Attend the Summer Publishing Workshops

The workshops taken at the SFU Summer School were all very good and, for the most part, very applicable to my job at AU as a communication officer/writer. Six of the seven courses were equally useful for writing as they were for editing. Each successive course built on the previous ones. There was usually some useful review at the beginning of each course. The first course was Copyediting and Proofreading. The instructor was Ruth Wilson. Copyediting comes after the substantive edit (re-writing and organizing major parts of a document) and, as such, deals primarily with correcting grammar and usage. Much of the class covered elements of grammar such as spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, number styles, punctuation, wordiness, common writing errors (and non-errors), usage, and also samples of style sheets and how to develop them. Much of this information would be repeated in subsequent courses and this served as an excellent introduction. We learned proper editing and proofreading symbols as well as a useful list of frequently misspelled words. In this course there was a great deal of discussion of the role and responsibility of the editor and how much (and how) the editor might change the writer’s work. The proofreading section dealt with the nuts and bolts required for proofreading (style sheet, quiet, concentration, good light, printed copy of document, ruler, dictionary, style guide) and the kinds of elements to look for in the first, second and third edits. We were also introduced to “Professional Editorials Standards” (2009) from the Editors’ Association of Canada (EAC). The next five courses were of the greatest use to me as a writer and as an editor. The courses included grammar, punctuation and mechanics, usage, style and syntax, all of which are related. This provided more review of grammar and application. The instructor for the grammar course was Vlad Konieczny. In any grammar course there is always something new and some review, as was the case here. My general difficulty with grammar is that while I (usually) know when something is correct or incorrect, I often don’t know the grammatical basis for it; I cannot analyze the sentence. While that is fine as a writer, as an editor, if I’m going to change someone else’s material, I should be able to justify or explain why I’m doing it. This was a very helpful course. The instructor for the next four courses, Frances Peck, is a very knowledgeable and experienced editor and writer. She has an excellent idea of how to apply the material for professional writers and editors. She stressed the importance of consistency. A number of uses, spellings, and style issues were covered which can be correctly handled in a number of different ways. She said the important thing is to choose a style and use it consistently. It is important for an institution, writer, or editor to develop a style sheet (either for the institution or for the particular project) which outlines what style and spellings have been used and the reference material that has been used. I also learned the importance of referring to good style and usage guides such as Fowler’s Modern English Usage and the Chicago Style Guide (Communication and Creative Services at AU uses the Canadian Press Style Guide but the Chicago Style Guide is much more comprehensive.) Usage is the correct application of grammar, how to use the elements of language, and how usage changes over time, such as; -Do not use “action” as a verb as in; It is imperative that you action these items as soon as possible. -You can possibly use (i.e. acceptance is in transition) “access” as a verb as in; You can access the full range of services here. -You can now use “liaise” as a verb (meaning to interact or communicate with) as in; Diane will liaise with the department on this project. The grammar course reviewed accurate usage, commonly misused and confused words and phrases (such as full and fulsome, historic and historical, intense and intensive) and myths, such as never starting a sentence with because and as being more correct than like. As with all of Peck’s classes, exercises were used as the basis for teaching and discussion. Punctuation and mechanics deals with interpretation (punctuation) and esthetics (mechanics). The course started with grammar: parts of speech; clauses and phrases; commas (when superfluous and when needed); comma splices; semicolons; colons; lists; italics; quotation marks; hyphens and dashes (em dashes and en dashes); and apostrophes. Style started with a quick grammar review and defining the steps in the writing process. The course covered consistency (in verb tense, in voice, in person and number, in style or tone), parallelism, flow, transitions, verbs, sentence length and structure, coordination and subordination, passive and active voice, and conciseness. Syntax is the word order within a sentence and the meaning that resides in the way the subject and verb are combined with other words and phrases. Some aspects covered were; the inverted sentence; passive and active voice; rhythm and sentence length, sentence openings, sentence type; flow and content; echo words; emphasis; and special techniques such as isolation and ellipses. Breaking down the various aspects of writing this way was very helpful to isolate and concentrate on one subject at a time. By the end of these five courses, a good review had taken place and a solid foundation had been developed. The last course, Developmental Editing, was the least useful only because it is not something I will ever do. I thought developmental editing was the same things as substantive editing but it is not. In developmental editing, the editor works with a subject matter expert who is not a strong writer and guides them through the writing process. Nonetheless, the instructor, Joy Gugeler, was very knowledgeable and experienced. The discussion of structure, style and organization was helpful to some extent in terms of writing. The discussion of particular books and elements such as plot, character, narrative, genre, etc., was very interesting from a reader’s point of view. In all of the courses, there were a number of good resources (print and online) recommended which will provide excellent reference material. Follow up for me will include the following: -Develop a style sheet which I will use consistently for my writing and which could be used as the basis of a style sheet for the department and/or university; -Organize the material from these courses into some format for easy reference (perhaps alphabetical list or subject matter list); -Purchase some of the resource material for the office; -Find ways to continue to improve my familiarity and knowledge of grammar and my knowledge of available grammar resources.