Next meeting AGM at Vivaldi Restaurant, ANU
The President's column
Bloopers to amuse
Perils of the Junk Information Age
Membership movements
By the way
Book review: Editing Online Help
National notes
Training news
Dates for your diary
Copyright and deadlines
Yes, according to newsletter Vol. 6 no. 8, September 1997, the society's first Annual General Meeting was held in September 1992, making this our tenth. To celebrate, this AGM will be held at Vivaldi Restaurant, on the ANU campus near the Union buildings (see map below). Don't go to the National Library - we won't be there!
The evening will begin at 6 p.m. as usual. First, we will gather for drinks and nibbles provided in a separate area of the restaurant. Then, we will have the Annual General Meeting itself, in its usual format of reports by the president and treasurer and election of new office bearers, in the same part of the restaurant. Finally, we will enjoy a two- or three-course dinner at tables set for about eight people in the main dining area. There will not be a formal speaker this year, and the dinner replaces our usual dinner near Christmas.
It will be great to see all the members of the society at the AGM even if you don't want to join in the dinner afterwards.
For the AGM, nominations are needed for president and treasurer for 2001-02. The society's Constitution is now permanently on view on the web site. Please contact Ann Milligan if you do not have Internet access and need a printed copy. There is rarely enough time for networking at our meetings, and this celebration AGM dinner without a speaker has been devised to encourage interaction between members. It will probably begin at about 7.15 p.m.
Diners, please contact Ann Parkinson, immediately, or at least by Wednesday 19 September, by email or phone 6282 1993 or fax 6282 1081, to tell her you are attending and promise her your cheque ($26 for two courses). There is a choice of four entrées and four main courses. Coffee and tea are included in the price. If you would like one of the two desserts as well, the cost is $32. Vivaldi is licensed but you can BYO bottled wine (only), for $3 corkage per bottle.
Cheques should be made out to Canberra Society of Editors and
mailed to:
The Secretary (dinner), Canberra Society of Editors, PO Box
3222, Manuka, ACT 2603.
My final column before the Annual General Meeting on 26 September - and it seems that the elusive CASE meeting is about to become a reality at last! The formidable combination of Renée Otmar and Janet Mackenzie from the Society of Editors (Victoria) Inc. has kickstarted the agenda, and the presidents of the other State societies are trying to find a weekend in October when the majority can meet in Sydney.
My guess is that accreditation will dominate deliberations in the year ahead so I urge every member of the society to get behind this issue by both supporting and informing your committee representatives. The slightly mysterious business group known as Editforce, assisted by the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, is also looking independently at both accreditation and rates of pay for editors - further evidence that this important career matter is no longer idling in the outfield.
No more of the surveys (included in the July issue of the newsletter) have been returned since the interim results were reported last month. We received 23 replies, from our membership of approximately 180, and would like to have more. There is still time for you to complete and send in your survey form expressing your views, before CASE meets. Why not just do it?
For about half our members, this may be your last newsletter. According to the Constitution (which is permanently on display on the web site, www.editorscanberra.org) members are deemed to have resigned if subscriptions are not paid within three months of the due date (1 July). So if you value your membership, please renew it promptly while you are still current.
In passing, and on a more sombre note, I would like to register my regret that Lindsay Mackerras, who has contributed much to the society, has resigned.
With this edition of the newsletter comes a nomination form for the 2001-02 committee. If you would like to test your skills among your peers and contribute something of lasting value to your society, be bold and nominate for one of the two vacant executive positions - president and treasurer. After which, I hope to see you, your friends and colleagues at Vivaldi Restaurant for the AGM dinner on 26 September.
Lee Kirwan
Spotted in Panorama, Canberra Times, 25 August, by Margaret Mitchell:
Margaret comments that she thought she might apply - it sounds like an easy and rewarding task!
The following interesting observation was made in a Canberra Times review of an Indian restaurant, on 22 August, where it was seen by Peter Judge, who says 'Obviously not for the hungry!'
More bloopers welcome.
Julian Cribb, author, science communicator and Director of the National Awareness Program at CSIRO, spoke persuasively at our last meeting, entertaining an appreciative audience. Here is a shortened version of his talk.
