This year, our Annual General Meeting is being held at the University of Canberra Staff Club, Bruce. The club is opening on 25 September especially for us. We will have the room to ourselves.
Come at 6 p.m. for 6.30 p.m., as usual, for pre-dinner chat, drinks and finger-food. The meeting will run from 6.30 p.m. to 7.15 p.m. After the meeting, stay for a delicious dinner ($28.00 per person), choosing from:
Please contact Helen Topor with acceptances, by 20 September, for catering purposes (phone 6207 3414 (w), 6292 8017 (h), fax 6207 4063, email <helen.topor@cit.act.edu.au>). Tell her if you need a vegetarian or gluten-free meal.
Annual General Meeting dinner
One editor had all the answers
The President's column
A job in Peru
Editing in the big smoke
Doing us proud: a review of the Style manual
Editing theses
National notes
The quiz night, at the August general meeting of the society, was wonderful fun.
Kerry MacDermott, our patient and challenging quizmaster, fortunately did have all the answers. None of the rest of us knew them all, though a couple of teams achieved full marks on single rounds. We managed to complete five rounds of questions in the time available before the Library closed for the night.
The first round was on the meanings of words. Would you know the meanings of trover, or maskinonge, or mephitis, without looking them up? To confuse us, in case we thought we knew the answers, Kerry offered a choice of three apparently plausible meanings for each word - saying later that he had hugely enjoyed creating the false definitions.There were 30 questions, and two of the five tables of contestants scored 25 correct answers. However, no-one knew the meaning of mephitis.
The second round was called 'The sun, the moon and stars'. Among the ten questions, Kerry asked 'Which two planets have overlapping orbits?'.You'd think there would be planetary collisions if that question had an answer other than 'none' ... but 'none' was not the right answer!
Round three, 'Pets and other animals' was difficult. Question 2,' ''Cry havoc! and let slip the dogs of war!'' is a line from which Shakespeare play?', and question 8,'What was the name of Napoleon's horse?', were beyond us all. Only one team knew the name of the 'charismatic border collie' that stars in Babe.
Peter Judge had assembled the 20 sets of four words that made up Round 4. Each question consisted of three synonyms or near-synonyms and one maverick. In this round, one table scored full marks, and three tables lost only one point each.
'Geography and the physical world', our final round, was another tricky set of questions. Led on by Kerry's multiple choices, most of us decided that Mare Nostrum was on the moon - but the Desperate Measures team knew better. Do you? No-one (except Kerry) could identify the largest French-speaking city outside France, but apparently some people knew how many counties there are in Northern Ireland, Ulster and the Republic of Ireland ... astonishing!
Kerry had spent about two days, altogether, assembling questions and devising tricky definitions. He tried to make the quiz as hard as possible, but there was one team he couldn't defeat on many of the questions in these five rounds, and there were lots of questions that every table got right.The Desperate Measures, consisting of Cathy Nicoll, Chris Johnston, Claudia Marchesi and Roz Moye, won the quiz and a bottle wine, with their score of 87 points.
Although only about 25 members and guests turned up to enjoy the quiz and the fine soups and breads provided by Jenny Cook and Ann Parkinson, the evening was very enjoyable and well-organised.
The best news is that Kerry has enough questions left over for at least one more quiz night, or possibly two. If you are interested in attending the next quiz, do contact Kerry and tell him. Several of us have already done so.
Ann Milligan
Well, here it is September again, and annual general meeting time. All AGMs are important, but this one, for several reasons, is perhaps more important than usual. Please make sure that you are financial, and therefore a member and eligible to vote on the matters to be dealt with. Financial members should already have received a membership card for 2002-03.
In the first place, at the meeting members will be voting to accept, or reject, a new constitution for the Society.We need this new constitution to fulfil the requirements of incorporation under the Associations Incorporation Act 1991 (ACT). We want to incorporate to bring ourselves into line with other societies of our type and, most importantly, to limit the liability of our members in the, albeit unlikely, event of legal action being taken against us. It's a cliché I know, but these are litigious times.
All members should have by now received a copy of the latest draft of the new constitution. Please read it carefully and let us have your comments and questions if any, preferably before the meeting; direct them to Kerry MacDermott at <kerry.macdermott@ag.gov.au>. Kerry was the prime mover in drafting the new constitution, with the assistance at one time or another of several committee members. The document is based on the standard rules associated with the Act, which means that it does not have the elegant simplicity of the document on which the society was founded.This is unfortunate, but unavoidable, as will be the compliance costs of incorporation.
