’Falling into a comma’: the good and bad sides of the common comma (and its allies who could come to its rescue!)
Join PEG for our webinar series where you will have the opportunity to upgrade your knowledge and skills as editors and proofreaders in a variety of ways: linguistic, stylistic, business, digital, technical and more. Are you flummoxed, frustrated or just plain nonplussed by authors’ (mis)use of punctuation such as the comma in their writing and by having to make improvements? Perhaps sharpening your Punctuation Pencil might make the task a whole lot easier for you … And enable you, as a text editor, both to improve the flow of an author’s words and to clarify their intended meaning through appropriate use of the comma and its allies.
Focus: If words are the building blocks of sentences, then punctuation marks can be viewed as the cement holding them together (aided and abetted by connectors) and supporting the words in conveying the author’s intended meaning. We’ll be focusing on a range of the punctuation errors that authors typically commit either with or without the comma and how to rectify them.
Date: Tuesday, 5 September 2023
Time: 18:00 to 20:30
Exercises in detecting and correcting errors and omissions involving the comma and its allies will be sent upon registration.
Place: Online (Zoom meeting)
Facilitator: John Linnegar
Pre-webinar materials: Exercises based on excerpts from past Editors Canada exam papers will be emailed upon registration.
CPD hours: Attendees will earn 2,5 hours of core CPD; those who do not attend but receive the recording will earn 30 minutes of discretionary CPD.
About our facilitator
John Linnegar began his career as a teacher of English, History and Mathematics. He has been an avid ‘improver of authors’ words’ for four decades now, and remains dedicated to making their texts read as clearly as possible (and in the process saving a reputation or two!). Apart from co-authoring three of the PEG guides, John is author of several texts dealing with matters grammatical and stylistic, including Engleish, our Engleish:
Common errors in South African English and how to resolve them (Pharos, 2013), Oxford English grammar: The advanced guide (OUP, 2015) and, most recently, with Ken McGillivray, grammar, punctuation and all that jazz . . . (MLA Publishers, 2019). He currently offers a personalised ‘online’ Grammar for Editors course aimed at those who need to brush up their English grammar and use of punctuation. Since 2000, he has been training copy editors and proofreaders for South Africa’s book publishing industry and championing the professionalisation of our craft and its practitioners. To this end, he co-authored Text Editing: A handbook for students and practitioners (UPA, Brussels, 2012).
About the webinar
By considering a wide range of the errors of punctuation that authors typically commit either with or without the comma, John will expose you not only to ways of detecting but also to correcting them in ways that enhance both the writing and the reputation of authors. After walking you through a presentation on the kinds of errors authors commit with commas, the problems with punctuation you are likely to encounter, and instances of correct usage, often involving their allies, he will work through the exercise sent to the registrants prior to the webinar. So if you feel that the effective use of punctuation and the identification of errors is one of your weak spots, you’re likely to come away from this webinar a lot wiser and stronger.
As an add-on to this webinar, if you would like to send him your own questions about particular comma-related bugbears, they will be most welcome. He’ll try to incorporate them into the available time.
Cost
| Affiliation | Early-bird registration fee (by/on 31 August) |
Registration fee (from 1 to 4 September) |
|---|---|---|
| PEG members | R275 | R350 |
| LAMP members* | R475 | R550 |
| Non-affiliated members | R675 | R750 |
*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 to Sharon Rose.
Deadline for registrations: 12:00 on 4 September.
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 4 September. 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 2023 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!