Eric Damer

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Event Review: A Matter of Style

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Written by Eric Damer; copy edited by Karen Barry

Review of seminar Stylistic Editing: Beyond the Basics with Nancy Flight (offered by Editors BC on October 31, 2015)

When the manuscript you’re editing has sound structure, good grammar, and perfect punctuation, is there anything left to fix? If the manuscript remains awkward, dull, or confusing, then perhaps it is time for some stylistic editing. Our “Halloween” workshop on October 31 with Nancy Flight explored ways to “clarify meaning, improve flow, and smooth language.”

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Editors BC at Word Vancouver 2015

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by Roma Ilnyckyj

On September 27, Editors BC made our annual appearance at Word Vancouver, joining local literary organizations, publishers, writers, and other word lovers in a celebration of all things written.

Luckily it was sunny, although chilly, for our volunteers outside at the Editors BC booth. We handed out information about the organization and chatted to people about what editors do. Our booth was next to the Association of Book Publishers of British Columbia, which provided a great opportunity to meet some people we’ve only ever communicated with through email and to strengthen our ties with like-minded organizations. I got some good ideas for promotional materials to think about for the future and picked up the adorable postcard pictured above (far right).

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Confessions of a 24/7 Editor

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Written by Eric Damer; copy edited by Meagan Kus

Like many people who find themselves working as an editor, I grew up in a household of word enthusiasts. My father, an English teacher, methodically circled spelling and grammar errors in the local newspaper or identified errors in environmental print, but he also loved puns, spoonerisms, double-entendres, and wordplay of all sorts. Well before I turned to editing as a line of work, I knew the value of saying what you meant, and meaning what you said—unless you had a joke to tell. Now, it seems, I have difficulty turning off my error-checker for the sake of a chuckle.

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Book Review: Unearthing Canada’s Hidden Past…

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by Eric Damer

Review of Unearthing Canada’s Hidden Past: A Short History of Adult Education by Michael Welton (Thompson Publishing, 2013).

Ours is a learning society that goes well beyond schooling for youth. Historian Michael Welton adds that all societies are learning societies and always have been. Adults have always learned new job skills, cultivated leisure interests and even tried to change their society to make it a bit more fair, inclusive and democratic. This last activity—learning for progressive social change—interests Welton the most in this accessible account of adult education in Canada over several hundred years. Unearthing Canada’s Hidden Past: A Short History of Adult Education invites the reader to consider not only how adults have learned to adjust to their world but also how they have learned to change it. Welton has a special plea for adult educators to “keep faith with our emancipatory traditions” (p. 229) to tackle some of the pressing problems of our current age.

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