Canberra Society of Editors

Networking with Canberra’s writers

Editor — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 02:20:33 +0000

Meeting: FRIDAY 31 May 2013
6.00 pm (Editors’ panel starts at 6:15 pm)
Venue: The Bogong Room, Gorman House, corner of Ainslie Avenue and Doonkuna St, Braddon

Members of the ACT Writers Centre , Canberra Society of Editors and friends are invited
to a networking evening – this will include a panel Q&A session with editors from the society.
Writers – come and meet the local editors and ask whatever you need to know about having your
work edited. Editors – come and meet local emerging and established writers.

This is a May general meeting with a difference! It will be a special networking event on Friday 31st May at Gorman House: it will NOT be on the usual Wednesday evening at the ANU.

The evening is free for members of the Writers Centre or Society of Editors. $10 for non-member guests. It
will end with networking drinks and nibbles from 7:00 to 8:00 pm.

RSVP to sutcliff@smartchat.net.au (CSE members) or admin@actwriters.org.au (Writers Centre members)

The one-page editorial style guide

Editor — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 23:39:50 +0000

Meeting: Wednesday 24 April 2013
6.30 pm, networking and nibbles from 6.00 pm
Venue: ANU Emeritus Faculty, Building 1c/24 Balmain Crescent, Acton
Find the Emeritus Faculty on google maps

The Australian Government Solicitor devised a 16-page editorial style guide that was distributed to all staff in 2011. While generally pleased with its adoption, we realised that busy lawyers don’t always have time to look up a style recommendation — even in a 16-page guide, let alone the Commonwealth Style manual! So in 2012 we developed an even quicker, one-page guide as a statement of the main principles and rules.

David Whitbread is the Corporate Communications Manager at the Australian Government Solicitor in Canberra. He has formerly been the Head of Graphic Design at the University of Canberra and the Design Director of the Australian Government Publishing Service. He is the author of The design manual (2nd edition, UNSW Press, 2009) and was art director and one of the co-authors of the Commonwealth Style manual for authors, editors and printers (6th edition, Wiley, 2002).

The Canberra editor February-March 2013

Editor — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 18:47:36 +0000

Contents: Why develop a core professional development program for editors | IPEd Notes: Access to the members area of IPEd website | IPEd Notes: The national body. What is to happen with IPEd? | From the President: Happy birthday Canberra | February general meeting report | General meetings: The role that editors can play in publishing accessible information | Professional development | Committee news: Volunteers needed for panel of editors | Mentoring report | Article: XML markup | Reading | The Canberra editor. Print or electronic?

Back to basics: should universities teach grammar?

Editor — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 06:51:39 +0000

Imagine a student turning up at university and not knowing basic multiplication. He or she could be hard-working, bright, enthusiastic but completely unable to answer a basic question like: what’s six times seven? If the scenario sounds extreme, consider it a reasonable analogy for what has happened to the teaching of English grammar and syntax in Australia.

Read more at The Conversation (Published by the The Conversation Media Group, 11 March 2013)

The role that editors can play in publishing accessible information

Editor — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 03:38:49 +0000

Meeting: Wednesday 27 March 2013
6.30 pm, networking and nibbles from 6.00 pm
Venue: ANU Emeritus Faculty, Building 1c/24 Balmain Crescent, Acton
Find the Emeritus Faculty on google maps

Government is addressing it responsibility to make online information and services available to all Australians through the Web Accessibility National Transition Strategy. This strategy requires all content to conform with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 by the end of 2014. While the WCAG 2.0 is a technical requirement for websites, it contains many aspects that relate to how information is presented and Andrew will speak about the role that editors can play in publishing accessible information.

Andrew Arch is part of the team that is responsible for overseeing the implementation of the Web Accessibility National Transition Strategy to assist Australian Governments adopt WCAG 2.0. Andrew has a long history with web accessibility, including working with the W3C and with Vision Australia.

Efficient business writing

Editor — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 06:35:22 +0000

Ethos Education research shows that business, academic and government writing averages 35% inefficiency. This workshop will focus on efficient ways to keep readers engaged in reading business writing. It will show writers how to create a High Reader Impact with content and how to make efficient language choices.

Ron is a director at Ethos Education International Pty Ltd, a company specialising in education events for adults and young people. Ron also works as a corporate trainer in efficient and compelling business, academic and government writing. He steered the 5500 Project on the readability of 5500 web sites. He is also a director at MiningNexus Pty Ltd, a company promoting world mining and exploration. MiningNexus has the world’s largest freely available data base of mining companies, educational institutions, mining museums, mining events and mining news.

Ron taught Classics in secondary schools and worked for the Australian Federal Police, heading Learning and Development in Sydney. Ron and Dr Carl Knox-Robinson own SEPADO Technologies, inventing and developing EssayAudit, a program that analyses thinking structures in documents. Ron has a BA and MA both in Classics.

Accessible content writing: Word and PDF documents

Editor — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 23:48:15 +0000

This one-day workshop teaches you how to create accessible web content and accessible Word and PDF documents. This workshop is run in a computer lab environment and will be conducted using Microsoft Word 2010 and Adobe XI Professional SP1. Instructions for Microsoft Word 2007 will be included in the training manual supplied to attendees.

This workshop is facilitated by Sarah Pulis, Web Accessibility Evangelist at Access iQ™.

For more information, see: the AccessiQ website.

Disclaimer: This is not a Canberra Society of Editors workshop. We’re just telling you about it and we make no claims about its quality. Whether you attend (or not) is entirely up to you.

Convenor for IPEd communications committee (CommComm)

Editor — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 05:11:33 +0000

The Council of the Institute of Professional Editors (IPEd), of which Canberra Society of Editors is one of seven members, needs to appoint a new convenor for its Communications Committee (CommComm). This is an honorary position.

Please take the time to seriously consider this invitation as a valuable way to contribute to advancing the editing profession – your profession – in Australia.

Editing across borders – speakers

Editor — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 13:54:09 +0000

The 6th IPEd national editors conference will be held on 10–12 April 2013 at The Esplanade Hotel in Fremantle, Western Australia, and will be organised and hosted by Society of Editors (WA) Inc.

The theme for the conference is ‘Editing across borders’. Key topics for discussion will include crossing cultural, technological, ideological and international borders.

The advent of the typewriter and what it meant to writers

Editor — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 11:03:15 +0000

Meeting: Wednesday 27 February 2013
6.30 pm, networking and nibbles from 6.00 pm
Venue: ANU Emeritus Faculty, Building 1c/24 Balmain Crescent, Acton
Find the Emeritus Faculty on google maps

Robert Messenger is going to speak on at our February meeting. Born in New Zealand 1948, he worked as newspaper journalist New Zealand, Australia, Ireland and England 1965–2012, former columnist The Canberra Times 1997–2012, typewriter collector and typewriter historian, author.