Need to know more about where technology is taking the print-producing world? Our speaker this month is Paul Mullins, Manager (Publishing) of Pirion Pty Ltd, and CEO of Ausinfoshop Pty Ltd.
Paul will talk about the transition to online content production and access, particularly in the government area. The demands that creators and consumers of information make of printers are changing in line with technology; Paul will tell us about the new ways traditional printing and associated industries are finding to meet these emerging demands.
In the Friends Lounge, National Library of Australia, 6 for 6.30 pm, on Wednesday, 29 September.
- Next meeting
- President's report
- From the Editor's desk
- Tense encounters
- Training: Introduction to copyediting
- Catering update
- Thinking about words
- A little of what you fancy
- Copy editor, where were you?
- New Members' Subcommittee
- Bits and Pieces
- Deadlines
At the August meeting Anne Greiner gave us a very practical session on how to protect our computers from the various threats presented by the Internet. And dinner afterwards was at the Pide House in Civic. Cathy Nicoll, our new Catering Coordinator, provided a very generous spread, and was overwhelmed with offers of help for future meetings - not so overwhelmed, however, that there isn't room for more. If you are interested in joining the ranks of the much-appreciated food providers, contact Cathy.
The main item of committee news for this month is that we have decided to produce a new edition of the Freelance Register. This handy little publication is still seen as an excellent advertising and promotional tool for the Society.
Even though the list of freelancers on our web site is always available, there are still many people who prefer a hard copy. I was speaking to a client only a couple of weeks ago who wasn't aware of our web site (can you believe that?) but their office has a copy of the 2002 hard-copy version, which they are still using!
The subcommittee will be using the web site list as a basis and you will be asked to confirm the details therein. All freelancers who are full members of the Society will be able to advertise their services. If you're not yet listed, keep an eye on the web site and the newsletter for further information on how to be included. Our projected publication date is early next year.
See you at the September meeting.
Claudia Marchesi
In this month's newsletter we have the first in a new series of short articles that one of the founding members of the Canberra Society of Editors, Peter Judge, has kindly offered to pen (or more appropriately, in this age of computers, keyboard!). The series is entitled 'Thinking about words' and needs no explanation. We look forward to thought-provoking articles from Peter into the new year - which is now not that far away!
If you have any ideas or suggestions, or indeed any contributions in the form of articles or amusing items, please contact me on 0417 263 727 or send them to me at the email address provided in the members' list on p.2.
Ara Nalbandian
Moving house can be stressful, but relocating and having one's inner stickler challenged is reckless. Downsizing almost invariably means buying furniture, ordering blinds, selecting plants, and so forth. Good service is one thing, but service with poor grammar is quite another.
Picture this: I'm at a shop counter in Fyshwick ordering a mirror and paying a deposit. The sales assistant politely asks: 'What was your name?' I'm suddenly stricken by a bad case of literal-mindedness. (This affliction has troubled me in the past, I admit.) I hesitate, perplexed by the irrelevance of my maiden name to the transaction, and lamely offer, 'I've never actually changed my name.' The young man, eyeing me warily, prompts me with: 'And your name is … ?' We both breathe deeply after that brief, tense encounter.
On the way home I do battle with my mixed emotions. Should I have confronted him, corrected him, confused him or consoled him? I mentally rehearse what I'm going to say the next time someone asks me that question. I consider sarcasm: 'I've always had the same name'; superciliousness: 'I don't see what my previous name has to do with my ordering a sofa'; confusion: 'Well, when I got married I couldn't see the need to change my name so I kept it because there are very few Topors in the world'; or a sotto voce correction: 'Actually, you should have asked me what my name is'.
While deciding the best approach, I alternately gnashed my teeth or lapsed into complacency. But my inner stickler would not be consoled.
Today I ordered a book at the Botanic Gardens. I was surprised to be asked that question by a person in her forties. Just how insidious is this disease? My inner stickler rising, I replied with feigned casualness: 'My name is/was Helen Topor ... whatever!'
