Our final session for the year will be an end-of-year celebration over a three-course buffet dinner:
On Wednesday, 24 November, 6:30 for 7:00 pm, in the Drawing Room, University House, 18 Balmain Crescent, Acton. Cost: $35 including nibbles and drinks beforehand.
Our guest speaker is Ian Warden, journalist, broadcaster and social commentator. Partners and guests very welcome. Please let us know by email <tedbriggs@webone.com.au> if you are coming, and send your payment to: Annual Dinner, PO Box 3222, Manuka ACT 2603, by 22 November 2004.
- End-of-year dinner
- Black holes and body fluids
- President's report
- From the Editor's desk
- Editing standards reminder
- A little of what you fancy
- Thinking about words
CapsBeep for Macintosh
Evolving standards- CASE notes
- Gillian O'Loghlin
- Insurance follow-up
Between the Lines
Newsletter schedule
Cindy Chambers from Questacon was the speaker at the society's General Meeting on Wednesday, 27 October 2004. Cindy talked about Questacon programs, Questacon Exhibition Services, and how exhibitions are developed.
Cindy's team aims to make museum learning fun and to stimulate curiosity and encourage further inquiry, even beyond the museum setting. Her job includes doing research for new exhibitions and designing the graphic panels that explain the displays.
Cindy spent some time talking about the challenges in designing graphic panels for a museum, and one of the major challenges is how to 'hook' a distracted reader.
Most visitors experience some level of fatigue by a museum or science centre visit; therefore Cindy has to make their experience straightforward by writing easily understood text with attractive layouts.
Researcher Beverley Serrell has calculated that US visitors cover 46 square metres per minute in exhibition spaces - too fast for visitors to read and absorb the material. The average visitor uses about 30 per cent of an exhibit.
Research has also shown a difference between reported and observed behaviour in reading graphic panels. For example, most people say they don't read them. However, observation and audio recordings of visitor groups showed that almost three-quarters of visitor groups did read text. In groups where no visual observation of label-reading occurred, the recorded conversations picked up text-echo (repetition or paraphrasing of label text in visitors' conversations) in more than a quarter of the 'non-reading' visitors.
Also, research has shown that some people read the first line or two of graphic panels as they walk towards an exhibit, but it appears as though they haven't read anything at all.
What this means for developers of the panels is that developers should build redundancy into an exhibit, simplifying concepts and repeating them in different ways throughout the space.
It also means that graphic panels need to try and attract attention, and impart a small amount of information to a wide audience (ranging from kids to adults, non-scientists to professors of science).
Cindy talked about some of the techniques she uses to 'hook' readers.
One of the most popular exhibitions in the science centre world is 'Grossology' about bodily functions and fluids. Kids and many adults like to read about the titillating and unusual. For example, did you know that the Cookie Cutter shark is so named because it latches on to its prey and extracts a cookie-shaped plug of flesh?
Cindy tries to include unusual facts that relate somewhat to the main story: for example, that the first recording made in Australia was of factory hens?
A challenge question that acts as an introduction, an instruction, a thought 'provoker' or a summary of exhibit message is a good technique. Research in the United States showed that questions increase attention to a graphic panel and may initiate discussion between visitors, particularly between adults and children.
Other important aspects about writing graphic panels are:
People tend to take content quite literally, so care must be taken when writing for Questacon visitors - as they found out with their popular exhibit where visitors can experience free fall, and have their photo taken while doing it. People started turning up at the nearby booth advertising Free Fall Photo asking for their free photograph.
They have found that adults often prefer kid-level information themselves, although their reading tolerance is greater, so they are a little more likely to follow your text as it describes and expands on ideas.
A Hebrew University study on 1056 schoolchildren aged 10-16 years found that after text accompanying two interactive exhibits had been rewritten over time:
On deciding on topics for exhibitions, Cindy says that some of the things they have to consider are:
Cindy's talk was extremely engaging, and while not all of us can work in such an interesting environment (Cindy admitted that she has the best job in the world), we all felt that we could take away some ideas for making our own writing more engaging for our audiences.
