seminar

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March 30, 2019: Advanced Proofreading

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What: Editors BC professional development seminar
When: Saturday, March 30, 2019, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
Where: Room 476, 4th floor, BCIT Downtown Campus, 555 Seymour Street, Vancouver | map
Cost: $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 March 26; early-bird rates are in effect through March 12.

Are you ready to extend your proofreading skills beyond finding typos and knowing how to mark up copy? This exercise-based workshop focuses on beyond-the-basics proofreading skills. It offers participants the opportunity to examine excerpts from complex documents and learn how to fine-tune their proofreading eye to catch every error. With documents ranging from recipes to journal articles, participants will be challenged to use their judgment to weigh the pros and cons of making changes, querying authors, or making no changes at all.

At the end of this six-hour workshop, participants will

  • know what to correct, what to query, and what to leave alone;
  • understand how to adapt to and work within different types of production teams;
  • learn how to look at a document in different ways to catch all the errors;
  • understand the basic procedures and options for PDF markup; and
  • exercise sound judgment based on the process, policies—and even politics!

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Rows of desks face a projection screen in a classroom-like environment.
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February 23, 2019: Getting the Message Across: Clear Writing Tips

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What: Editors BC professional development seminar
When: Saturday, February 23, 2019, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
Where: Room 476, 4th floor, BCIT Downtown Campus, 555 Seymour Street, Vancouver | map
Cost: $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 February 19; early-bird rates are in effect through February 5.

Reports, policies, briefings, emails, and other informational documents have a simple goal: to deliver a message quickly and clearly to a target audience. But too often that message gets buried by weak organization, unnecessary detail, abstract language, unhelpful layout, and other barriers to readability.

This workshop will show you how to create and edit documents that meet readers’ needs and get the message across every time. Topics include

  • writing faster and better: a four-step process
  • understanding what your readers want (and don’t want)
  • organizing information to meet readers’ needs
  • highlighting your key messages
  • using layout to boost readability
  • making your ideas flow
  • eliminating wordiness, abstractions, and jargon
  • revising and proofreading your work

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Rows of desks face a projection screen in a classroom-like environment.
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January 26, 2019: Writing and Editing Childhood Memoirs with Carolyn Redl

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What: Editors BC professional development seminar
When: Saturday, January 26, 2019, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
Where: Room 476, 4th floor, BCIT Downtown Campus, 555 Seymour Street, Vancouver | map
Cost: $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 22; early-bird rates are in effect through January 8.

Has anyone ever told you, “You’ve had a very interesting childhood. You should write a book”? Or have you been asked to edit a memoir, but you don’t know where to begin? If so, the Editors BC January seminar is right for you. Continue reading →

Rows of desks face a projection screen in a classroom-like environment.
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November 24, 2018: Grammar Rules and Myths

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Our November seminar has been cancelled due to low registration. Please check back in January. In the meantime, you can learn about our cancellation policy for seminars.

What: Editors BC professional development seminar
When: Saturday, November 24, 2018, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
Where: Room 381, 3rd floor, BCIT Downtown Campus, 555 Seymour Street, Vancouver | map
Cost: $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 November 20; early-bird rates are in effect through November 13.

In the November workshop, Frances Peck will cover tricky instances of agreement, pronoun case (including everyone’s favourite, who and whom), and modifier form and placement. She’ll discuss the most widespread errors, including comma splices and dangling modifiers. And she’ll investigate some tenacious grammar myths and review the rules that have changed over time. The seminar will include exercises, self-tests, and time for individual questions.

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Meet the Instructor: Ruth Wilson

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Written by Carl Rosenberg; copy edited by Adrienne Munro

Photo of Ruth Wilson smiling while dressed in a dark blue jacket and light blue top and wearing a necklace.

On Saturday, October 27, Editors BC presents Ruth Wilson’s seminar on structural editing. At the end of the seminar, participants will know the following:

  • How to assess a manuscript to identify structural issues
  • How to use an outline to reveal structure
  • What questions to ask when analyzing problems
  • How to avoid over-editing and respect the writer’s work
  • How graphics and design can support structural editing decisions
  • Why diplomacy can be just as important as editorial skill
  • How to estimate how long editing will take

This seminar will help anyone wishing to advance their structural editing abilities, broaden their skills base, or study for the structural certification test offered by Editors Canada this fall. It will be most useful for participants who already have some experience and understanding of structural editing, although editors at all levels are welcome. All course materials will be supplied. See the registration page for more details.

Ruth Wilson has more than 30 years’ experience editing trade books, professional journals, association publications, and corporate materials at all levels. She first honed her structural editing skills working at Vancouver book publisher Self-Counsel Press, and since then, she has shared what she has learned, having taught substantive editing in SFU’s Writing and Communications program for 15 years, along with other skills-based courses.

Ruth is a partner in West Coast Editorial Associates and has served on several national committees of Editors Canada. In 2011, she was honoured by Editors Canada as a recipient of the President’s Award for Volunteer Service, and in 2014, she was recognized as a Certified Professional Editor (Hon.) for her work in developing and launching Editors Canada’s world-class certification program.

Carl Rosenberg, a volunteer on Editors BC’s communications and social media committee, spoke to Ruth about her work on structural editing.

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Rows of desks face a projection screen in a classroom-like environment.
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October 27, 2018: Skilful Structural Editing

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What: Editors BC professional development seminar
When: Saturday, October 27, 2018, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
Where: Room 464, 4th floor, BCIT Downtown Campus, 555 Seymour Street, Vancouver | map
Cost: $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 October 23; early-bird rates are in effect through October 9.

Many editors are intimidated when they are asked to do a structural edit. Unlike other stages of editing, structural editing has fewer “rules,” and there is never just one way to solve structural problems. Structural editors are called upon to clarify, reorganize, and even rewrite. Negotiation with the author is also often part of the job.

This one-day workshop will deepen your existing skills by examining a sure-fire approach and process. You will learn how to break down structural editing into manageable tasks and resolve imbalance in content and ensure the manuscript is appropriate for the intended audience. At the end of the workshop, participants will know

  • How to assess a manuscript to identify structural issues
  • How to use an outline to reveal structure
  • What questions to ask when analyzing problems
  • How to avoid over editing and respect the writer’s work
  • How graphics and design can support structural editing decisions
  • Why diplomacy can be just as important as editorial skill
  • How to estimate how long editing will take

Continue reading →

Meet the Instructor: Jessica Somers

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Written by Carl Rosenberg; copy edited by Maggie Clark

Photo of Jessica Somers with long black hair smiling at the camera while dressed in a jean jacket, low-neck black top, and a number of black necklaces.

On Saturday, September 29, Editors BC presents Jessica Somers’ seminar on tax and finance for freelancers. This six-hour seminar will give an introduction to basic tax and finance issues for freelancers, including GST/HST registration, bookkeeping and record retention, and building financial stability without a salary. For editors new to freelancing, the seminar covers the basic essentials. And veteran freelancers will learn tips and tricks, have their questions answered, and clarify the details. See the registration page for more details.

Jessica Somers is a chartered professional accountant (CPA, CGA) with over 10 years of experience advising freelancers, entrepreneurs, and small businesses in Vancouver on tax, accounting, and business process. She is the founder of Cordova Street Consulting, a new firm in Gastown, which focuses on knowledge sharing, outreach, and taking the stress and mystery out of tax. Jessica is a facilitator and session leader at the CPA Western School of Business, where she teaches the next generation of Vancouver accountants and tax advisors.

Carl Rosenberg, a volunteer on Editors BC’s communications and social media committee, spoke to Jessica about her work on tax and finance issues for freelancers.

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