Few disasters are quite so telegenic as an oil spill. The broken-backed leviathan on the reef, its black lifeblood oozing into the pounding waters… the brightly-suited members of the rescue teams in their orange and yellow emergency garb… the pallid, blustering company executive… the indignant Greenpeace official… the iconic oil-soaked shag - it's tailor-made for TV.
Of course, it doesn't have a lot to do with reality, but it's great television. In the real, scientific world, the spilt oil will gradually disperse into the ocean where it will be quietly digested by billions of microbes and enter the eternal foodchain.
In reality, an oil spill hardly rates a one on the Richter scale of disasters - earthquakes, fires, floods, droughts, hurricanes, volcanoes, air crashes, plagues and wars. Compared with the three million who perish from malaria every year, the 400 children who die of malnutrition-related disease every fifteen minutes, or the one billion people predicted to die in the AIDS pandemic, an oil spill is a minor mishap.
What sets it apart is its televisuality - its capacity to entertain. There is nothing entertaining about watching a child dying of starvation, or AIDS victims choking on the solid mass of parasites in their lungs. These are real human tragedies, where the TV camera finds no place because its audiences switch off.
As writers, editors or scientists, we need to appreciate that today we are, like it or not, part of and surrounded by the entertainment industry. It exerts a subtle influence over everything we do, each professional decision we make.
We are part of a process that, worldwide, is gradually replacing reality with a fantasy conception of the world engendered by media executives. This world is fuelled by emotion seldom enhanced by fact, logic or honest discussion.
Delving into the origins of this, one might glance at a powerful little book called Arctic Wars, written by a Greenlander and European MP called Fynn Lynge. It tells how the urban green movement destroyed the livelihoods of the hunting and gathering peoples of the Arctic, who had existed for 10, 000 years in balance with their environment and its resources.
The icon of this campaign was one of the world's most beautiful women, Brigitte Bardot. She was clutching a tiny, blue-eyed baby seal. She was surrounded by snow, besmirched by the red blood of the seal-slaughter. Such a talismanic image - the woman, the baby, the blood, the virginal snow - hardly needed words.
Practically overnight, the meagre incomes of Inuit people crashed from US$2000 a year to US$400 - and the incomes of top Greenpeace executives trebled from US$35 000 to well over US$120 000. The environmental movement had made a profound discovery, not unknown to Hollywood - emotion equals cash.
Ever since those days of the Arctic Wars, emotion has been the oil well of the green movement and a key ingredient in the modern media's definition of what makes a 'story'. This is not to denigrate the causes espoused by genuine environmentalists, which are often noble, idealistic and vital to our future. Yet it makes plain why campaigns founded on emotion grab the limelight even when they are in contradiction to scientific evidence and common sense, and why they so often overwhelm issues of genuine import.
News today must embody conflict. The old journalistic saw 'never let the facts stand in the way of a good story' has, by a mournful irony, largely become the industry standard. Reporters are under daily pressure to dish up what their commercial rulers demand. They are rarely given time or resources to check the claims of various interest groups. Today's media is no longer owned by local families. It now consists of vast entertainment agglomerates, churning out movies, books, magazines, Internet material, CD-ROMS, computer games, theatrical shows, even toys. In these giant enterprises, the function of reporting news is but a single, minor, cost centre. The key issue has become whether it makes money, not whether it informs.
Science and objective editing are caught up in this world in which fantasy now fetches a market premium over fact. Today's media makes scant distinction between the quality of researched 'fact' and a critic's wild and baseless assertion. Worse, it often puts them on an equal footing. It takes ten seconds to make a wild claim - but usually a lot longer to refute it with proper data. The trouble is, ten seconds is all you get for your reply. Corporations, lobbies and vested interest groups thrive on this lack of discrimination. Indeed it has become possible for groups as small as a dozen or so people to sway national debate and influence policy for tens of millions. This is prejudicial to both democracy and sound government.
Of equal concern is the rise of pseudo-science, in TV programs such as 'The X-Files', 'Strange but True' or health shows, and women's magazine articles about natural remedies and diets. The same trend may be seen in bookstores, where shelves of lurid fiction masquerading as fact (or 'faction'), pseudoscience, religious cultism, herbalism, conspiracy theories and New-Age nonsense now far outweigh the non-fiction. These further confuse an already baffled public, which has trouble discerning science fact from fiction because of the way the media present them and its own declining critical faculties.