Ted Briggs
Some of the text of this report has been taken from Cindy's comprehensive handout.
Well here we are almost at the end of another year of society activity - only our November meeting to go. Most of the seasonal annual report editing will be completed by now and we begin to look forward to winding down, although maybe not just yet … The end-of-year dinner promises to be another interesting and entertaining occasion, although I unfortunately cannot join you since I will be overseas then. But my best wishes will be with all of you.
The October meeting again saw a select group gathered to enjoy the yummy food and drinks organised by our efficient catering officer, followed by the presentation from Cindy Chambers from Questacon. This was an excellent reminder of the importance of the audience in communication. As editors, we need to remember always who is going to read the information we are so carefully polishing, and ensure that both content and style are appropriate to that end.
Ed Highley and Janet Salisbury also gave us the latest information on CASE activities. The accreditation project is moving along well and we will soon have a final report from the CASE subcommittee to consider.
On a sadder note, one of our long-term members died suddenly in October. Many of us will remember Gillian O'Loghlin with much affection, and elsewhere in this newsletter is a fuller tribute to her.
Claudia Marchesi
Christmas is upon us, and this is the last newsletter for 2004 - an exciting year for the society, but not one without hiccups. I hope to see most of you at University House at the ANU, where the society's Christmas dinner will be held on 24 November, so please keep that date in mind.
Elizabeth Murphy will take a well-earned (I've never fathomed why that's not well-earnt) break from her A little of what you fancy articles, which she has been contributing on time every month throughout 2004 with no ado at all; thank you Elizabeth! We'll certainly miss our monthly dose of fancy, but Elizabeth has promised to start a new series in the not-too-distant future. In the new year Peter Judge will continue with his monthly Thinking about words, so we look forward to more words of wisdom from the don in 2005.
I've been asked to update the society's Register of Freelance Editors. If you think that your entry needs revising or if you would like to place an entry in the register, please contact me on 6265 9471.
I wish you all a happy holiday season, as our American friends would say. Let's hope that 2005 will be an even better year for the society, but one without major hiccups!
Ara Nalbandian
A reminder that the Australian Standards for Editing Practice apply to all our members, including to their submission of material for publication in this newsletter.
The Standards state in part that editing requires knowledge of the following matters:
A3.1 Current definitions of ... intellectual property, plagiarism, moral rights and copyright, and their implications for a publication.A3.5 Material that may need permission for reproduction, and the procedures and responsibilities for obtaining permission.
Members in doubt over matters of intellectual property, plagiarism, moral rights and copyright as they relate to material they wish to submit to the newsletter are invited to discuss the matter with the Editor.
Cop this, mates! Let's have a chinwag and I'll give you the good oil.
Well, the festive season is nearly upon us, so I thought a diversion from serious stuff into the realm of Aussie slang might be a bit of fun.
For this article, I have relied almost entirely on one reference book - A Dictionary of Australian Colloquialisms by G. A. Wilkes, published by Fontana in Melbourne rather a long time ago - in 1978.1 It's a fun read to this day, though I know there are newer editions and plenty of other books about slang. I've also consulted a few web sites.
So what is slang? The Macquarie Dictionary's2 first definition is 'language differing from standard or written speech in vocabulary and construction, involving extensive metaphor, ellipsis, humorous usage, etc., less conservative and more informal than standard speech, and sometimes regarded as being in some way inferior'. A second definition is 'vulgar or abusive language' from which we get the term 'slanging match' - 'a quarrelsome exchange, especially of abuse'.
Wilkes's book is about 'colloquialism'. So what's the relationship between that and slang? Back to the dictionary, which gives as its first definition of colloquial 'appropriate to or characteristic of conversational speech or writing in which the speaker or writer is under no particular constraint to choose standard, formal, conservative, deferential, polite, or grammatically unchallengeable words, but feels free to choose words as appropriate from the informal, slang, vulgar or taboo elements of the lexicon'. Its second definition is 'conversational'.
