the Cornish Gorsedd, not the Cornish Dorsad and his name is John Bolitho, not John Abolish. The name of the choir that will perform at the festival is the Kernow male voice choir, not the Carney male voice choir. The errors were in information supplied.
And some of us might also object to the phrase 'from May 12-19'.
Peter Judge
I am concerned about the announcement that the society will award a prize of $1000 for the best editing of an annual report published in Canberra in 2002-03.
An annual prize is a good idea to publicise the significance and quality of editors' work. Institutional reports of many kinds are a large part of the work of society members, and reports can provide a challenging demonstration of their best work.
But restricting the prize to annual reports is a mistake. The number of annual reports published is small when compared with the number of publications produced in Canberra in one year. This limitation restricts the potential entries to a small number of society members. (I suspect that only society members would be informed about this competition, as the effort required to publicise it widely would be considerable for an already overloaded committee.)
Annual reports typically have a limited distribution, restricting the publicity that could be possible - publicity aimed at those who are already convinced of the benefits of employing editors.
The cash prize of $1000 is large. In my view, it is too large for a supposedly cash-strapped society (as discussed at the last AGM), and too large for such a limited number of potential entrants.
I urge the committee to consider opening the category to include other kinds of reports. The entries might need some restrictions on length (not too long, not too short) and type of content, or intended audience (not too technical) to allow the entries to be fairly compared.
I anticipate that next year the number of categories would be increased to, say, three, each carrying a prize of $500: shorter printed publications, longer printed publications and electronic publications.
Ann Parkinson
[As Ed Highley has said in his column this month, he has decided that the best course of action is to postpone progress on this competition until after a discussion at the next general meeting. He will also respond on the society's website <www.editorscanberra.org>.]
20 March 2003 Report supplied by Robin Bennett
The CASE conference to be held in Brisbane on 18 and 19 July is taking its final shape. We have been working to achieve a program that will provide the best coverage for CASE issues and meet the professional needs of our colleagues around Australia. We have still to revise our draft timeslots to ensure the best advantage for every presentation, but we can confirm that the program will include:
Friday 18 July
The official opening by Minister for Arts Matt Foley.
Saturday 19 July
Unless otherwise stated, conference sessions will consist of a 40-45-minute paper and 15-20 minutes for questions. As you can see, we still need to add some presenters to the program, and groupings may change. We hope this program will prove to be too tempting to resist for your members!
Poster/soapbox sessions
We will be arranging poster or soapbox sessions during the conference, that is, informal sessions on issues that people feel passionate about, such as possessive apostrophes, which don't add up to a full paper or would be more effectively presented in a non-formal setting. We will need some advance notice, so that we can plan and allocate the soapboxes. Could you spread the word and invite your members to let us know about the bees in their bonnets, so that they can buzz at Bardon in July.
Workshops
Conference participants will have six workshops to choose from on Sunday, most of which will be held at Bardon. At least one or two will be held in a Queensland University computer lab; we will arrange transport to enable participants to get over to St Lucia if people find themselves facing transport problems. The choices will be:
We have aimed to avoid topics that would normally be covered by societies through their own professional development programs.
Conference dinner
The conference dinner will be held on Friday night at the Moomba Function Centre, Annerley. For $50 per head, participants will receive a three-course dinner with complimentary wine and a cash bar. Entertainment will be provided by Musica Prima, a six-member group that performs medieval and Renaissance music. Bring your medieval, Renaissance or Addams Family costumes with you and enjoy the party. Non-conference participants will be welcome to join us!
Pre-conference drinks
Pre-conference drinks and finger foods will be arranged for Thursday evening, 17 July, at the Bardon Centre. Entertainment will also be provided for that evening to pleasure the company. Relax, enjoy good Brisbane entertainment and get to know your fellow participants over a few drinks!
Conference charges
Many people have asked about conference costs. We are still working on them; we should know soon, and will let you know as soon as possible. We are seeking to keep the charges reasonable, so as many people as possible can afford to attend: we are aiming at $275 for the early bird full conference rate. Single-day rates and concession rates will be available: full-time students and Health Care Card holders will be entitled to a 25 per cent discount. Conditions may apply.
Accommodation
We have arranged with Bardon for staff at the Centre to handle all bookings for accommodation. People who wish to secure their accommodation can ring the Bardon Centre now on (07) 3217 5333. Ask for Tanya Daniel, identify yourself as a member of a society of editors and give the reference number for group reservations, 600 549.
Just to remind everyone, the choices are:
Trade fair
We will also be holding a trade fair, including books and electronic displays.
Billeting
A set of questions matching the ones already sent out to potential Brisbane hosts in Offpress will be circulated this week so that hosts and guests can be happily matched.
Website
We are inviting all presenters to supply an abstract of no more than 200 words and a digital photo, to be placed on the SocEds (Qld) website progressively, so that everyone can see what the program for this CASE conference will consist of. The text of papers will be placed on the web site after the conference.
Send abstracts of about 250 words in length on topics including
government printers,
government publishing, government stances on publishing,
censorship and tariffs on the book trade to
Ross Harvey <rossharvey@cse.edu.au>
or Dirk Spennemann <dspennemann@csu.edu.au>.
Abstracts due 30 June 2003.
It's here at last. The long-awaited proofreading course will be held on a Friday afternoon in June.
TAFE lecturer Helen Topor will be taking us through the basics, teaching us how to spot errors efficiently and mark up the corrections. The final part of the session will take participants through some of the challenges for proofreaders - like dealing with ridiculously tight deadlines and how to mark up a page that is already choked with errors and proofreading marks.
Afternoon tea is included. Please advise of any dietary
restrictions when you register.
Place: Dream Centre, Lhotsky St, Charnwood
Cost: $60 members, $120 non-members
Registration must be received by 1 June 2003.
The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons is often called the NPT, an initialism for the 'Non-Proliferation Treaty'. Both the initialism and the shortened version of the treaty's official title have become accepted shorthand references. In these the word 'nuclear' is omitted but the nuclear context is understood.
However, authors often write the title as 'Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty' presumably to make it clear that they are discussing nuclear matters. As I have some sympathy with this, I allow the retention of the word 'nuclear' but modify the initial capital thus: 'nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty'.
Greg Baker
28 May: Next meeting
30 May: June newsletter copy deadline
25 June: June meeting
4 July: July newsletter copy deadline
18&endash;20 July: National editors' conference
30 July: Annual General 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 30 May 2003.
Mail contributions on a 3.5 inch disk, using Word for Windows (essential) or email (preferable), to:
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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