Also to be decided at the AGM is the matter of an increase in membership fees.The committee has decided to put to the members that fees for all categories of membership in the Society be increased by 50%.This would take the annual subscription for full membership to $60, hardly a princely sum.We need to increase subscriptions for the simple reason that our expenditure on services to members continues to exceed our income. The publication of a new edition of the freelance register, an essential service to the freelance members who make up a good proportion of our membership, contributed to somewhat higher expenditure during 2001-02.The Society will want to have the financial capacity to entertain other such projects for members in the future, especially perhaps in the area of training, as mentioned again later.
Our membership fees are similar to those of the other Australian societies of editors, but most of the other societies levy a charge to cover the cost of meetings.This charge is to offset expenditure on travel and accommodation of, and hospitality for, guest speakers, hire of venues and equipment, and so forth.These costs are a significant item on the balance sheets of societies. The charge levied varies markedly, according to the type of meeting involved. In New South Wales, for example, they have dinner meetings, and the charge may be well over $20. Other States have meetings in the same style as ours, and the charge is a few dollars, or even just a 'gold coin'.To cut short a lengthening story, I think that we should give serious thought to introducing a nominal charge of, say, $2 for normal monthly meetings, applicable to members and non-members.When we have very special events or speakers, it might be necessary to levy a higher charge on non-members. Please think about this.
I think that that's all the bad news. The pressing news is that at the AGM we need to elect a new committee for 2002-03.All positions are open and, apart from those I'll mention in a moment, the incumbents have made themselves available for re-election if there are no other candidates. Secretary Ann Parkinson has completed her statutory two years under the terms of the constitution and must resign. I am sure that all members will join with me in recognising and thanking her for her outstanding contribution to the Society, and not just over the past two years. Ann Milligan (newsletter editor) and Jenny Cook (catering) have 'done their bits' for the Society with considerable style and now wish to open the field to others. Our thanks go to them.
So, budding committee members, there are three quite different areas in which you could exercise your talents. Please give serious consideration to nominating: your Society needs you.This is a busy society, so being on the committee does take some time and hard work. But the rewards by far outweigh these things.You'll discover things about editing and the Society you never imagined, and you'll want to be part of the action in these exciting times of accreditation, national conferences, promotion campaigns and so forth.
Now for the good news.There has been a steady stream of applications for membership during the year. During 2001-02, we welcomed 32 new full members, 12 new associate members, and 1 new student member.We still have only 2 student members in all, so perhaps it would be useful if we engaged in some promotion around the universities and colleges. The bulk of new applications for membership come from people who are either established, or seeking to develop skills as, freelance editors. Our associates are an important and valued part of our membership, but we hope, of course, to see many of them eventually graduating to full membership. Although we already have, I believe, by far the greatest per capita number of editors of all the States and Territories, I think that opportunities for editors in Canberra remain strong, perhaps especially for those who embrace all aspects of the electronic technologies.
Our monthly meetings during the year have generally been well patronised, a reflection, I believe, of interesting topics covered and the camaraderie between members. For me, the highlights of the year were our visit to the 'Treasures' exhibition at the National Library, the launch of the new edition of our freelance register by Pam Peters, and the dinner with the graphic designers and indexers at the National Press Club to celebrate the publication of the sixth edition of the Style manual. But the Christmas barbecue too was very enjoyable, and to be repeated this year, and the quiz night just last month was a hit with participants.
We are indeed blessed to have the Friends' Lounge at the National Library of Australia as the venue for our monthly meetings, a venue that surely could not be bettered and must be the envy of our sister societies in other places. I take this opportunity, on behalf of our members, to thank the Director-General and staff of the Library, especially Society member and first-line contact at the NLA, Lee Kirwan, Executive Officer of the Friends of the National Library, for graciously allowing us to be there on the last Wednesday of most months.
On the national front, big things are happening through CASE, the Council of Australian Societies of Editors. Following its meeting in October last year, CASE formed working groups to look into accreditation, to begin preparations for a national conference of editors, and to draft a plan for a national promotion campaign.The accreditation working group recently distributed for comment a paper that canvasses the issues involved.
