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Avoiding anachronisms in fiction
By Elizabeth Frazier Halfway through a manuscript, the main character remarks that her hobby of refinishing furniture saves material from going to landfills. The proofreader points out that landfills weren’t a thing yet in this setting—at least not formally. It’s a small detail, but an important one. Anachronisms can easily slip into manuscripts—especially fiction and historical fiction. Every reader could probably tell you of a moment they…
Read MoreACES welcomes our new executive director
By Gigi Sutton ACES: The Society for Editing is proud to announce Jehan “Gigi” Sutton as the new executive director. Sutton is joining ACES following her role as the executive director for multiple client associations at an association management firm. She has worked for over 15 years in the association/nonprofit industry and has extensive experience…
Read MoreGoogle’s style guide for software developers
By Mike Pope and Jed Hartman At Google, we produce a lot of documentation for software developers. We have hundreds of thousands of pages of documentation for Google Cloud products, Android, Google Maps, and other technologies. You can imagine the challenge of trying to make all this text consistent and to make it sound like it comes from one company. The best tool we have for this challenge is the Google developer…
Read MoreCritical-thinking copyediting
By Christine Steele I have visited the book sale table at every ACES conference way more than I should. (After all, I’m a book collector, not a book hoarder!) Each year there are new and old selections on the table, and some are written by conference attendees. One would always make a repeat appearance, but I thought it didn’t apply to me: Strategic Copy Editing by John…
Read MoreMind (be careful with) your idioms
By Valerie S. Berman, EdM My fascination with idioms began at a Weight Watchers kickoff meeting 35 years ago. As I sat in a circle with a few other newcomers, we listened to each other’s weight stories. When my turn came, I explained that I’d had knee surgery and gained a few pounds during my recovery. Without hesitating, the facilitator asked, “Oh, so you saw the writing on the wall?”…
Read MorePost-rejection editing
By Laura A. Wackwitz, Ph.D. My first rejection as a writer came in the form of public humiliation. I was sixteen years old. As a member of Harbinger, my high school literary arts magazine, I’d submitted a poem for publication consideration. My teacher—our sponsor—liked it so much that she thought it a shoo-in for the…
Read MoreHow to succeed as a freelance copyeditor without having the faintest idea what you’re doing
By Richard Shealy Established copyeditors always have a solid background in the appropriate college coursework capped by certification in the field, right? Okay, you can stop laughing now. In all seriousness, there are as many legitimate paths to a good grounding in the fundamentals. Take my case, please. (Sorry, I can’t avoid a clear opportunity…
Read MoreThe characteristics of effective, eye-catching headlines
By Dana Sitar An article’s headline has an important job: get someone to read the story. It places that huge responsibility on about 60 to 70 characters. You have to get creative to make sure every word, letter, space, and punctuation mark in your headline is totally necessary and carries its fair weight. What makes…
Read MoreConscious language: A to Z of terms to consider
By Sofia Matias Conscious language needs to be taken into account across a wide variety of areas, from gender to age, to sexual orientation and socioeconomic status. Having a resource that can quickly scan through a document to point out any terms that editors should reconsider or delete altogether can, therefore, be a huge timesaver.…
Read MoreBranding together
By Christy Zuccarini If you’ve ever been involved in the development of a brand, you’ve probably learned that “brand” is about more than a mark. Our brand is our personality; it represents what makes us stand out from others. How we talk about our work is crucial to how we are perceived by and engage an…
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