So much for the serious side of this! I'm choosing from Wilkes's book some colloquialisms that I would put in the 'slang' category.
Cop this!3
Remember Roy Rene ('Mo') in early TV sketches? No, of course you don't. But he often came to blows with another member of the cast and said 'Cop this, young 'Arry' before giving Harry a clip under the ear. The expression has become part of Australian colloquial language and has changed its meaning a bit. We use 'Cop this!' when we want to draw someone's attention to something unusual.
A 1970 citation quotes journalist Max Harris: 'Have you ever copped the way those girls serve the community at the Sydney Telephone Exchange? Flat out like lizards drinking, all day long'.
This brings me to another expression:
Flat out like lizards drinking4
This is an extension of 'flat out', or 'flat out' is a contraction of the full expression, meaning 'without a moment to spare'. The earliest citation by Wilkes is a 1944 quote from a book by Jean Devanny By Tropic, Sea and Jungle: 'The mother [kangaroo-rat] went one way and the young one another … It ran straight, as flat out as a lizard drinking'.
Another expression that we all use in the shortened form is this:
Shoot through5
meaning to absent oneself, usually in a hurry, and often for improper reasons. The full version was 'shoot through like a Bondi tram', the reference being to a tram from Sydney city to Bondi Beach which used to travel rather fast down a hill to its destination. Trams are long gone from Sydney, but the expression has remained.
A 1962 citation in Wilkes's book is from John Morrison's Twenty-Three: 'He shot through like a Bondi tram the minute the telegram arrived'.
A variation on this is 'went through' as in Kylie Tennant's The Honey Flow (1956): 'We collected Mike from where he and Hertz was mixing it, and we went through like a Bondi tram.'
However, this expression can mean something different, depending on where in Australia you live. In my experience, if a Melburnian says that a business has 'gone through' or that it 'went through', it usually means that it went broke. A further variation with the same meaning is 'went south'.
Kick the tin,6 the bucket and others
'Kick' is a verb that gets used in a variety of colloquial expressions: 'kick on' (to carry on despite adverse circumstances), 'kick in' (of a motor, to start), 'kick the tin' (to make a contribution when someone rattles the collection tin), and, of course, 'kick the bucket' (to die).7 I can't find the precise origin of this, but one suggestion is that a suicide, or a person being strung up to a tree, dies when the upended bucket they're standing on is kicked away so that the suddenly tightened rope makes the neck snap. Ugh!
Poke in the eye with a burnt stick8
Well, all things are relative, and if something is 'better than a poke in the eye with a burnt stick', it's probably only marginally acceptable. In my family, we meant the same thing when we pronounced a situation as being 'better than a slap in the face with a wet fish'.
Chinwag
This is listed in a number of lists of Australian slang on the web, but no origin is given, as it stands to reason; it means 'to have a natter - a chat or conversation',9 and if I give you the good oil I'm giving you 'the drum' or the truth.10
Well, mates, the good oil is that Chrissie's just around the corner and you'd be a fruit loop not to get your chook prepared in advance - ridgy-didge. Make sure you've got your cossie ready for the surfing season and have a bonza hol.11
Elizabeth M. Murphy
up to Contents
From fairies to philology
When I was a very small boy I had a 'little detective's outfit', courtesy of the coupons on the back of cereal packets, with a cardboard Hercule Poirot moustache, a 'seebackroscope' (for seeing who was creeping up behind me without turning round) and instructions for a simple letter-transposition code. It was more like a 'little spy's outfit' - certainly the local police force, even in those less-sophisticated times pre-DNA, could go about their tasks without fear of my competition. But I was fascinated by the code. In those heady days just before World War II the family had holidayed in Belgium, so I had come up against both French and Flemish at a very early age. This, and the cereal code, had convinced me that the key to understanding every foreign language was just a matter of knowing how to manipulate the letters.