The paper aims: … to set out why accreditation of editors is being investigated and the principles which should underlie any accreditation system. CASE wants to ensure that members of the societies throughout Australia are aware of the background to the accreditation issue and fully informed of its implications.
Compulsory reading for all editors, I would have thought.The paper was distributed with the July newsletter and can also be obtained from our web site <www.editorscanberra.org>.The working group has set a closing date of 30 September for comments, which can be sent through me <ed@clarusdesign.com> or direct to Janet Mackenzie, the convener <jmack@mansfield.net.au>. Maureen Wright, who was our delegate to this group, has now gone to work in Noumea for a time, so we are looking for a replacement: volunteers are welcome to help in the interesting and challenging tasks involved.
The Queensland society has convened a working group to organise a national conference of editors to be held in the second half of next year, probably in Brisbane. Louise Forster is our delegate to that group.A program has been drafted and a theme selected.The latter is - love it or hate it - 'After Gutenberg and Gates - gazing into the future'.The draft program looks good and when it gels a bit more we'll put it up on our web site. In the meantime, keep in mind that the conference will be held, depending on economics, in either July or September-October next year.
Renée Otmar of the society in Victoria drafted a proposal for a national campaign to promote and raise the profile of the editing profession. The committees of each of the societies commented on, and made suggestions to improve the proposal. Renée incorporated these into a final proposal which was again circulated to committees for, in effect, endorsement or rejection. The matter remains under consideration, though I can report that your committee's initial response was that a more-targeted local campaign would bring more benefits than a national one. I can provide more information on this to any member who is interested.
So much for CASE matters.
Claudia Marchesi and Cathy Nicoll are providing a separate report on training courses run by the Society during the year.All I want to add here is that I see training as one of the most important of the Society's activities and, given adequate financial resources, likely to become even more so in the future.While our training activities in the past have been very solid, I believe that, drawing on the pool of talent available to us, we could move them up a gear and align them more closely with other fee-paying courses in the marketplace. Even without promotion, there is a constant, low-level demand for training in editing and proofreading.With a little work, I believe that that might be turned into higher level demand. Who better to organise editing, proofreading and related-topic courses in Canberra than the Canberra Society of Editors? Our newsletter and web site continue to serve the needs of members and others seeking information about current activities and trends in the editorial sphere. I have already mentioned Ann Milligan's stewardship of the newsletter over the past two years. I add here our thanks to Peter Judge for his devotion to the maintenance of our web site, which he also created, and for his continuing contribution to so many of the things the Society does.
Finally - an adverb I'm sure you'll be relieved to read - I thank all my fellow committee and members of the Society for their support during the year. I think it's in order for me to offer special thanks to Kerry MacDermott who, as well as continuing to look after membership matters and coordinating our meetings, took on the job of vice president, thereby delivering the president some blessed relief.
With the continuing support of members and a commitment to activities that will enhance recognition of the profession and its public status, the Canberra Society of Editors can look forward to a bright future.
Ed Highley
Our move to Sydney was so long in the planning that people were asking me when I was leaving for months before the removal van arrived.
Well before the move I'd joined the NSW Society of Editors and arranged listings in their directory and the Sydney yellow pages, which meant establishing a ghost telephone number.This planning made the transition much easier. Moving was of course hell. 'Let's die in Glebe' is what we agreed after the last boxes were unpacked.
I wasn't looking forward to making myself known to prospective clients, but luckily it hasn't been necessary.The marvel of the Internet has meant that many clients have simply followed me, electronically. The NSW society sends out job listings to the people on the register and some work has come to me that way. I concentrate on fiction and non-fiction editing, and also run training courses in writing and editing, and there seems to be plenty of work around in these areas. The main difference for me in working as an editor in Sydney is that there is a much bigger book publishing industry. Sydney editors talk about the negative effects of the GST on their work, and it's easy to see why the general downturn in the publishing industry that followed this 'reform' would affect work here more than in Canberra.
As well as transplanting the business, I have devoted many happy and obsessive hours to restoring the house. One of the great attractions of the place for me is the stock of beautiful old houses, and since we live in an 1880s terrace with lots of what real estate agents call original features, it has been great fun combing second-hand shops and auction houses for that must-have Victorian maid's bell, or that set of brass stair rods, with copper eyes.
Another big project that has moved with me is the website I've been building with a Canberra colleague, Susan Hampton.We have developed a series of courses on editing (me) and creative writing (Susan), and hope to go live by the end of the year.Watch this space.
