Line breaks in DOIs and URLs – How do I add them?
Table of Contents – How do I use outline levels?
Bibliography or reference list – What is the difference?
A live bibliography – What is it and should editors make one?
Rates for projects – How do I calculate a quote?
Accurate, exact, precise – What is the difference?
PEG membership – How do I prove it to my clients?
Track Changes – How do I make them anonymous?
Sanction, one word with two opposite meanings – What is it called?
CPD – How many hours can I claim for webinar participation?
If you attend a webinar or listen to a recording of it, you earn the number of hours equivalent to the length of the webinar, eg if the...
CPD – Does PEG keep track of member CPD hours?
Our webinar administrator keeps a record of all members (including ATEs) for whom a certificate is issued. This helps members to calculate...
Substantive editing vs copy-editing – What is the difference?
Substantive editing focuses on the overall structure, content, and flow of a manuscript. When you engage an editor to perform substantive...
Editor–client communication – What should it include?
Much trouble can be avoided if we editors are mindful of adequate contracting with clients. This starts at the first ‘hello’ and ends with...
Surnames – Mr Le Roux or Mr le Roux
The use of capitals in surnames consisting of two or more parts is helpfully explained in the Stellenbosch University's US English Style...
Legal documents: Where can I find templates and advice?
The information below comes from a [PEGforum] Editing legal documents thread on Tue 2024/01/16 10:17. Thank you to the PEG member who...
Hyphens, en dashes, em dashes and minuses – When do you use which?
We learned a lot in a [PEGforum] Advice on en and em dash spacing thread that started on February 26, 2024 8:10 AM. This is a compilation...
Book publishing – What are the alternatives?
Books can be published in five main ways: Traditional publishing: They pay authors an advance. Small presses. They pay no advance and...
I am new to editing – What should I know?
Welcome to the Professional Editors' Guild (PEG)! To learn all you need to know about editing, work your way through all the pages in the...
Latin abbreviations – Should I use italics?
The useful information below comes from a [PEGforum] et al. thread started on 2023-07-27, and a [PEGforum] Use of italics for Latin...
Findings and results: What is the difference?
The term ‘findings’ should be used for qualitative studies and ‘results’ should be used for quantitative studies. For a less dogmatic...
Spelling – Health care, health-care or healthcare?
PEG member, Corné Janse van Rensburg, and the New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors prefer one word. The online Oxford Dictionary...
Colons – Capital or lower case afterwards?
We use an initial lower case only in two instances after a colon: to separate two parts of a sentence (and there are exceptions) and to...
Abbreviations – What should I know about them?
An abbreviation is a short form used to save space in text and make it more readable. There are three other short forms: acronyms,...
Developmental editing – What is it?
Developmental editing can occur before or during the production of a publishable manuscript. Beforehand, It helps clients choose a topic,...
Collective nouns – Singular or plural?
Collective nouns and the nouns they describe can be either singular or plural. Plural collectives describing singular nouns The words in...
Noun-verb agreement – What are the rules?
Singular subjects must have singular verbs, and plural subjects must have plural verbs. A singular subject + of + a plural object. What...
PEG full membership – How do I apply?
To apply for full membership, please contact fullmembership@editors.org.za. Click here to see a list of requirements in the 'Member...
Scientific formulae – What are the styles?
Here are a few links: https://www.keynotesupport.com/internet/special-characters-math-currency.shtml...
Diversity and inclusivity – What does PEG think?
Diversity refers to the characteristics, experiences, and other distinctions that make one person different from another: race, ethnicity,...
Worldbuilding – What is it and what does it mean for editors?
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines worldbuilding as: The creation of a fictional world (especially within the science fiction and...
PEG’s 30th Anniversary Conference 2023 – What was it about?
PEG'S 30th Anniversary Conference was held from the afternoon of 31 May to the evening of 1 June 2023. Click here to see the programme....
THE definite article – Do I use it before the names of departments and countries?
The question A PEG member asked the PEGforum*: When does one add the definite article to 'National Treasury'? I see it used with and...
Codes and ethics – What does PEG say?
The Professional Editors' Guild has a high standard of ethics and codes of conduct. Code of conduct, March 2021 Constitution, amended June...
