At first, I didn’t think I needed to join the Professional Editors’ Guild (PEG). However, it became clear to me that it was important to do so. I joined PEG in October 2019, although I had called myself an editor since 2003. I had come to know of PEG’s existence, but...
Whether we admit it or not, editing comes with a certain measure of power. With a stroke of the proverbial red pen, we can dash writing dreams and topple empires full of plot holes. But with great power comes great responsibility, not so? Power is a fickle thing. What...
Dealing with two pauses at once – the need for physical rest after a health setback and the financial worry of knowing the holiday drought is still ahead and the pot isn’t full enough. For many South African freelancers, December and January bring mixed emotions. We...
When I joined the Professional Editors’ Guild in 2022, I thought I had editing and proofreading down to a fine art. I have good English abilities and a natural eye for detail. I love the technical side of editing – the formatting, fitting and finessing. I'm equally...
Every creative hits a block at least once in their career. It might be extreme to say that every passion has an expiry date, but it certainly has a maturing stage. It’s not you; it’s me I experienced my block roughly two weeks ago. I can’t pinpoint exactly why it...
‘I just looove accounting!’ said no editor ever. Yet, if we consider that we as freelancers are all running businesses, then bringing home the bacon and accounting for it [insert eye-roll here] should be a top priority. ‘But why are numbers so boooring?’ [much...
Wouldn’t we all love to have a fairy godperson swoop over our work, sprinkle some magic dust and transform it into something readable, accurate, consistent and cogent, every time? Do we gnaw on our fingernails, stressing over whether we can carve that adjective...
It’s easy, when you are copy-editing, to get lulled into a sense that the words you are reading are as they should be. But the good editor’s motto is to take nothing for granted. An article on the News24 website made my husband cross. The article, about a drowning in...
Editing is not just someone correcting mistakes in something you’ve written. It’s a dialogue in which the writer has a vital part to play … When I submit a quote for an editing job, it contains this sentence: ‘The fee includes one set of amendments based on client...
I believe in building professional connections. All the time. My network of professionals is made up of colleagues and clients almost entirely related to my field of work in one way or another. It’s where I learn, I feel motivated and I expand my knowledge, skills and...
The first time I had to deliver difficult feedback to a fiction author was on a fantasy manuscript, brimming with imagination but bogged down by clunky prose and plot holes. I spent hours deliberating over how to approach my critique, torn between honouring the...
The social media landscape in 2025 Social media (SM) has exploded around the world in the past 25 years, with the big platforms launching after 2000, eg: Reddit and YouTube in 2005; Twitter and Facebook in 2006; WhatsApp in 2009; Pinterest and Instagram in 2010;...
Three years ago, I wrote a series of articles on marketing, digital marketing, social media marketing (SMM) and content vs paid SMM, as they relate to editors in South Africa. These four articles provided an introduction to SMM, a tactic that can be used easily by...
A future with machines Should we be concerned about a future alongside AI? Does the future hold productivity gains or mass employment? We are only just starting to see how this new technology will affect our particular line of work. As an academic editor, it is...
Writing a thesis is a big deal. It’s the result of months (sometimes years) of research, thinking and hard work; and pulling all that work together into a polished, professional thesis can be tough. That’s where three key players come into the picture – the student,...
In my previous blog post, I told you why and how I use Draft view for the documents I am not editing. In this blog I tell you how I set up my screen for the document I am editing. Hiding headers and footers I start by editing the document in Print Layout View because...
While I was doing my usual setup for editing, I wondered whether other people knew about the usefulness of Draft view for documents you are not editing. If you follow the instructions in this post, it displays in a monospaced font like the old typewriter fonts...
PEG’s website has a nifty visual and FAQs for clients, which explain the difference between a proofread and an edit. I realised recently that, as editors, we may need to check our understanding too. In this blog, I share with you my thoughts on the difference between...
A controversial concept I recently came across a social media post that unsettled me. The person who posted claimed that academic writers would benefit from training by popular fiction writers. The poster found the dense academic prose difficult to understand. This...
Taking on editing work for a student’s academic project – whether it’s an essay, dissertation or thesis – is a rewarding but complex task. As editors, our goal is to polish and refine the student’s writing while maintaining their unique voice and upholding academic...