A form of intellectual pollution is insidiously spreading in society, worse by orders of magnitude than any oil spill. Just as in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, society turned ravenously to 'junk food', in the 2000s it has begun to gorge on 'junk information'. And, just as we found that junk food kills and harms millions through degenerative disease, I predict that social scientists and psychologists will in time reveal that junk information is exacting a horrifying societal toll.
The upsurge in depression, youth suicide, mental disorders, 'road rage', predatory sex, drug-taking, broken homes, religious cultism and multiple slayings may in many cases be found to spiral out of society's growing appetite for fantasy and unreality, whetted and satiated by the entertainment empires.
Clearly, this predilection for the fantastic, the unreal and the irrational puts those who wish to communicate factually, truthfully or rationally at a disadvantage. It is a major cross to be borne by modern science and by serious modern publishing, editing and reporting.
There is a second, and in my view even more critical, issue embedded in all this: it concerns the media's insatiable hunger for disaster. Disasters are good for ratings.
Why does the public crave disaster? Not because we enjoy it, but because it constantly reminds us we are mortal.
I propose that, in the appetite of the community for so-called 'bad news', there lies a marvellously sophisticated social mechanism, evolved over millions of years, for identifying, anticipating and preventing disaster. But it will not work if we are distracted by cries of 'Wolf', by pseudo-threats rather than genuine ones.
Today's media is full of threats - food scares, cancer hazards, air and water pollution, landscape degradation, the road toll, gun ownership, refugees, the drug trade, 'greenhouse'. Society's instant response to these threats is to up the pressure on governments and scientists to make our lives safer. It uses the media to amplify this call. And the media thrives on the sense of power it derives from forcing politicians to act.
Politicians, swept along on a tide of media pressure, begin to make bad decisions, based on incorrect perceptions about what is urgent and what is not, what is true and what isn't. A democracy without access to the truth is in no better position to rationally decide its future than a dictatorship, where truth is deliberately distorted to protect and serve the dictator.
If society, through being fed too much dubious, exaggerated or false material, cannot differentiate the real threats from the imaginary, the imminent from the distant, or the serious from the inconsequential, it risks paralysis and has little prospect for long-term progress or even survival.
As a former journalist and editor, I believe it is time to revisit some of those ideals of objectivity, integrity, factual accuracy and professionalism - before our society pays a bitter price for living in the Junk Information Age.
This month, the society welcomes four new full members. Gary Hayes is currently freelance, but has worked in-house for several publishers and has also been editor of Blue Pencil, the newsletter of the NSW society of editors. He often helps self-publishing authors. James Dixon is a freelance who has experience in editing, production management and training for trade unions and a magazine publisher. Susan Stratigos is a freelance who has edited and written texts about parenting, women and social aspects of developing countries. Joanna Sheldon is a freelance technical writer and editor who has worked on gardening books, theses, and economic and social development. We also welcome Darren Osborne as a new associate member.
With regret the society farewells Lindsay Mackerras, formerly managing editor of AGPS and a staunch member of the society, and Suzanne Adey, Kerry Moir and David Daw, who have all sent in their resignations.
Well, as you were kind about my tale from London about editing on the wing, let me tell you a bit about what happened after I flew from London to the US and Canada. Part of the reason for my trip was to meet fellow 'Wordplayers' - these are people who, like me, participate in an email discussion list called Wordplay that emanates from the University of South Australia. I particularly wanted to meet a bunch of chaps in Ottawa who gather regularly at the Mayflower Pub to discuss or argue or get really heated about anything to do with words, and to enjoy the ale and each other's company.
These chaps (I met four of them) are from varying backgrounds - one is a mathematician and engineer, one is a military historian who spent several years with the Canadian High Commission in Canberra some years ago, one is an ex-Scot (or is that not possible?) who heads up the Canadian branch of the English Speaking Union, and the fourth is a former East End Londoner with a typical Cockney wit. They are all passionate about the English language and all have some editorial experience. They have stocked a small set of shelves beside their regular table at the pub with dictionaries and reference books about language, and refer to them constantly.
