Editing maths and science texts: an appetiser
Editing maths and science texts: A primer
Date: Thursday, 8 August
Time: 18:00 to 20:00
Place: Online (Zoom meeting)
Facilitator: Linda Pretorius
CPD hours: Attendees will receive a certificate confirming their attendance and their having earned 2 hours’ worth of formal CPD hours. Those who opt to listen to the audio recording of the webinar instead, without actually attending, will earn formal CPD time equal to one-third of the webinar duration.
Pre-webinar materials: None.
About our facilitator
Linda Pretorius has a science background and holds a PhD in Biosystems from the University of Pretoria. She loves science and working with words. In her career as a science writer, editor and proofreader she has found the best of both worlds.
Linda entered the world of editing in 2008, first as a freelancer and then working as in-house editor at a large educational publisher for eight years. In that time she worked extensively on science books, across the curriculum and science subdisciplines. In 2019, Linda decided to take the plunge and return to the freelance world, where she shares her experience with others as editorial consultant and hands-on practitioner, focusing mostly on science texts and critical editing and overwriting projects to mentor young writers in learning to write science right.
About the webinar
What does m.s-2 mean? Does the expression 7<x<-1 make sense? Is the different font types an inconsistency? And what on earth is a cubic tonne?
Maths and science use a language of numbers and symbols, where special formatting and editorial conventions, such as italicisation, superscripts, subscripts and bold type, carry specific meaning. This primer on editing maths and science texts will sensitise attendees to the editorial intricacies involved in working in this field.
Editing a maths or science test is like reading a special form of a language a copy editor is already familiar with, and requires you to apply an extra layer to your basic editorial acumen. Through explanations, examples and exercises, Linda will help you become aware of what to look out for when working on maths and science projects, lose your fear of working with numbers and symbols, and find the wonder of these subjects in the world around us.
No pre-work or exercises are necessary.
Cost
| Affiliation | Early-bird registration fee1 | Registration fee2 |
|---|---|---|
| PEG members | R295 | R380 |
| LAMP members3 | R495 | R580 |
| Non-affiliated members | R695 | R780 |
1Before or on 31 July
2Between 1 and 6 August
3LAMP 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 6 August.