Style guides and style sheets – What is the difference?
House style guides give pointers on general stylistic preferences: font and font size, margin sizes, colours, dictionary, not using...
Egroups – What are the PEG egroups and how can I join them?
The {PEG Official} egroup is the official mailing list, where you will receive event invitations, PEG news, job listings and official...
PerfectIt – What is it and why should editors use it?
PerfectIt is a customisable software program offered by Intelligent Editing to check many kinds of consistency: spelling, abbreviations,...
Rates – How much should I charge?
What you charge depends on what type of editing or proofreading service you are offering and how much your client is willing to pay. The...
Accreditation – What does it mean for PEG members?
Accreditation enables PEG members to advertise their level of competence to clients, it boosts their self-confidence, and enables them to...
PEG Signatures – When and how are they available?
When you have been a member of PEG for a minimum of one year, have paid your membership fee for the next year, and have earned at least 20...
Computer software – Which version of Microsoft Office should I buy?
If you have a very old laptop, with an old operating system and drivers you haven't updated in forever, don't bother with Office 2021:...
Computer hardware – What does an editor need?
You need at least: an I5 processor (I7 if your budget can swing it), 16 to 32 GB of RAM, and a 500 GB SSD hard drive (but bigger is...
Figures of speech – illustrated
An allusion walks into a bar, despite the fact that alcohol is its Achilles heel. Falling slowly, softly falling, the chiasmus collapses...
Parts of speech – illustrated
Every name is called a NOUN, like field and fountain, street and town. In place of noun the PRONOUN stands like he and she can clap their...
Table of contents – How do I make a paragraph appear like a heading in the TOC?
For the PC Word version of Microsoft 365: Put your cursor anywhere in the paragraph you want to show in the Table of Contents. Go to Home...
Table of contents – How do I stop a heading appearing?
For the PC Word version of Microsoft 365: 1. Put your cursor anywhere in the text version of the heading you do not want to show in the...
PEG membership – What kind of editor do I need?
PEG has a number of membership categories. Accredited text editors (ATEs) Associate members Full members Student members First-time...
Accredited editors – What are they and why should I use one?
PEG Accredited Text Editors (ATEs) are PEG members who have passed PEG’s accreditation test with a mark of at least 80%. These members...
Active and passive voice – What are they and when do I use them?
‘Voice’ expresses whether the subject in a sentence acts (active voice) or is acted on (passive voice). Active voice is more direct and...
Anonymity – How do I stop my name showing when I am editing?
Sometimes you want Word's document properties and Track Changes not to disclose your name. Here's how to remain anonymous and just be...
Articles – What are they in English and how do I use them?
English has two articles: the and a/an. The is used to refer to specific or particular nouns; a/an is used to modify non-specific or...
As and because – What is the difference?
Because means “for the reason that”. As has several different meanings. To avoid ambiguity, use because if you are talking about why...
As well as – Does it mean the same as ‘and’?
As well as does not mean and. Only use it before an item that is different from the other items in the list, e.g., He bought milk and...
Figure and table captions – What are the conventions?
There are any number of conventions for figure and table captions but here are some suggestions: First and foremost, table captions must...
Commas after introductory phrases – Are they necessary?
An introductory phrase sets the stage for the main part of the sentence: After the meeting was over, he was exhausted. While she was...
Commas with conjunctions – When should I use them?
As connectors, conjunctions join different elements (words, phrases or clauses) in a sentence. There are two types of conjunction:...
Compound nouns – What are they and do I pluralise them?
A compound noun is a noun made up of two or more existing words. Examples are: billiard table bread and butter cat food five-pound note...
Consistent terminology – Should I use different words for variety?
Not always. Once you start to use a noun, keep using it for consistency – avoid ‘thesaurus syndrome’ (firm, company, organisation,...
Language editors – What are they and what do they do?
A language editor (copy editor) is someone who has the skill and expertise to make a piece of writing easy to read and clear in meaning....
Order in lists – How and why should I order lists?
Try to put all lists into some sort of order – alphabetical (ABC), numerical (123) or chronological (by date). Alphabetical order is...