News, events, tips and updates from Editors Canada
In this issue:
1. PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION: Show the world you’re at the top of your editing game
2. PARL: Registration for the examen d’attestation en révision comparative will open soon
3. VOLUNTEER OF THE MONTH: Lucy Kenward
4. BOOST YOUR RESUMÉ: Get involved
5. TECH: Online Directory of Editors search results now randomized
6. MEMBER SERVICES: Connect and compare
7. PROFESSIONAL EDITORIAL STANDARDS: Communication update
8. MEMBER NEWS: Tell the world about your accomplishments
9. NEC: Notes from your national executive council
1. PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION: Show the world you’re at the top of your editing game
You’ve worked at mastering the craft of editing; now earn a professional certification to demonstrate your experience and expertise to employers, clients, and peers, too. Certification can open professional doors, serves as a powerful marketing tool, and may allow you to command a higher salary or rates.
Registration for the 2018 professional certification exams is now open. This year, Editors Canada is offering the structural editing and proofreading exams. Don’t miss out: your next chance to write these exams will be in 2020 (the stylistic and copy editing exams will be offered again in 2019).
Exam date: Saturday, November 17, 2018
Locations: Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa. Additional exam sites may be added depending on demand.
Remote testing option: Live more than 300 km away from one of the exam centres, whether in Canada or abroad? Face circumstances that make it a hardship for you to travel to an exam centre? Editors Canada offers remote exam writing: arrange to write the exam at a location that’s convenient for you, providing it meets certain criteria and you can arrange for a suitable invigilator. Apply to us by September 14. For more details, see the Remote Exam Writing Guidelines on the website.
Already registered? Now’s the time to start studying!
Visit the Preparing for Certification page for resources to help you get ready for the exams. Editors who have successfully passed the exams suggest:
- Taking Editors Canada seminars and webinars
- Forming a study group
- Reading about grammar, punctuation, usage, proofreading, editing and publishing
- Writing tests and quizzes online
- Purchasing the Structural Editing Test Preparation Guide and Proofreading Test Preparation Guide. These have been newly updated in time for the 2018 exams and reflect the 2016 Professional Editorial Standards (PES) and the new computer-testing based platform (for all the professional certification exams except Proofreading, which remains a paper test). The guides include an overview of the certification exams program, preparation advice, practice tests for you to try, a copy of PES and completed example tests.
2. PARL: Registration for the examen d’attestation en révision comparative will open soon
As a result of a staffing shortage in the national office, registration for the 2018 examen d’attestation en révision comparative has been delayed.
The national office is working to get registration open soon. Once registration is open, we will update the Programme d’agrément en révision linguistique – Réviseurs Canada (PARL) web page and send an email announcement.
We apologize for the delay and thank you for your patience.
3. VOLUNTEER OF THE MONTH: Lucy Kenward
Lucy Kenward, volunteer of the month for August, led the programming team for the 2018 national conference in Saskatoon. The team’s numerous and diverse duties included evaluating proposals, compiling and editing session descriptions and speaker biographies, gathering session handouts and presentation notes, and coordinating and scheduling more than 60 speakers.
“Working with the conference committee was a great experience,” she said. “We had lots of vision and strong leadership, but the challenge was pulling together many pieces in a short amount of time with a small group of people scattered across the country.”
As leader, Lucy exceeded the conference committee’s expectations. “She was brilliant and deserves much of the credit for the highly praised conference program,” said one conference committee member.
Why does she volunteer? “I’ve benefited from professional development with Editors Canada for many years,” said Lucy. “And I realized that I now have skills that can help others learn, too.”
Lucy is a non-fiction editor who worked in-house for more than two decades before launching a freelance career. A lifelong learner, Lucy is also a travel enthusiast and enjoys outdoor activities, such as cycling, running, cross-country skiing and swimming in mountain lakes.
The volunteer of the month highlights the dedicated people who keep Editors Canada going. Volunteers are the backbone of the association. We are grateful for the many members and affiliates who answer the call when help is needed.
4. BOOST YOUR RESUMÉ: Get involved
Want to stand above other contenders? Consider volunteering for Editors Canada. Volunteering has many benefits for the association, as well as being beneficial to your career. Engaged members and affiliates work with influential members of the publishing and communications industries, learn new skills (at any experience level), expand their portfolios and enhance their career options.
