- ------------
- Useful links
- Societies of Editors
- Other organisations
- Useful resources
The Society is a member of the Institute of Professional Editors Limited (IPEd)
Archive of 2011 training courses
Saturday, 16 July 2011
Introduction to Proofreading, with Pamela Hewitt (Ballarat)
This workshop is a practical introduction to professional proofreading, a step-by-step guide that takes the manuscript from proof to publication.
Proofreading involves a great deal more than correcting spelling mistakes. It is an essential aspect of quality control before publication and covers far more than just typos.
An eagle eye
- The skills and tasks involved in proofreading
- The difference between proofreading and copyediting
- The elements of a publication and their order
The basics of proofreading
- Consistency, style, accuracy, grammar and punctuation, vocabulary, layout and spacing
- Common culprits—hyphens, em and en rules, citation conventions, expressing numbers, abbreviations, and more
- An introduction to proofreading marks
The mechanics of proofreading (hard copy)
- Making passes through the manuscript and spot checks
- How to mark up text in accordance with a style guide or style sheet
- Communicating with the editor, author and publisher
The mechanics of digital proofreading (electronic documents or websites)
- Making passes through the onscreen items and spot checks
- Marking up text in accordance with a style guide or style sheet when others contribute to a website
- Checking protocols, links and URLs
Will you still proofread tomorrow?
- Proofreaders — an endangered species
- Technological change — advances and limitations
- Speed and rates for proofreaders
About the trainer
Pamela Hewitt is a freelance editor, writer, trainer and proprietor of Emend Editing. Pamela is a qualified teacher who has developed and presented editing programs for universities, TAFE, writers' centres, literary festivals and editors' societies around Australia. She is active in the profession and her articles, surveys and conference papers are published widely. Pamela works with authors from many genres, including literary fiction and creative non-fiction.
When: Saturday, 16 July 2011, 10.30 am to 4.30 pm
Where: Lake Room, Best Western Lake Inn Ballarat (City Oval Hotel), Cnr Pleasant and Mair Streets, Ballarat, Victoria, 3350
Cost: Members (Soc Eds, APA, ASTC, ANZSI, VWC) $220, non-members $260. Tea, coffee, lunch and afternoon tea are provided.
Saturday, 28 May 2011
Grammar for Editors – Advanced (Melbourne)
with Glenys Osborne
Do you spend hours agonising over points of grammar or usage that no one else in your family, network and possibly universe cares about in the slightest?
‘Grammar for Editors – Advanced’ is a one-day session that builds on participants’ knowledge of basic grammar to explore the finer points of copyediting.
The session covers applied grammar for editors, including (but not confined to) discussion of:
- problematic modifiers
- incomplete sentences
- infelicities of style
- problems with past tense
- the subjunctive mood
- recasting to change voice
- approaches to punctuation (including sentence, dialogue and list punctuation)
- parallelism and its limits
- questionable similes and metaphors
- issues of usage
- reader and market considerations.
The course comprises instruction, some individual and group exercises, and class discussion. We will look at and discuss a range of examples.
A small amount of introductory reading will be sent to participants before the session. Participants are also encouraged to bring examples of problematic grammar and/or usage that they have encountered in their work, for possible inclusion in class discussion.
This course is not suitable for those who have a limited understanding of grammatical terms and grammar usage.
About the trainer
Glenys Osborne works as a freelance editor, teaches editing in RMIT’s MA in Communications, and is fiction editor for the journal Etchings. She was formerly a managing editor at Macmillan Education Australia and Thomson Learning (now Cengage). She has received various awards for her short fiction. Her first novel, Come Inside (Clouds of Magellan), was shortlisted for the 2010 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book and the 2010 Age Book of the Year.
When: Saturday, 28 May 2011, 10.30 am to 4.30 pm
Where: CAE, 253 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
Cost: Members (Soc Eds, APA, ASTC, ANZSI, VWC) $185, non-members $245. Tea, coffee and mini muffins are provided.
Saturday, 16 April 2011
Manuscript Appraisal for Editors and Writers (Warragul)
with Pamela Hewitt
This workshop is aimed at editors who want to extend their skills to include manuscript assessment and writers who want to know what to expect and make the most of an assessment.
A manuscript assessment does not replace the work of an editor, an agent or a publisher. It doesn’t rewrite or restructure the text. It provides a balanced, educated, professional assessment of the aspects that are working well and those that need more attention.
Great expectations
- A growing field in a changing industry
- What should writers expect from an appraisal?
- What background and experience should assessors have?
- Critique a sample text from the perspective of an assessor
How useful is an assessment?
- What publishers think about manuscript assessment
- What writers think about manuscript assessment
- What are the dangers and how to spot a scam
- What sort of quality control should there be?