During our Sunday morning brunch meeting - duly formalised by the addition of small Canadian and Australian flags on the table - some serious arguments broke out about the origins and meanings of several words, and, one after the other, the massive dictionaries were hauled down and consulted - Oxford, Collins and Webster. No Macquarie, but that is about to be rectified!
A more articulate bunch of people you'd go a long way to find - and noisy in their arguments. They grumble and moan about modern trends towards more casual expression and the lapses in English grammar they observe all around, in the press, on radio and TV, and in the everyday speech of their grandchildren. They call themselves 'curmudgeons' and do their best to live up to the title . The reports of their meetings are entitled the MCC Minutes, itself a play on words by the largely UK-born group, this MCC being the Mayflower Curmudgeons Club. We look forward to these minutes, on the Wordplay discussion list, for their great wit and clever wordplay.
I was honoured to be granted temporary curmudgeon status for the morning, and participated in a heated argument about what a female curmudgeon should be called. I objected outright to 'harridan' and the matter was left unresolved, despite every dictionary on the shelves being consulted. I was a bit of a disappointment in a way as they'd expected an Australian Wordplayer to speak Strine - they cheered up when I demonstrated some nasal twanging.
Wordplay is a great email list, peopled by fewer than 80 participants around the world. We try to stick to discussion about words, but get sidetracked frequently into social issues or friendly chat. I enjoy it because it keeps me on my toes linguistically, and I believe this has some benefit to me in my role as an editor. And I rather like the notion of being a bit of a curmudgeon-ess! Elizabeth Murphy (back in Canberra, via Ottawa)
(If you want to subscribe to Wordplay, send a message containing the line SUBSCRIBE WORDPLAY-L to the address mailserv@levels.unisa.edu.au.
Weber, Jean Hollis, Editing Online Help. Airlie Beach, Qld: WeberWoman'sWrevenge, 2000. ISBN 0 9578419 0 6. Cost: $15 downloaded; $25 CD-ROM; $40 printed (includes CD-ROM). The CD-ROM contains the full-text of the book in PDF (Portable Document Format), WinHelp 4, HTML Help, and web-page format. Information on downloading and purchasing is at www.wrevenge.com.au/bookshop/.
The author writes: 'This book is intended for students, writers and editors who are developing online help for computer software, and for their managers and clients… This book supplements tool-specific instruction by presenting the basics of help content development, regardless of the operating system running the application, the type of help being produced, or the tools used to produce it. ' Examples are from Windows, but the principles apply to all software platforms.
The first three chapters discuss the planning of online help projects, including the editor's role, the questions that should be dealt with in the specifications, and the tasks in preparing for editing, reviewing and testing online help. Chapter four describes the ten most common complaints that users have with online help, and ways to diagnose and solve these problems. The next five chapters cover problems in specific areas, including the contents page and index, navigation, catering for novices to experts, linking from application to help, and copyediting and production editing. These nine chapters take 102 pages. These are followed by nearly 40 pages of appendixes and a five page index. The five appendixes show outlines and examples; help types and tools; print and online references; a glossary;and checklists for planning and editing. There are 42 figures showing sample screen shots, and eight tables.
The back cover lists the book's level as beginner to intermediate. I would consider myself to be at intermediate level, having worked with online help for over two years, but never having been involved with a project from the beginning. The book's level was appropriate for me, and the clear wording and organisation would make it suitable for beginners as well. One of the valuable contributions of a book like this is setting the scene - introducing a novice to the shared understandings, the workflows, and the interactions of a project that go beyond the specific job an editor (or other person) might do. If nothing else, this book shows you the questions you need to ask about editing your specific project.
Jean Weber's trouble-shooting advice is also good. For example, on page 102 she makes a number of suggestions about solving display problems with tables, including redesign, use of nonscrolling regions, and breaking long tables into smaller ones.
Editing Online Help focuses on editing and on online help, while other books on online documentation include editing as an aside, and refer to documentation other than online help. That said, books such as Managing your Documentation Projects (by JoAnn Hackos) have excellent information on editing that is complemented, rather than replaced, by this book. The narrower focus of this book means it is shorter, and therefore more accessible to a beginner who is focusing specifically on online help.