Alas, when I began school Latin at the age of eight and then French a couple of years later, I learnt that life wasn't meant to be so easy. But much later I discovered that I had been very nearly right, and the authors of books of folk tales had already cracked the language code back in the 19th century. These were the brothers Grimm: Jacob (1785-1863) and Wilhelm (1786-1859). They began their studies in law, intending to follow in their father's footsteps, but increasingly turned to literature, especially folk songs and folk tales, eventually publishing a collection of some 200 folk tales, Kinder- und Hausmärchen (known in English, rather misleadingly, as Grimm's Fairy Tales) - a publication that marked the birth of the formal study of folklore. They also published scholarly criticisms of German folk literature, comparing it with material from other European countries including England, Scotland and Ireland.
These led Jacob to a deeper study of language and to his Deutsche Grammatik, which appeared between 1819 and 1837. It went far beyond its simple title, looking also at the historical development of words and the laws of sound changes in different languages, their relationships and the development of meaning. He picked up on earlier work by the Danish linguist Rask, showing that consonants vary in a predictable way between the Indo-European (IE) languages. The rules he identified have since become known as Grimm's Law.
Grimm described consonant shifts involving nine consonants:
In the triangles the change from IE to Germanic runs clockwise; the derivation of Germanic from IE, anticlockwise. Other linguists soon found exceptions to these simple rules; however, Grassman and Verner were able to explain many of these exceptions, showing that in particular cases f>v>b, th>d, x>g.
Examples of Latin to a Germanic language (English!) might be pater>father, frater>brother, piscis>fish, duo>two, tres>three. But the Romance languages tend to keep the Latin consonants: père, frère, poisson, deux, trois. Between Germanic languages the relation is more obvious: Fuss>foot, Vater>father, Mutter>mother, Zeit (time)>tide (but that's 'time' in the sense of 'tide' in Christmastide). We often find these relations even in pairs of related English words: consider pedal::foot, labial::lip, guest::host, genus::kin::kind, sit::sedentary, century::hundred (that 'c'=the 'k' sound in Latin centum).
There's actually a fourth series as well, from qu>ku>gu>ghu(=hw), and this gives us changes like quod>what, cuius>whose. 'What' in Old English was hwaet, so this is a case of English spelling where the letters have become reversed. And, of course, if you say 'what' with the breathy sound - not just 'wot' - it still comes out as 'hwat'. Try it!
Cracking the code is never going to let you read a foreign-language newspaper without a dictionary, but swapping a few consonants around may sometimes help you to make sense of the odd foreign word - and perhaps even make occasional sense of the vagaries of English spelling! But, as with 'tide', it doesn't help when the language evolves and a word has a new or lesser-used meaning.
Sources: I consulted Encyclopaedia Britannica 2005 on DVD, The Oxford Companion to the English Language (for those triangles) and David Crystal's marvellous The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language.
Peter Judge
The article in last month's newsletter on how to make your PC beep to alert you when you pressed Caps Lock, asked whether it also worked for Macintosh computers. The answer seems to be 'no' (at least not in quite that way), but I was sufficiently intrigued to look on the web and there I found a tiny piece of freeware (only 44 K after unpacking) that answers the problem.
Go to <www.nisto.com/product/caps.html> and click on the link. The file is so small that the download is almost instantaneous. Pop the file into your system folder; it will automatically go into 'Control Panels'. Open the CapsBeep control panel, set it to work as you want and restart. I set it for '2 beeps', so that now I hear a distinctive double beep whenever Caps Lock is down. It works like a charm.
I have to admit that in Word 2001 it's rather quick and easy to select the bit you inadvertently typed with Caps Lock down and press Shift-F3 to cycle from 'All Caps' to lower case or Title Case. And THAT goes for the PC as well!
