Book Review: Dreyer’s English

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Written by Frances Peck; copy edited by Annette Gingrich

Review of “Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style” by Benjamin Dreyer (Random House, 2019).

"Dreyer's English" by Benjamin Dreyer

Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style hit the shelves a year ago. Or perhaps I should say it briefly touched the shelves, seeing as copies sold as fast as they could be printed. Repeating the improbable success of the book Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss, Benjamin Dreyer’s guide sold umpteen copies and topped bestseller lists.

I’ve long followed Dreyer on Twitter, where he is natty, chatty, and sometimes catty. The same irresistible combination makes his book, from cover to cover, a trove of delights.

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January 25, 2020: The Art of the Query and Style Sheets with Substance

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What: Editors BC professional development seminar
When: Saturday, January 25, 2020, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
Where: Room 555, 5th floor, BCIT Downtown Campus, 555 Seymour Street, Vancouver | map
Cost for both seminars: $165 for Editors Canada members ($135 early bird), $230 for non-members ($200 early bird), and $100 for student affiliates. Advance registration required. Registration closes January 21; early-bird rates are in effect through January 13.

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January 15, 2020: Peer Group "Ant"-ics

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Our January meeting has been cancelled due to bad weather and travel warnings from the BC Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure and from Translink. We hope to re-schedule the meeting for February. In the meantime, please stay safe and warm!

What: Editors BC monthly meeting
When: Wednesday, January 15, 2020, 7:00–9:00 pm
Where: New room | Room 916, 9th floor, Central Library, 350 West Georgia Street, Vancouver | map
Cost: Free for Editors BC members, non-members, and students.

Are you a solitary worker ant, dealing with professional isolation in your office, freelance business, or region? Do you want to discuss victories, challenges, and resources with others in your field? Would you like to create a colony of support and learning? Join us at our next monthly meeting for a panel discussion led by Editors BC member Lynn Slobogian on how peer groups can help you.

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Event Review: Lana Okerlund’s “Do the Work You Want: A Guided Strategic Retreat for Editors”

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Written by Janice Love; copy edited by Emma Caplan

Does your editing career need an edit? Are you doing the kind(s) of editing you want to do? Are you gaining the value, whether monetary or otherwise, you want from the editing work you do?

These are all questions I had, and so Lana Okerlund’s offer to help via her guided strategic retreat for editors was worth the winter trip to Vancouver from Vernon!

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Give the Gift of Boundaries: Navigating Work in the Holiday Season

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Written by Liz Warwick; copy edited by Annette Gingrich

The holiday season has arrived, and if you believe the media, people now spend their days buying presents, baking up delicious goodies, and listening to carols on repeat.

Missing from that picture is any mention of work, especially any last-minute calls from a client or boss asking you to tackle (or finish up) a project that requires working right up to, or even through, the holidays.

Dealing with eleventh-hour requests, at the holidays or anytime, starts long before the call comes. We all need to know our boundaries. Some people are willing to work 14 hours at a stretch to complete a job. Others aren’t. Those boundaries may change depending on the season and an editor’s time of life. But everyone needs them.

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Distilling Words to Their Essence: Editing Poetry for Impact

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Written by Emily Salja; copy edited by Meagan Kus

When we think about editing poetry, we first have to think about what poetry is. This is something that poets and critics have debated for decades—what is poetry?

All writing, to an extent, comes from the heart—creative writing in particular—and poetry is one of those strange, elusive creatures that is stitched together mostly by heartstrings. Poetry is the least efficient way of conveying a message. It is the language of trauma and inarticulable feelings. In poetry, we write around things instead of at them. How do we edit something so personal?

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