Conferences

By James Harbeck We’re all familiar with onomatopoeia: bang, woof, moo. But we may not spend much time thinking about how it’s generally regularized and standardized: a dog can go woof, for instance, but whoosh is a fast-moving thing, whir is a spinning, vibrating thing, and whoop is an expression of delight or discomfiture. And…

By Jasmin Collier and Isy Godfrey Continual changes in expert knowledge, consumer trends, and technical know-how mean that the publishing industry always faces a wealth of new challenges. However, at Healthline Media, one ongoing challenge is particularly pertinent to us as copy editors: Striking the balance between search engine optimization (SEO) and our house style.…

By Dorothy Hernandez While freelancers have their own reasons for forging their own paths, the reasons are variations on the same themes: autonomy and freedom. But keeping track of business finances, getting an accountant and marketing yourself can quickly dash those dreams of escaping the 9-to-5 grind and cube farms. That is a full-time job…

By Nolan Brey In her ACES 2018 session, Getting Student Journalists to Care About Editing in the Digital Age, Kay O’Donnell presented ways in which instructors can get their students to care about editing in a world with increasingly poor grammar and sloppy writing. O’Donnell is an assistant professor of journalism and the student media adviser…

By Graham Colton, Online News Association University of South Florida St. Petersburg In 2018, The New York Times and The New Yorker both won Pulitzer Prizes for their coverage of the #MeToo movement. The prizes recognized the culmination of months of reporting on sexual misconduct that stretched from Capitol Hill to Hollywood. The movement has…

By Alexandra Martinez With credibility, reliability and the term “fake news” on the line, journalists are looking to see what they can do to keep audiences not only engaged, but trusting the media. In Her Thursday afternoon session at the national conference of ACES: The Society for Editing, Jane Elizabeth dove into what it takes…

By Nolan Brey In her ACES 2018 session, Pam Hogle presented ways in which digital content can be made accessible to everyone, including those with visual or auditory impairments. Hogle writes about creating accessible digital content for eLearning Guild’s Learning Solution. Hogle is also a freelance writer and editor and a former trainer of service…

By Abby Prickett Jittery hands and scarlet cheeks often plague an introverted writer when stepping from behind pen and paper. In the Faking Extroversion as an Introvert session at ACES’s 2017 conference, Laura Lattimer, Rachel Godward, and Samantha Enslen equipped their shy audience with tools to empower them in the field. Lattimer and Godward are…

By Michelle Lowery What freelance editor hasn’t wished they could go back, do some things over, and get their business started off the right way, or at least, in a better way? I know I have. Freelancing in any capacity usually involves a lot of trial and error, particularly because freelancers all run their businesses…

By Laura Lattimer Does “impact” ever strike you as a verb? Is “very unique” inherently redundant? Does the mental strain of “irregardless” literally make your head explode? As copy editors, we sometimes consider ourselves the gatekeepers of good language — preventing “incorrect” usage from ever stepping foot into our precious temple of the written vernacular.…