Elements of a good assessment
- Strengths and weaknesses, structure, style and presentation
- Specific examples and responses to author queries
- Honesty and tact in the relationship
- What’s next—rewriting, research, redrafting, editing or submission?
Ball park figures
- Cost
- Length of assessment
- Turnaround time
- Word count of the text
About the trainer
Pamela Hewitt is a freelance editor, writer, trainer and proprietor of Emend Editing. Pamela is a qualified teacher who has developed and presented editing programs for universities, TAFE, writers' centres, literary festivals and editors' societies around Australia. She is active in the profession and her articles, surveys and conference papers are published widely. Pamela works with authors from many genres, including literary fiction and creative non-fiction.
When: Saturday, 16 April 2011, 10.30 am to 4.30 pm
Where: The Warragul Club, 55 Victoria Street, Warragul, Victoria, 3820
Cost: Members (Soc Eds, APA, ASTC, ANZSI, VWC) $190, non-members $230. Tea, coffee, lunch and afternoon tea are provided.
Saturday, 26 March 2011
Literary Editing, with Pamela Hewitt (Melbourne)
This workshop is an introduction to literary editing for writers and editors alike. It delves into the problems editors commonly encounter and suggests options to improve the draft.
Many of the fundamentals of substantive editing and copy editing apply to editing fiction. Literary editing also looks closely at the way the text speaks to the reader. Tone and voice matter a great deal, as do variations on point of view.
The boundaries of the task
- Developing a special relationship with the author
- Enhancing the writer’s voice, not overriding it
- Building on the strong, original elements of the draft
- Eliminating aspects that are stale or clichéd
Common flaws
- Overwriting, repetition, clutter, stating the obvious
- Inconsistency as it applies to all aspects of narrative
- Dusting off old-fashioned language and awkward verb forms
- Some tricky areas—sex, race, dialect, children, didacticism and moralising
The plot thickens
- Structure and pace
- Characterisation, dialogue, point of view, tone and verisimilitude
- Chronology—linear narrative or other options
- Where to cut and blend
Bread and butter issues
- Striking a balance between originality and convention
- Advising about matters of presentation
- Being alert to the noble exception
- Deepening your skills—exercises, options and examples
About the trainer
Pamela Hewitt is a freelance editor, writer, trainer and proprietor of Emend Editing. Pamela is a qualified teacher who has developed and presented editing programs for universities, TAFE, writers' centres, literary festivals and editors' societies around Australia. She is active in the profession and her articles, surveys and conference papers are published widely. Pamela works with authors from many genres, including literary fiction and creative non-fiction.
When: Saturday, 26 March 2011, 10.30 am to 4.30 pm
Where: CAE, 253 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
Cost: Members (Soc Eds, APA, ASTC, ANZSI, VWC) $185, non-members $245. Tea, coffee and mini muffins are provided.
Friday, 25 March 2011
Grammar for Editors – The Basics (Melbourne)
with Glenys Osborne
Do you know what to do when you are copyediting, but not why you do it? Do you know what the problem is when you see it, but not what it’s called? Do you want to be more articulate – to yourself and others – about your editorial decisions?
‘Grammar for Editors – The Basics’ is a one-day session that covers the basics of English grammar in terms of what editors need to watch for when copyediting. (This course was previously advertised as ‘Intermediate Grammar for Editors’.)
The session covers the nine parts of speech, addressing the particular problems that each presents for writers and editors. It includes exploration of burning grammatical issues, such as (but not confined to) problems with:
- agreement (subject–verb, pronoun)
- defining and non-defining relative clauses (using ‘who’ and ‘whom’, ‘which’ and ‘that’)
- reference
- comparison
- voice (of a verb)
- tense
- mood
- redundancy
- parallelism
- correlation
- co-ordination
The course comprises instruction, some individual and group exercises, and class discussion. Some introductory reading will be sent to participants.
This course is not suitable for those with considerable knowledge of grammatical terms and grammar usage.
About the trainer
Glenys Osborne works as a freelance editor, teaches editing in RMIT’s MA in Communications, and is fiction editor for the journal Etchings. She was formerly a managing editor at Macmillan Education Australia and Thomson Learning (now Cengage). She has received various awards for her short fiction. Her first novel, Come Inside (Clouds of Magellan), was shortlisted for the 2010 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book and the 2010 Age Book of the Year.
When: Friday, 25 March 2011, 10.00 am to 4.00 pm
Where: CAE, 253 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
Cost: Members (Soc Eds, APA, ASTC, ANZSI, VWC) $185, non-members $245. Tea, coffee and mini muffins are provided.
Archive of 2010 training courses