Seeing the meaning for the words: Plain English principles in academic texts

Repeat of May conference presentation

Seeing the meaning for the words

Focus: Plain Language principles in academic texts

Date: Thursday, 4 July 2024

Time: 18:00 to 19:30

Place: Online (Zoom meeting)

Facilitator: Sally Hofmeyr

CPD hours: Attendees will receive a certificate confirming their attendance and their having earned 1,5 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 (30 minutes).

Pre-webinar materials: NONE

About our facilitator

Sally Hofmeyr is an ornithologist with a passion for good writing. She loves to bring out the best in both academic texts and other editors. At Uni-edit (the editing company she freelances for) and PEG she helps editors to hone their skills and appreciate the nuances of crystal-clear writing. She learned the essentials of good academic writing from her PhD supervisor, though he probably never imagined he was setting her up for a career in editing. To keep in touch with the wonderful and frustrating world of academia, she continues to dabble in ornithological fieldwork, escaping her desk from time to time to do bird counts, monitor penguins, and harass red-winged starlings.

About the webinar

We are all familiar with stodgy, unclear, difficult-to-read academic writing. Many authors seem to think they have to use the longest words and the wordiest sentences possible to sound professional and knowledgeable – but do they? In this talk I will demonstrate how to apply Plain Language principles when editing congested academic sentences to render them simpler and clearer – which is, incidentally, how the best academic authors write and is therefore far more convincing and professional sounding than the traditional turgid style. Making this kind of intervention (and educating your clients along the way by doing so) is becoming increasingly important. Trust in science and academia is at all-time low, and impenetrable academic writing does nothing to help that situation. It is crucial, therefore, for editors to help to make academic writing as clear and accessible as possible. However, that does not mean doing away with jargon! Technical terms usually carry very specific meanings, so they must be treated with caution and sensitivity. I will discuss the relevant Plain Language principles and show how they can be applied in a range of contexts while taking care to preserve the author’s meaning precisely. This talk will be most relevant to editors of non-examinable academic texts, since the kinds of interventions I will be discussing are generally beyond the editor’s remit when working on theses and dissertations.

Cost

¹LAMP 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 2 July.