Helen Topor
PS Yes - she did give me a strange look, but I'd like to believe that she's at least thinking about that tense encounter.
This training session will provide you with basic information about the skills and tools required for copy editing, levels of edit and the challenges for copy editors. A range of practical exercises will be conducted.
When: Friday, 22 October 2004, 1.30 to 5.00 pm.
Where: CREEDA, Canberra Business Centre, 281 Goyder Street, Narrabundah.
Presenter: Helen Topor (CIT Lecturer)
What to bring: Dictionary, Style Manual, 6th edn, John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd, 2002
Registration: $60.00 members, $120.00 non-members, cheque or money order
Include your name, phone number, email and postal addresses, and any special dietary needs, and post to:
- The Treasurer, Canberra Society of Editors Inc.
- PO Box 3222
- Manuka ACT 2603
Registration closes 13 October 2004
My first performance as catering coordinator for general meetings was, at least in my opinion, a raging success with a range of snacks and Turkish dips and bread, and the usual liquid refreshments, of course.
Unfortunately, this menu depleted my entire repertoire of finger-food snacks. Faced with the prospect of the same spread month after month after month, a few people leapt in with offers to cater for the next few meetings.
More seriously, the position of catering coordinator is just that - to coordinate rather than DIY the entire thing. Thanks to Lucy Tylman and Jeanette Swayn (September) and Gabby Lhuede (October), we'll have something different to look forward to for the rest of the year.
If anyone else wants to help out in the new year, please contact me on 6259 2984, or talk to me at next month's meeting. All participation welcome.
Cathy Nicoll
As editors we spend most of our working hours thinking about words - probably hunting for le mot juste, if we consider that our client hasn't managed to hit on it. So it does no harm to look occasionally at a word or two to see where those words came from and how this has affected their meanings.
When is a 'mot' bon? And when is it juste? Of course, the first is a witticism; and the second, the right word for the job. But, when we are writing in English, is a foreign word ever the right word for the job? Should we write e.g. or for example? etc. or and others (or even and so on and so forth)? It all depends on what we are writing and for whom. In general, easily recognisable English words always communicate better than foreign words, let alone abbreviated Latin phrases that have now become clichés (especially etc.), and are quite often just sprinkled in out of laziness or ignorance.
When we write about foreign places we generally use the English form if one exists: Germany rather than Deutschland, The Hague rather than Den Haag (or worse, 's Gravenhage!), Moscow rather than Moskva, Canton rather than Guangzhou. Other nations do the same: Paris comes into English unscathed but in Italian becomes Parigi, Venezia may be Venice or Venedig, Beijing used to be Peking and is still Pékin for the French … But if we edit a novel where Antonio says, 'Tomorrow I go to Londra', would we leave the Italianism? What if Pierre replies, 'I usually take the packet to Douvres'? Packet? Does he carry a parcel? No, he is taking the packet-boat - the ferry - to Dover. We have to keep the flavour but make sure that the reader will understand.
The English language has a wonderfully rich and nuanced vocabulary, to the extent that it is sometimes difficult to be sure that a word or phrase is indeed the best. Working to a tight deadline, you reach for a word that will do the job and down it goes (the journalists' motto was once thought to be 'Don't get it right, get it written', but I'd say that sounds a bit libellous. Or if I really said it, rather than wrote it, slanderous).
In Modern Australian Usage, Nicholas Hudson lists more than a hundred foreign words and phrases, from agent provocateur to scherzo and Bundestag, but he is trying to help you pronounce them correctly rather than encourage you to use them in writing. Then there are some 'false friends' (faux amis!) among them: for example, he includes brassière, but doesn't explain that the French for bra is soutien-gorge. And then there are some quirks of usage: we drive into a cul-de-sac where the French would meet an impasse.