Peter Judge
Remember CASE's Australian Standards for Editing Practice (ASEP)? Of course you do; most of us must surely consult this instructive little volume regularly. And just in case you've forgotten, CASE is the Council for Australian Societies of Editors (see 'CASE Notes' below). You can discover almost all about CASE at <www.case-editors.org>, where you will also find ASEP, if you happen to have mislaid your printed copy.
Anyhow, CASE, in its almost infinite astuteness, was well aware before ASEP was first published that nothing is forever, including standards; good grief, look at how standards in almost everything have changed over the past 50/10/5 years/5 days/5 minutes (cross out whichever is not applicable). So it knew that revision was going to be needed, and it has decided that now is the time to begin to do so.
A CASE Standards Working Group has been convened by Shelley Kenigsberg of the New South Wales society. It will be contacting the membership of all the societies seeking advice on what revisions might be needed to the existing standards as a result of changes in practices, technologies and so forth; that includes just how we feel about things, because, you know, seriously, sometimes it's just a feeling that tells us the right or wrong way to do things. Remember in Star Wars I, when Luke Skywalker is up there trying to destroy the death star (or whatever it was), and he can't hit the target until, through the ether, he hears Obi-Wan Kenobe: 'Luke, turn off your radar, use the Force'. Then, whammo! I loved that bit.
But I digress. Have a look at the standards, think about what might be getting a bit passé and be ready to respond when suggestions and recommendations are called for. There's another reason you might feel moved to examine the standards. The CASE Accreditation Working Group has presented its final proposal to CASE, and all members of all Australian societies of editors will be voting on it soon. It is basic to the scheme proposed that, to be accredited, editors must comply with the standards applicable to their type of work. Might be a good idea to swot up on them.
Ed Highley, CSE CASE delegate
CASE (the Council of Australian Societies of Editors) is on the brink of a new phase in its existence as two of its working groups report on future directions:
• The Accreditation Working Group has presented its final report, and CASE is considering how to put the proposed scheme to members nationwide. The vote may go ahead at the end of November, or CASE may decide to hold it over till the New Year rather than allow this crucial professional issue to disappear in the holiday rush.
• The National Organisation Working Group has reported on how CASE might become a legal entity. At present CASE has no legal standing: it comprises simply the presidents of the eight Australian editors' societies (or their nominees) and works by making recommendations to the societies. This is a clumsy way to operate and CASE needs to adopt a formal structure, especially if accreditation is to proceed. Again, CASE will consider how to consult members about the options.
CASE will meet in Sydney on 13-14 November to discuss these and other matters. This is the first time the group has met face-to-face since the Brisbane conference in July 2003. The delegates look forward to a more productive exchange of views than is possible by email and teleconference. Wassailing and carousal in the fleshpots of Sydney will take place after hours and at delegates' own expense.
As CASE steps up its activities, it has realised the need to upgrade its communication with members. From February 2005 CASE will report monthly via the newsletters of the editors' societies.
Blue Pencil reports on the New South Wales society's September meeting, which heard from Paul Brunton, senior curator at the Mitchell Library and editor of The Diaries of Miles Franklin. Books reviewed include The Cambridge Guide to English Usage by Pam Peters and Lynne Spender's Between the Lines: A Legal Guide for Writers and Illustrators (Keesing), and there is a report on a recent proofreading workshop by Tim Learner.
Offpress tells us that Queensland editors are looking forward to their end-of-year event, a fabulous opportunity for society members and guests to hear from and meet acclaimed author Don Watson at Beadles Café and purchase his new book, Watson's Dictionary of Weasel Words.
In Victoria, the December meeting will launch the new edition of the indispensable Australian Editing Handbook (John Wiley & Sons), whose authors Beryl Hill and Elizabeth Flann are both long-term members of the society. Pam Hewitt and Shelley Kenigsberg from Sydney are visiting this month to conduct a repeat of their popular workshop on structural editing.
