Editing academic texts for examination – the challenges facing student, supervisor and text editor
Join PEG for a webinar about the thorny issues related to editing theses and dissertations, and also a discussion that seeks to give guidance to students, supervisors and copy editors regarding the ethics of this kind of editorial work.
Date: Tuesday, 4 June 2024
Time: 14:00 to 17:00
Place: Online (Zoom meeting)
Panelists: Amanda Marais, Cathy Robertson, Richard Steele, Ursula Arends
Pre-webinar materials: A set of documents to read will be emailed to participants prior to the webinar.
Recording and handouts: Everyone who registers for a webinar will receive an audio recording of the event and PDFs of the PowerPoint slides afterwards.
About our facilitators
This nitty-gritty workshop brings together the perspectives of three different kinds of professional: a freelance editor who has specialised in academic editing (Ursula Arends), a representative of the academy who supervises postgraduate students and who has both researched and published about this topic (Amanda Marais), and two academics who are both editors and examiners of theses and dissertations (Cathy Robertson and Richard Steele).
Dr Amanda Marais obtained a PhD in 1997 from the University of Pretoria with a dissertation on the canonisation of the female author in the Afrikaans literary system. She is currently a senior lecturer and chairperson in the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch at Stellenbosch University, where she teaches Afrikaans language and literature. Her primary linguistic interests include editing (specifically the editing of academic texts), academic writing skills and discourse analysis; she also works in the field of literary translation. In the field of literature, she is particularly interested in literary feminism and is currently working on a project on historic constructions of female identity among Afrikaans-speaking South Africans.
Besides working for Avis and Anglo American, Dr Cathy Robertson has spent many years teaching English at high-school level and at a teachers’ training college, and even more years involved with skills development. She’s written learning materials and published in academia. She spent many years as examiner and moderator for Umalusi (DHET’s quality assurance body for examinations) and was responsible for writing their national report on internal assessment. Today, she is the managing editor of an academic journal, JOVACET (Journal of Vocational, Adult and Continuing Education and Training), is a research associate at Stellenbosch University and enjoys editing various forms of academic writing. She has been a member of PEG for almost ten years and serves the Guild and the editing profession by mentoring editors and setting and marking parts of the annual Accreditation Test. Her study fields include linguistics (master’s degree cum laude) and curriculum studies (PhD). She has been awarded the Business Trust Trophy for the promotion of Human Resource Development in the Western Cape, the Rotary Merit Award for Service to the Community beyond the call of duty, a Lifetime Achiever award from the Western Cape Education Department, PEG’s Derrick Hurlin award for Excellence in Mentoring and PEG’s Volunteer of the Year.
Richard Steele grew up in Kempton Park then went to the University of Cape Town to study a BA degree in English and psychology, followed by a high school teacher’s diploma, finishing in 1979. He was never a schoolteacher but worked as an educator and anti-apartheid activist in the fields of justice, peace, non-violence and conflict resolution, based in Durban. In 1993 he became a full-time student again, studying homeopathy at Technikon Natal in Durban, graduating with a master’s degree in homeopathic medicine in 1999. After that he worked in private practice in Durban and as a part-time lecturer in homeopathic medicine in the Department of Homeopathy at Durban University of Technology. He started working as a freelance academic editor in 2005. In 2021 he and his wife, Anita Kromberg, also an academic editor, moved to Gxarha (Morgan Bay) in the Eastern Cape. He still practices as a homeopath and works online editing master’s and doctoral theses and journal articles in all disciplines, specialising in science.
Ursula Arends is an experienced editor and proofreader, and has been working with educational institutions, postgraduate students and non-profit organisations for over a decade. She specialises in interdisciplinary humanities and social sciences, and her expertise spans various fields such as politics, history, gender studies, rural development, governance, child and family studies, natural resources management, migration and anthropology. Ursula began her career teaching English at several high schools in the Western Cape, primarily to young people from disadvantaged backgrounds whose vernacular was not English, before transitioning to a university research institute for a 20-year tenure, where she honed her academic-editing skills. A significant part of Ursula’s responsibilities included copyediting and proofreading research reports, policy briefs, peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, annual reports, master’s and doctoral theses and postdoctoral research reports. As a professional academic editor, Ursula knows the importance of placing people at the centre of every academic project.
About the webinar
Editing academic texts is always challenging, but when these documents are destined for examination (rather than publication), there are special challenges for the members of the ‘troika’, that is, the student, their supervisor and especially the copy editor. For example: Should we edit examinable material differently from publishable academic texts? To what extent should the editor engage with examinable texts – that is, what can be changed and what should not be touched but only flagged for the writer’s attention? How should we deal with ‘weak’ students? What makes them weak? Are they really weak or are they just not what we expected? And when supervisors are found wanting, is the editor permitted to step into their shoes? If so, how, and to what extent? What are the ethics of editing examinable texts?
Cost
| Affiliation | Early-bird fee (before or on 22 May) |
Full fee (from 23 to 30 May) |
|---|---|---|
| Bona fide registered students1 | R75 | R150 |
| PEG members | R295 | R380 |
| LAMP members* | R495 | R580 |
| Non-affiliated members | R695 | R780 |
1 Proof of student registration or academic staff status required
*LAMP members: Association of Southern African Indexers and Bibliographers (ASAIB), ProJourn, Southern African Freelancers’ Association (SAFREA), South African Science Journalists’ Association (SASJA) and the South African Translators’ Institute (SATI).
Please register by completing and emailing the registration form.
Deadline for registrations: 12:00 on 3 June.
Cancellation policy
If members are unable to attend this webinar after having registered and paid for it, a full refund is possible if cancellations are received by Sharon Rose by no later than 12 noon on Monday, 3 June. Once the final number of attendees has been confirmed on the eve of the webinar, no refunds are possible.
In addition, should you be prevented from participating in full or in part on the day of the webinar owing to Eskom loadshedding, you will be entitled to take either the same webinar or another on the 2024 webinar programme. When this occurs, the onus will be on you to inform the webinar coordinator of your disqualification on this ground and to specify which alternative webinar you would like to transfer your registration to.
Remember, though, that as a would-be or part-participant on the day, you will in any event receive the audio recording of the entire event plus PDFs of the PPT slides.
Use the early-bird special: save money and secure your spot at this webinar by registering early!