In any case, keep away from any words you are unsure of (that applies to English, too!) - especially if you are trying to do clever things with foreign words, like making plural nouns or using verbs that take various endings. Our Quick Crossword compiler gets away with fraus (women, G.) or casas (houses, It.), but in Germany and Italy they would have to be Frauen and case. Better, in normal speech or writing, to stick to expressions you and your audience are comfortable with. They are far more likely to be les mots justes!
Peter Judge
Janet Mackenzie is an editor's editor. She has been freelance editing, teaching editing and breaking new ground in editing for more than thirty years. She's a life member of the Society of Editors (Victoria), had major input into the Australian Standards for Editing Practice, and is currently involved in working towards accreditation for editors through the Council of Australian Societies of Editors (CASE). Her book The Editor's Companion reflects that experience - it is nearly as good as having Janet right there with you. It's a real 'companion' - a book every editor should have within reach on the reference shelf, along with the Macquarie Dictionary and the Style Manual. I'd also have handy the Standards and The Design Manual (all detailed below). In fact, I have heaps more, all well-thumbed, but those would make a beginning editor's bookshelf look respectable.
The jacket blurb begins: 'As the knowledge economy takes shape, editors face many challenges: technology is transforming publishing, text is losing out to graphics, and writing is distorted by cliché, hype and spin. More than ever, editors are needed to add value to information and to rescue readers from boredom and confusion.'
The Editor's Companion is written in Janet's friendly, forthright, no-nonsense style; is eminently readable and well-organised; and covers a huge range of information on aspects of editing in Australia.
It starts from the premise that we know about the Standards, but if we don't, they are reproduced in the book as an appendix. Her book exemplifies and works on editing situations contained in the Standards. It also assumes familiarity with the Style Manual (6th edn) - Janet doesn't waste space discussing details that are already well covered in this work.
The book takes a logical, brisk walk (no dawdle, this) through the essentials, following pretty much the progression of the Standards - where the editor fits into the changing publishing scene, and indeed where publishing is going in the future; the basics of the publishing process, and including useful advice about the technology that we must become familiar with if we're to survive as editors; getting on with the job from quoting text, structure (including on-screen structure), language norms and problems, and dealing with graphics and design. These are all to be expected in such a book, but Janet goes further.
She includes detailed instruction in an area often neglected - all the 'bits and pieces' of a publication, such as preliminary material, end matter, jacket blurb, references and a useful guide to indexing. Also included is an excellent examination of how proofs are marked up depending on whether the material is hand-marked on hard copy or marked up on screen using Track Changes. And her advice in Chapter 2 on the ethics of editing is first-rate.
A highlight of the book is her succinct twelve-step program for copyediting. This is written as a personal 'how I do it' chat with the reader. It leads the new editor through all the stages: appraisal, initial mark-up/style application, rough edit of text and of everything other than text, then the smooth edit after the rough edges have been knocked off, compiling a list of queries and putting all the documentation in order. The later stages include incorporating author corrections, a final check of everything, printing out and handing over.
'The most common complaint about editors is that they're pedantic' the author writes (p. 16). And later, under the heading 'Pedantry: editors as grammar police' (p. 80), she writes: 'There are two approaches to good usage: the prescriptive, which says how the language ought to be used, and the descriptive, which says how people actually do use it. Editors tend to favour the prescriptive. It's easier to apply rules mindlessly than to engage with each sentence, its content and context. Don't become a pedant. Rather than parading your extensive vocabulary and your knowledge of grammatical byways, use them to serve the author and the reader.' Hear, hear, say I, as a descriptive linguist with a good understanding of grammar!
This is, to me, a key paragraph in a book that draws on Janet's extensive knowledge of language and her practical attitude to editing, so that the author is satisfied and the reader can read the document without hesitation. This is not to say that acceptable language norms are ignored. In chapters 5 and 9 in particular, Janet details many of the aspects of language and language editing that should concern editors if their work is to produce readable and saleable books.
