Richard Steele said in his recent blog about his take on academic referencing: Formatting “makes it much easier for me to work with the document, it looks professional, and it is much easier for the examiners to navigate … this is a technical issue, not an academic...
Let’s face it: working remotely can be lonely. Yes, we love the independence and flexibility that being a freelance editor or proofreader allows, but there may still be times when we feel isolated while we work alone in our carefully organised home offices. So, how...
It’s the bravery – the courageous stepping into the unknown – that now delights me. There was a time when pedantry could have been my middle name. When misplaced apostrophes, caps strewn among non-proper-noun words with abandon, misspelling, and incorrect use of words...
We took some time away from the business of copy-editing to hear from Hester von Wielligh, a member of PEG since 2006, about her thoughts and her experiences as a long-standing member of the Guild. She, too, is celebrating PEG’s 30th anniversary. Hester is one of...
I have been a supervisor and an examiner of academic texts but am now an editor of academic texts. I offer my services in academic editing because I want the student’s (and the university’s) efforts to be honoured with a well packaged product. This post explains a...
To me, part of the beauty of a comma is that it offers a rest, like one in music: a break that gives the whole piece of music greater shape, deeper harmony. It allows us to catch our breath (Pico Iyer). This post gives the comma its due regard and highlights its...
1994 | In the beginning Almost since its inception, the Professional Editors’ Guild (PEG) has been committed to keeping its members updated and informed through publications. PEG’s first newsletter was a five-page paper document that highlighted events and news...
I tried to find points of reference for this topic (the author's voice) and there were not any in my usual go-to sources. This suggests that the author’s voice is something that cannot be easily quantified or taught in a few easy steps. Maintaining the author's voice...
In part 1 and part 2 of this post, I discussed some of the problems of lack of clarity and of verbosity that are common in academic writing and gave two examples of how typical constructions can be greatly improved in clarity and simplicity by applying Plain Language...
In part 1 of this post, I discussed some of the problems of the lack of clarity and of verbosity that are common in academic writing. What follows are some examples of typical constructions that can be greatly improved in clarity and simplified by applying Plain...
We are all familiar with fusty, complicated, roundabout academic writing – no doubt it filled many of the textbooks you struggled through at school and university; and if you have to read academic texts in your working life, you may dread the task because it is such a...
(Note: The first part of this article introduced helpful resources for various dictionaries and general copy-editing.) A book can contain many elements besides solid blocks of type. ... It is the editor's job to make all these elements work together to present the...
No passion in the world is equal to the passion to alter someone else’s draft. HG Wells A passion it may well be, but altering ‘someone else’s draft’ also requires more than a mote of know-how. Now, that know-how does not necessarily all have to be crammed inside our...
Your first few jobs as an editor can feel daunting and you may have questions about how best to tackle the initial paperwork so that the project starts without a hitch. Below are six tips to help you to quote efficiently and make sure that the client’s and the...
This article appeared in De Morgen newspaper on Saturday, 10 August 2019. Translated from the Dutch by John Linnegar for the May 2020 issue of PEGboard. Gender-neutral language makes people think differently about the sexes, it would appear from scientific...
There is nothing more demoralising than pounding away at a task, delivering it in good time and then waiting to be paid – but never seeing that payment. Here are three things to put in place that, at the very least, should reduce the risk of not being paid for your...
(With a nod to How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell. I did not like the self-illustrated book but I loved the DVD.) You can make it easier to find files on your computer or smartphone if you structure your filenames according to how you are going to use...
There has been considerable debate in professional editing circles regarding the limits and boundaries of the editor’s role. According to Lozano (2014: 363), ‘correction or editing services [is] a practice that is openly endorsed by many journals and scientific...
One of the many questions on our members’ lips nowadays is ‘Why accreditation?’ This blog attempts to answer this question by highlighting its numerous benefits. Raising professional standards Fundamentally, accreditation aims to raise professional standards of...
In my previous blog post, we looked into the role of editors and proofreaders in trade books. I pointed out that there is more to editing than just fixing spelling and grammatical errors. There are different types of editing, and each serves a purpose. For first-time...