News from the other societies will appear as it comes to hand.
Janet Mackenzie, CASE Liaison Officer, <www.case-editors.org>
Gillian O'LoghlinIt was with great sadness that we learnt of Gillian O'Loghlin's sudden, unexpected death in Hong Kong on 15 October. Gillian had been travelling in Europe with her husband Graham for the previous month, and they were on their way home via Hong Kong when Gillian became ill and died within a couple of days. She is pictured below, on holiday in Italy in October.  Gillian was one of the earliest members of the Canberra Society of Editors, joining as an Associate at our first public meeting in May 1992. She has been a regular attendee at our meetings ever since, and contributed much through her encouragement and thoughtful comments to the development and evolving goals of the society. Her extensive editorial experience, combined with her gregarious, vibrant nature and positive approach, won her many friends in the society, and we will greatly miss her warmth, energy and intelligence. Gillian was a Research Assistant at ANU for twenty-five years, working in the Political Science Program in the Research School of Social Sciences. She applied her fine editing skills there to many books and monographs as well as to journals such as the Journal of Political Philosophy. She was also Managing Editor of the Political Theory Newsletter and served for many years as Secretary and Newsletter Editor for the Australian Political Science Association. We extend our deepest sympathy to her husband Graham and son James, as they struggle to come to terms with her loss. Loma Snooks |
Earlier in the year, societies of editors distributed a questionnaire for freelance editors about insurance. Robyn Colman of the Society of Editors (Tasmania) Inc. has sent us a report of the responses and it's absorbing reading. The report, which includes advice for editors facing insurance requirements, can be viewed on our web Notice Board: <www.editorscanberra.org/notices.htm>.
In response to your feedback on the newsletter's typography as produced in Microsoft Word over the last few issues, this edition of the newsletter has been produced using Adobe PageMaker. Headings of articles are in Arial and body text in 10 point Times New Roman with leading at 12 points (auto-leading).
My thanks to Peter Judge for patient software tuition and coaching on design (the remaining faults are, of course, all my own work).
Further feedback on the results is welcome. Members rightly expect that their newsletter should be a professional publication, and your informed assessment of this edition would be appreciated.
Lucy Tylman
Between the Lines: A Legal Guide for Writers and Illustrators offers a wealth of information on copyright, defamation, censorship, contracts, ethics, getting paid, taxation, superannuation, insurance, wills, gifts, bequests and much, much more.
Written in a lively and accessible style, with case studies and scenarios, checklists, FAQs and illustrations by Andy Joyner, Between the Lines is an essential resource for writers and illustrators, journalists, lawyers and accountants, media, communications and writing students, and academics. It even offers words of advice for publishers!
Between the Lines is written by Lynne Spender and published by Keesing Press. Lynne has worked as a writer, teacher, administrator, publisher and editor. Since publishing her first book in 1982, she has written and edited over twenty books in the areas of law and women's studies. Lynne was Executive Director of the Australian Society of Authors for five years. She is a board member of CREATE Australia and chair of the Communications Network of the Australian National Commission for UNESCO. In her eclectic way, Lynne has degrees from three different universities in Law, Arts and Education.
Keesing Press was established from a bequest in 1993 to the Australian Society of Authors by writer, critic and poet Nancy Keesing.
$26.95 ASA members, $38.50 non-members, plus $5.50 p&h. ISBN: 0-9752083-0-6
Available from the Australian Society of Authors, PO Box 1566, Strawberry Hills NSW 2012.
The Canberra Editor is published by Canberra Society of
Editors,
PO Box 3222, Manuka ACT 2603.
© Canberra Society of Editors 2004. ISSN 1039-3358
Email contributions, using Word for Windows (essential), to: ara.nalbandian@defence.gov.au
If by snail mail, then send them on a 3.5 inch disk, to Canberra Society of Editors, PO Box 3222, Manuka ACT 2603. If mailing, always provide a printout as well.