In the last couple of chapters, Janet deals with technology - some of the software available, and sound advice on maintaining one's equipment and saving files; and a handy section on how to be a freelance editor with all the contingent hassles of being a business person and not just an editor. As she notes early in the book in commenting on the editor's multifaceted role of 'monitoring, prioritising, liaising, managing documents, maintaining schedules, foreseeing and preventing problems', 'proficiency in these areas is just as essential as knowledge of spelling, grammar and typography' (p. 10).
Having read the book once, I will now go back and read sections again that are relevant to me. I would have liked a little more on computer-assisted editing techniques. I would also have liked some thoughts on the editor's role as a teacher or trainer, particularly in the suggestions and recommendations made in Track Changes' comment notes. However, these are minor 'wish-list' comments that Janet Mackenzie's book has triggered in me personally.
It is a great book and I recommend it to all editors, and particularly to those new to the profession, those needing to update on available help (see the extensive notes and bibliography), or those returning to editing after a career in a related area. It sits well with The Australian Editing Handbook (Flann and Hill) and Copy-editing (Butcher).
Janet Mackenzie's The Editor's Companion is a welcome addition to the Australian literature on this subject. It is compact, 219 pages including illustrations and index, with a RRP of $39.95. ISBN 0 521 60569 5. Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Australian Standards for Editing Practice (referred to as Standards), 2001, Council of Australian Societies of Editors (CASE) (downloadable from societies' web sites)
Butcher, Judith, 1992, Copy-editing: the Cambridge handbook for editors, authors and publishers, 3rd edn, Cambridge University Press
Flann, Elizabeth and Beryl Hill, The Australian Editing Handbook (my copy published 1994 by AGPS Press, Canberra; new edition published by John Wiley, Brisbane, due in October 2004)
Macquarie Dictionary
Style Manual, 6th edn, 2002, Commonwealth of Australia, revised by Snooks & Co, John Wiley, Brisbane
Whitbread, David, 2001, The Design Manual, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney
Elizabeth M. Murphy
This month's offering is from The Canberra Times' real estate pages ...
And we wish them luck!
Thanks to Tracy Harwood for this gem.
This year the Society has attracted quite a few new members. Where are you all?
The Society welcomes the involvement of its new members. And we'd like to think we give you good value for your membership dollar.
We have formed a subcommittee to address the needs of new members. The New Members' Sub-committee is keen to hear from you and to get your feedback on what you'd like to see the Society doing, or how you'd like to be involved.
What would you like to see on the Society's agenda?
Is there a particular issue you'd like us to feature at one of our monthly meetings? A particular speaker you'd love to hear? Even a particular dietary requirement we don't seem to cater for?
What sort of training would you like us to offer?
Equally, your Society welcomes the skills and energy you have to offer. Remember you don't have to be a full member to participate on the Committee, and there are many opportunities for all members to contribute to the Society's activities.
And if you have skills you could share, why not talk to us about running a formal or informal training event?
Your subcommittee is looking at possible new member information nights, social events and a variety of professional development events.
Let us hear from you - after all, you're why we're here. Contact the New Members' Sub-committee:
Ted Briggs (6161 4924), Jenny Cook (6295 0035), Jeanette Swayn (6281 3804) or Lucy Tylman (6249 1497).
Jenny Cook
This newsletter has been predominantly set in 10pt Century Gothic with either 14pt or 16pt leading between the lines. Headings are set in 16pt or 18pt bold Georgia. What do you think of the layout? (Thanks again to Jenny Cook for her assistance.)
Lucy Tylman
If you've read Lynne Truss's Eats, Shoots & Leaves or David Whitbread's The Design Manual (and if you have a good memory), you'll know that the italic form was invented in the early sixteenth century by Italian Aldus Manutius, who was also responsible for a lot of the punctuation we use today.
Ara Nalbandian
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For the newsletter of... |
Copy deadline is |
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October 2004 |
1 October |
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November 2004 |
30 October |
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February 2005 |
30 January |
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.
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