Volunteer of the Month coordinator
Are you looking to expand your professional network and learn more about other editors’ work and volunteer experiences? Would you like to hone your writing and interviewing skills? The volunteer management committee is seeking a coordinator for the Editors Canada Volunteer of the Month program, which recognizes the hard work of our volunteers.
Your role would be to contact selected volunteers, ask questions about their experiences and write a profile to be published in our e-news update, on the website and on our national social media accounts. If this opportunity interests you, please email the committee chair.
Active Voice copy editors, proofreaders and section editors
Our national magazine, Active Voice, is looking for copy editors and proofreaders to join the team. Volunteer when you can for one issue or all. We are also looking for volunteers to take on sections of the print issue. Interested? Please email the editors for more information.
5. TECH: Online Directory of Editors search results now randomized
You asked and we delivered!
Several members requested that the search results in our Online Directory of Editors (ODE) be randomized because having the ODE return results in alphabetical order gave editors with last names beginning with early letters of the alphabet an unfair advantage.
We are happy to report this update is now in place. ODE search results are randomized so Member Z has just as much chance of being at the top of the search results as Member A.
Regarding the statistics function that was available on ODE listings on the old website, we have not been able to fix it. We’re trying to find out why it stopped working and are looking for solutions.
6. MEMBER SERVICES: Connect and compare
Join our new in-house editors Facebook group
Are you an in-house editor? Join the new Editors Canada in-house editors Facebook group today!
Looking for other ways to connect with the Editors Canada community on social media and in person? Here’s where you can find us.
How do we compare?
Check out the latest comparison of Editors Canada member services and fees with what is offered by similar organizations in Canada.
7. PROFESSIONAL EDITORIAL STANDARDS: Communication update
Professional Editorial Standards (PES) is the vital publication for editors by Editors Canada. The latest edition, which took effect January 1, 2017, is available as a free download.
Our standards communication task force has been working hard to get the word out about PES. Here are some of the things we’ve been up to.
- We published another blog post in our Standards at Work series, about how PES applies to editing memoirs.
- Our Twitter account (@ProEdStandards) is picking up steam; we’re focusing on tweeting about the Standards, which will apply to this year’s certification exams.
- Thanks to Elizabeth d’Anjou’s publicity efforts at the ACES conference, The Subversive Copy Editor, Carol Fisher Saller, tweeted about PES to her 15,000 followers.
8. MEMBER NEWS: Tell the world about your accomplishments
Editors Canada Member News is where we share information about members and affiliates who win awards, publish books and make their mark in other important ways.
Do you have an achievement you’d like to share? Are you excited about a new project or opportunity that has come your way? Let us tell the world all about it! Please send your stories to the member news coordinator.
9. NEC: Notes from your national executive council
I was recently looking at the results from last year’s exit surveys (surveys sent to people who didn’t renew their memberships). The association is using this new mechanism to collect information on what Editors Canada could improve, to help us retain members.
Of course, we can’t change everything to everyone’s liking (members often have contradictory wishes). And sometimes people leave for personal reasons that we cannot address.
But members might be interested to know that we tackled some of the concerns this past year. Here are some highlights.
Not being able to access meetings and services
Several comments addressed being unable to get to meetings or seminars or to access services and training.
- The Improving Access to Member Services Task Force will help with this. The task force recently sent a survey out via email to get more information and ideas from members.
- Webinars will continue to be useful for people who are not in major centres or who cannot get to seminars.
Helping editors with business items
Some commenters noted that the association hasn’t put a lot of effort into helping editors become better business people. Some of the directors have been talking about that over the past two years as well.
- This is certainly something that’s important and that editors can help each other with.
- At the NEC’s direction, the training and development committee is now looking at a series of business topics for new webinars.
Perceptions about fees
Some members think the membership fee is too high.
- The member services committee recently updated the chart comparing our fees to those of other organizations doing similar work and offering similar services and benefits. The latest chart shows that our membership fees are comparable to or lower than those of similar organizations.
- At the 2018 AGM, members voted to give the NEC more latitude with respect to freezing or reducing fees if required.
The NEC is grateful to have this information so that we and the many committees can continue to improve services to members.
Gael Spivak
President
The national e-news update is produced on behalf of the national executive council by the national office.