The book is well-presented, with an open, easily readable layout. My major complaints are that the sans serif text used throughout the book is too thick and dark, and the copyright notice at the bottom of each page makes it look too much like simple course notes (although I sympathise with the author's need to assert her intellectual property rights). The book is well-structured and clearly organised, with the many numbered and bulleted lists giving it the feel of online help. This is an advantage in that it models good procedural writing, although I would have liked a bit more narrative.
The book is well-written, with just a few errors slipping through. The index is neatly structured, although I found the use of plurals a bit inconsistent ('help plan', but 'help types'). There is a reference 'index entries. See keywords' but I would have also liked a reference from 'keywords' (pages 60 and 63) to 'index to online help' (pages 60, 63 and five others).
I would recommend this book to anyone working, or planning to work as, an editor of online help. In fact, since I'm an advocate of 'just-in-case' learning, instead of the much lauded 'just-in-time' variety, and since a downloaded copy costs only $15, I recommend it to any editor who wants to expand their knowledge of the variety of experiences within their profession.
Glenda Browne
Glenda Browne is an indexer and librarian in Victoria, who has indexed online help for NRMA Information Services for over two years. During this time she has also been involved in the development of the Online Help Style Guide, and has written online help topics about indexing.
This month, it's Tasmania's turn. Adrian Colman, Secretary and Membership Registrar of the Society of Editors (Tasmania) Inc., has sent us this profile.
Tasmania's Society of Editors was founded in 1986. Like most things Tasmanian it's relatively small, with about 50 individual members and just a handful of corporate ones - though that's a capacious handful as it includes the entire Australian Antarctic Division.
Like the societies in other States, ours promotes high standards of editing and fosters professional development and networking among publishing professionals. There are very few book publishers in Tassie, so we work especially on raising awareness of good editing among government, commercial and research organisations.
We have about ten meetings a year: a mix of professional development workshops and seminars, dinners with guest speakers, and the odd picnic or barbecue. Freelances also meet for lunch.
Anyone interested in publishing can join. Currently, the range of membership includes editors, writers, graphic designers, typographers, indexers, proofreaders, illustrators, publishers and public-sector project managers. About half of our members are freelances, and the web site at http://www.tas-editors.org.au includes a freelance register. Our newsletter, Catchword, is published in hardcopy six times a year. Interstate editors, writers and other publishing professionals are welcome to join, for only $20.
Contact us by email at info@tas-editors.org.au if you want to know more.
The society's On-screen Editing course will be held on Saturday 29 September, 9.30 a.m. - 5.30 p.m. , at the CIT Southside campus, Ainsworth St, Phillip. The instructor, Brett Lockwood, is an experienced trainer from the Society of Editors (Victoria) Inc. An outline of his comprehensive course, normally run over two days, can be seen on that society's web site, http://socedvic.org/. There is room for a couple more people, so contact Cathy Nicoll quickly (on 6259 2984, cathy.nicoll@atrax.net.au) if you want to attend. Price will be around $150 and includes a handbook.
A project management course, to be run by Karen Deighton-Smith on Saturday 10 November, will give members and others a great opportunity to improve or update their project management skills at an exceptionally good price. Karen has worked for a number of publishers, overseeing the production of 'hundreds' of books. She is currently managing projects for the National Archives of Australia. The course, from 9.30 a.m. - 1.00 p.m. at the Canberra Business Centre, Bradfield St, Downer, will accommodate about 10 people. Therefore, please fill out and post the form promptly if you want to attend.
I wish to attend this course.
Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Phone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Fee enclosed (circle amount): Member of the Canberra Society of Editors $50; non-member $90
Make cheques payable to: The Canberra Society of Editors
Copy this form and mail it with your cheque to: Ms Cathy Nicoll (Training), Canberra Society of Editors, PO Box 3222, Manuka ACT 2603.
26 September Annual General Meeting
29 September On-screen Editing course 31 October 2001 Society's October meeting
10 November Project Management course
28 November End-of-year barbecue
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
1 October.
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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