What exactly does a professional editor do? How can you tell when they’re doing it well? There’s no single answer to these questions. But with its Professional Editorial Standards, Editors Canada provides one way of describing and categorizing editorial knowledge and skill that has proven invaluable to editors at all skill levels as well as to those who hire, work with, and train them. Editors Canada’s professional certification, which offers a way in which editors can demonstrate excellence, is based on these standards. As are the exercises in the association’s popular workbook series, called, not coincidentally, Meeting Editorial Standards. (It’s soon to be relaunched in a third edition, featuring downloadable electronic files for realistic, hands-on practice, with the new title Edit Like a Pro!)
Elizabeth will give a short presentation about the standards, including some background information and a discussion of
- how they apply to a wide range of editing genres
- how they can be useful to both freelance and in-house editors with various levels of experience
- what changed with the most recent update in 2016
Then we’ll have an open discussion. We’ll also ask twig co-coordinator Brenda Leifso to tell us a bit about her work as an instructor of a course leading to the Queen’s University Professional Editing Standards Certificate. Plus, standards word puzzles—and stickers!
The latest standards are available as a free download on the Editors Canada website. We suggest you take a look at them before the meeting. If you can, please print (or save on your laptop) a copy to refer to during the discussion. (We’ll have a few printed copies on hand to share as well.)
You might also like to read the series of posts about the standards on the Editors’ Weekly blog—including an interview with fantasy editor Karen Conlin, who definitely wins the prize for best style sheet examples!
About the Presenter
A co-coordinator of Editors Kingston, Elizabeth d’Anjou literally grew up in Editors Canada (her mother was a founding member), and she recently served as director of standards and certification on the National Executive Council. She has 24 years of experience as a freelance editor with a diverse clientele, from trade and educational publishers to government departments and non-profit agencies. A lively and personable presenter, she is a sought-after leader of seminars and webinars for editors and other communications professionals, including the unique Copy Editing Live! and perennial favourite Eight-Step Editing. She also teaches both copy editing and grammar courses for Ryerson University’s Publishing Certificate program. Elizabeth is also volunteer editor-in-chief for the update of Edit Like a Pro!
Join Us!
Wednesday, March 13
Ongwanada Resource Centre, 191 Portsmouth Avenue
7:00 p.m. (doors open at 6:30).
Free for Editors Canada members; $5 fee for visitors (first meeting free).
Coming up April 10
Meet Anastasia Riehl of the Queen’s University Strathy Language Unit! Watch this space for details.