I've met some charming and interesting people in the society here. I think that the similarities among editors outweigh any regional differences. I've been made to feel very welcome, and have joined the committee in my capacity as NSW representative on the working group on accreditation. As in Canberra, small voluntary societies rely on members to bring ideas and energy to the organisation, and there is a dedicated and hardworking bunch here, as there is in Canberra.
I was asked whether the rates in Sydney are different from those charged in Canberra. My impression is that, if anything, they tend to be lower. I continue to quote at my normal rates and have had no trouble keeping busy, but I have heard tell of what to my mind are appallingly low rates ($35 an hour, for example). It could well be that in Canberra, average rates are higher than elsewhere due to the amount of government work around. Let's hope that as our work on standards, accreditation, and education and training becomes better known, professional recognition and rates will improve.
Pamela Hewitt
The International Potato Center (CIP), based in Lima, Peru, needs a new Writer-Editor/Coordinator of the Publications Unit. Details can be found on the Web at <http:// www.cipotato.org/org/Jobs/writereditor. htm>. Applications close on 30 September, but often these jobs stay open until filled.
Snooks and Co. (rev.) 2002, Style manual for authors, editors and printers, Sixth edition, John Wiley & Sons, Australia, Ltd. ISBNs 0 7016 3648 3 (pbk.); 0 7016 3647 5. Available from Commonwealth Government bookshops and online at <http://www.bookshop.gov.au>, RRP: $44.95 (incl. GST).
The Style manual has been warmly welcomed by editors and editors' societies from around Australia. This is what we expected for our 'home team' led by Loma Snooks and is well deserved.
In our June newsletter Loma gave us background on how the 6th edition of the Style manual was put together and in the July newsletter she gave an overview of the style, layout and contents of the manual. This review probes more deeply to let editors get more of a feel for using the manual themselves and so they can tell friends and clients what it would be like for non-editors to read or consult it.
The book is 550 pages long, including some reference material, so it is not a 'quick read'. It describes in detail the involvement of a range of professionals in publishing a document, giving appropriate emphasis to its complexity while leading 'newbies' through the intricacies. Fortunately, our business is not yet approaching the complexity of the tax legislation and the many volumes of it, but this is still a lengthy book which should enable readers to realise that publishing is a complex business but not too daunting.
The opening chapter, 'The publishing plan', is an excellent introduction to the whole publishing process and is essential reading to get an overview of what's involved and how the book covers it.There is an earlier section called 'How to use this book', which explains how it is set out, but does not comment on how it could be approached. In the absence of encouragement to read 'from cover to cover', it's likely that most readers will, at most, dabble in the narrow issue they may be grappling with. I think this would be unfortunate. Few of us are well-versed in all aspects of the publication process, and for those who are, it is useful to know what information is 'out there' for others. In particular, I urge all readers who are considering an aspect of publishing to read the whole of the relevant chapter, to ensure that they access all pertinent material, especially the exceptions to the rules.
Its written style makes the manual easy to read. For an editor, it is a pleasure to read such a long publication with very few spelling or grammatical errors.The extensive use of sub-headings is another feature that makes it easy to take in the information.
It is good that some sidebars present important material in alternative words, or additional information, e.g. chapters to consider, web addresses to look at, material to read or recommendations for government practice where more than one possibility is acceptable.The pale red text, though, can produce eye-strain.
Throughout the manual there are examples which really aid understanding. The checklists and evaluation checklists are excellent tools. On most subjects there is much fine detail, even to the level of how to design the labels on CDs. On the other hand, in many places the facts are very dense.
The index seems to be designed for people who know what to look for, rather than other readers. Many of the expressions used in the Little book of style are included in relevant sections but not indexed (e.g. many compound words). Many headings also appear not to have been indexed.The index would have benefited from having a wider brief, better encompassing the needs of readers inexperienced in publishing, and it would have been very useful to have a glossary of specialist expressions and specialist use of common expressions.The manual encourages writers and editors to work with a dictionary by their side, but it may be excessive to have them have both to hand when preparing to work by reading the manual!
From time to time, some jargon appears without explanation, e.g. 'rule' on page 352, where it means a line, not an instruction.The word 'register' appears in the text early on but is not explained or indexed until it used again on page 51 as a heading.As another example, in the 'Illustration' section, 'imagery' refers to physical images such as photos or line drawings.This is different to its use in literature to refer to conceptual images.
