Resources

By Julie Willson A few months ago, I held my first-ever annual business retreat. It was a jam-packed week of planning, strategizing, and hundreds of sticky notes. I had been meaning to do it for years, after being prompted by edibuddy Melanie Padgett Powers to do so. And it was AMAZING. But why I would…

By Erin Roll Tell me if any of these thoughts sound familiar to you: “I’m not really any good at this job.” “I just landed that plum editing assignment out of sheer dumb luck.” “When people praise my work, they’re just saying that to be nice.” “It’s only a matter of time before people figure…

By Erin Brenner Citations can be the bane of a copyeditor’s existence. Whether one author writes them or multiple authors do, copyeditors are often left to fill in blanks and apply a style where none exists. Theoretically, writers are responsible for writing complete, properly formatted citations. Editors should only have to do a light edit,…

By Christine Steele I have felt imposter syndrome (IS), also called imposter phenomenon, since I started my editing career more than 20 years ago. I always wondered why I had felt this way, because I thought I was a pretty good editor. I regularly attended ACES conferences to attend relevant workshops, read books on grammar…

By Adrienne Montgomerie The file was in a right hot mess. Cue editing stage sub-1: panic. The publisher wanted end notes created using Word’s built-in End Note feature. Numbering was to restart with each chapter. The author submitted this: Footnotes numbered using Word’s feature, but with no content in the linked footnote area at the…

By Dawn McIlvain Stahl It’s the rare academic work or corporate report that isn’t missing a name, date of publication, or page number in at least a handful of references. So as copyeditors edit bibliographies, we often fill in or ask authors to provide missing pieces of information. Formatting references in our pet styles becomes…

By Crystal Shelley, LCSW As editors, we consider how messaging will affect readers. Is it clear? Is it biased? Is it harmful? These questions are no different in healthcare environments, where it’s vital for care providers to intentionally choose language that values the dignity and humanity of those receiving services. One area of healthcare that…

By Nate Hoffelder Given how we’ve all been busy surviving this past year, it is understandable if it’s been so long that you can’t remember when you last worked on it. If you haven’t taken some time to refresh your site recently, now is a good time to do so. (Ideally you should update your…

By Susan Karcz Medical editing, like any other kind, varies according to the specific medium, platform, even workplace. Sometimes editors are given a style to follow; other times they create their own. And part of the editor’s job is to know how to apply the right style to the copy in front of them. In…