Social media is the new normal with regard to business. In light of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the POPI Act and its impact on direct marketing, and the need to establish an online brand, social media marketing has become an essential...
Optimising your LinkedIn profile
Developing a presence on the world wide web is crucial for freelance success. One of the best ways to market yourself as a language practitioner is by optimising your LinkedIn profile. The following basic principles can help to set you apart from your competitors: A...
Social media marketing: So many questions
In this fourth article in the series on social media marketing (SMM), I consider the questions: Content or paid SMM? What platforms should I consider? Again, I refer to the Digital 2022 Global Overview Report by DataReportal/We Are Social/Hootsuite as I delve...
Social media marketing: Consider the data
In this third article in the series on social media marketing (SMM), we look at some of the basic data that relates to SMM and digital marketing (DM), the broader area of marketing in which SMM fits. For the purposes of this article, let’s assume that you have been...
Developmental editing of a memoir
What is a developmental edit? During developmental editing, the editor focuses on the ‘big picture’ of the story and makes recommendations to ensure a winning structure that will keep readers absorbed to the end of the book. This editing step can be done during an...
How to write a fiction book review
This article appeared under the same heading in PEGboard July 2019. From time to time, PEG receives requests for a reader’s review of a book before it is sent to a publisher. The article sets out a basic framework for carrying out such a task. The guidelines below are...
The cost of editing
This article appeared under the same heading in PEGboard July 2018. Time | Quality | Price Prompt delivery (time), excellent standards (quality) and affordability (price). As editors, this is what we want to deliver and it's what clients of editing services should...
What is grammar?
This is an extract taken from The PEG guide to grammar and punctuation (2018) by Myf Steynberg. Grammar is the greatest joy in life, don't you find? - Lemony Snicket 'Grammar' is the term used to cover the rules or conventions of English usage that help us to...
A snapshot of the social media landscape in South Africa
In this second of the two-part article on marketing and (social media marketing) SMM for editors, the focus will be on the social media (SM) landscape in South Africa, as at end 2020. In my previous PEGblog post, I defined social media marketing (SMM) within the wider...
The intricacies of editing academic texts for examination purposes
This challenging and often prickly topic has elicited a great deal of controversy. There are many editorial purists who do not see editing as a process but are prescriptive about what should and should not be done. They believe that a line is firmly drawn in the sand...
International Mother Language Day
If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart. - Nelson Mandela Happy International Mother Language Day! We use language every day to communicate with each other, but our mother...
Understanding marketing and social media marketing
In this first of two articles, I will try to situate social media marketing (SMM) within the wider marketing discipline, after situating marketing within organisations. However, I will strip everything down to the bare bones and provide sound-bite type information...
Feedback: PEG’s Editing Fiction webinar
On 11 December 2021, PEG held an online workshop, attended by 30 wordsmiths, on the subject of editing the genre of fiction. It was also the pretext for officially launching PEG's latest guide, Editing fiction, authored by Máire Fisher and Nella Freund, with the...
When to use a hyphen
This article appeared under the heading To hyphenate or not to hyphenate: that is the (thorny) question in PEGboard July 2018. Judging by the queries raised on the PEG chat group, the humble hyphen seems to have a lot of explaining to do! In this post, I focus on its...
10 tips for better blog writing
Have you ever considered blog writing? In this edition of PEGblog, Faeron Wheeler gives us 10 valuable tips for better blog writing. Blog writing has become something of an artform on its own. There are rules and best practices that define the skill of writing...
Professional editors adhere to an ethical code
In the first post in this series, we defined professionalism and identified three criteria of being a professional editor. We discussed specific knowledge and skill in the second post and remuneration in the third. In this final post, we'll look at an ethical code of...
Why should a thesis be edited?
A good editor can add significant value to the quality of a thesis. In this edition of PEGblog, Jacqui Baumgardt tells us why and how. The worth of a thesis A thesis is the personal work of a student attempting to achieve a master's or doctoral degree in a chosen...
Professionalism means fair remuneration for expert services
In the first post in this series, we defined professionalism and identified three criteria for being a professional editor. We looked at skill and knowledge in the second post. Now it's time to think about what it means to charge for professional editing and...
The heart of New Hart’s Rules
Who is at the heart of the New Hart's Rules? Helena Opperman tells us his story. His gloves were neatly folded on the shore; his body was found floating in Youlbury Lake near Oxford. It was 9 October 1916 and a few months into the third year of the First World War....
Professionalism is rooted in skill and knowledge
Part two of a four-part series on professionalism. The first post in this series defined professionalism and identified three criteria of being professional. This post discusses the first criterion - specific knowledge and skill - within the context of PEG's Code of...