The discussion of print and electronic publication issues is closely integrated through much of the manual, though there is a chapter dedicated to each format.The integration encourages readers to be aware of similarities and differences when publishing in both media, and to consider using both media for some projects. I would have preferred to have read about print and electronic publishing under separate headings, though.
I particularly valued the exhortation to involve editors early in the process, fully briefing them and supplying all planning documents. There is also emphasis on early planning for all stages of a publication, to prevent costly remedial work at later points. Part 2, 'Writing and editing' is nearly half of the book and con- tains many indications of 'correct' expression and specific recommendations for use in government publications.
The information on 'Inclusive communication', from page 55 onwards, essentially recommends expressions which could loosely be described as 'politically correct' but does not acknowledge the current backlash against many of these expressions, led by the current government. This must have been a difficult judgment call - what to recommend and what to mention. I think an acknowledgement of the influence of political climate would have been appropriate.
Some individual points: the section on 'older persons' on pages 61-62 does not seem to give enough guidance; the section on 'data' on page 81 gives little help on its use as a 'collective singular' or plural in documents; other relevant information is on page 71. However. I was pleased to see 'hopefully' accepted on page 74.
The section about the use of that/which on page 75 would be of interest to our members who have discussed this matter recently.
On page 264, the manual recommends the use of a separate style sheet for each document, in addition to any house-style guides. Starting a style sheet early in the editing process can be useful for identifying potential problems needing clarification.
The chapter on indexing emphasises that texts need to be analysed to develop the index structure and contents. Unfortunately, there is no direct reference to guide such an analysis.
Part 3, on design, is a good overview of many of the concepts. It would have been useful to give some guidelines on how to lay out different items on a page, e.g. text and images, now that newsletters are becoming more common as government publications.
There is considerable, valuable information on Web design.
Typography seems to be covered to a good level of detail, with many practical suggestions. However, the examples of using Times Roman and Helvetica are made without explaining that these are Mac fonts and that the equivalent PC fonts are Times New Roman and Arial.
Much of the new material in the latest edition consists of factual descriptions rather than specific recommendations.'Outside' material, such as the rules of copyright, changes from time and it is not appropriate for the Style manual to explain the variations since the previous edition of the manual. However, changes in specific recommendations, such as those about good writing, could usefully be spelled out. Then users could see the differences between the sixth and fifth editions of the manual and the Little book of style. I recommend that such a comparison be included in the next edition. Perhaps we can all pool the differences we notice in the meantime?
These are a few changes that Loma has noted:
• less use of capitals - for generic references to states, titles ('minister'), institutions (e.g. 'the gallery' for 'Australian National Gallery'), and for italicised titles of publications (but capitals for the elements of a book, e.g. Chapter 10,Table 1)
• punctuation of bulleted lists
• no full stops in am and pm
• no punctuation for people's initials
• no punctuation in dates: e.g. Friday 2 September 1999
• AD after the year
• where to place superscript numbers in relation to sentence punctuation.
Overall the manual is very useful for editors, despite my few reservations above. In addition, our work as editors would be more productive if our authors read and used the Style manual. Loma and her team have made reading the manual a manageable prospect, and we can safely advise our clients to buy it and use it.The manual will also be invaluable for all the small pockets of staff in the Australian Public Service who are doing their own publishing, rather than relying on a central publications section. The section on evaluating the publishing process is very welcome.
Congratulations to Loma and her team on a great new 'bible'.
Alexa McLaughlin
Continuing our occasional series of notes about the other States' editors societies, here are some brief notes provided by Gina Inverarity, president of the South Australian society.
The Society of Editors (SA) aims to:
We aim to achieve these things through our regular meetings and newsletters, workshops, and liaison with other societies. The society newsletter, The Word, comes out six times a year and keeps members in touch with the latest relevant publications, training courses and conferences, and abreast of society and members' news. Back issues are available in PDF format at <www.editors-sa.org.au>.
Pending a reply from the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee (AVCC), the society's policy on editing theses is as recommended in the letter from CASE to the AVCC, as published in this newsletter in January 2002. Space permitting, we will spell out the policy again in the next newsletter.
20 September: Closing date for AGM dinner acceptances
23 September: Deadline for receipt of nomination forms
25 September: The society's Annual General Meeting
30 October: The society's October meeting
22 November: Style Council conference (see August newsletter)
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