Meet the Instructor: Nancy Flight

by Lynn Slobogian

Nancy Flight is associate publisher of Greystone Books. She has been editing books for more than 40 years, both as an in-house editor and as a freelancer, in Canada and the United States. She has worked with such authors as David Suzuki, Evelyn Lau, and Wade Davis, among many others. She received the 1988 Tom Fairley Award for Editorial Excellence for her work on Genethics: The Art of Engineering Life, by David Suzuki and Peter Knudtson.

In addition, she has taught in the SFU Master of Publishing program, the Banff Book Editing Workshop, the SFU Book Editing Workshop, and the SFU Book Publishing Workshop, and has taught writing at SFU.

Nancy is also a past president of Editors Canada and of the Association of Book Publishers of British Columbia, and has served on the executive council of the Association of Canadian Book Publishers. She was responsible for revising the standards for stylistic editing during Editors Canada’s review of professional standards in 2009. She currently sits on the Langara College Publishing Advisory Committee.

Nancy will be teaching Editors BC’s October seminar, Stylistic Editing: Beyond the Basics, on October 31. Lynn Slobogian, professional development chair, chatted with Nancy about her extensive editing career, her predictions for the future of publishing, and choosing one’s battles while editing. Read on.

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Meet the Instructor: Lisa Manfield

by Lynn Slobogian

Lisa-7Lisa Manfield is a writer, editor, and content strategist. She has developed print and online content, marketing collateral, and courseware for small businesses, non-profit organizations, government agencies, and educational institutions. Currently a digital writer at tech start-up Chimp, she has also been the editor of bcliving.ca, managing editor at orato.com, and marketing manager at thetyee.ca. She also teaches Writing and Editing for the Web at SFU.

Lisa will be leading Editors BC’s September seminar, Creating Compelling Web Content, on September 26. Here, she talks with professional development chair Lynn Slobogian about her career path and the evolving world of online content.

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September 16, 2015: Welcome Back Wine and Cheese

What: Editors BC monthly meeting
When: Wednesday, September 16, 2015, 7:00–9:00 pm
Where: Welch Room, 4th floor, YWCA Health + Fitness Centre, 535 Hornby Street, Vancouver | map
Cost: Free!

Getting to know each other better
Come on out to get to know your Editors Canada/Editors BC colleagues better! We’re all editors, but our backgrounds are diverse. Did you know that we have published authors, engineers, trained historians, and world travellers among us? Come ready to share your stories, and enjoy wine and snacks as we kick off our 2015–16 season.

Special season-opener: Members, non-members, and students all attend free of charge.

Bonus! Enter the draw at the meeting for free admission to one of Editors BC’s professional development seminars.

No editors’ pub night
Because of the wine and cheese social, there will be no pub night before the September meeting. The Elephant & Castle gatherings will start up again in October.

Image by Shutterstock

Rows of desks face a projection screen in a classroom-like environment.
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September 26, 2015: Creating Compelling Web Content with Lisa Manfield

What: Editors BC professional development seminar
When: Saturday, September 26, 2015, 9:00 am–4:00 pm
Where: Segal Building, SFU, 500 Granville Street, Vancouver | map

As Web readers become more and more difficult to attract — and keep — on your website, how can today’s Web editors ensure that their digital content engages online audiences? Effective Web editing comes down to three key strategies — understanding Web readers, knowing enough about search optimization to ensure copy is found, and making the most of social media sharing.

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May 20, 2015: Year-End Wine and Cheese—and Elections!

What: EAC-BC monthly meeting
When: Wednesday, May 20, 2015, 7:00–9:00 pm
Where: Welch Room, 4th floor, YWCA Health + Fitness Centre, 535 Hornby Street, Vancouver | map
Cost: Members and non-members attend free, but must check in at the door.

Our 2014–15 season is drawing to a close, and it’s time to celebrate summer! Join us for wine, Murchie’s Editors’ Blend tea, snacks, and good conversation with fellow editors.

We’ll also be choosing our new executive council for the 2015–16 season. If you’re looking to get more involved with EAC, consider joining the executive. Positions are open to all members regardless of experience or length of membership. Please contact Peter Moskos at bcpastchair@editors.ca if you’re interested.

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April 15, 2015: Transcription, Captioning, and Subtitling: An Introduction for Editors

What: EAC-BC monthly meeting
When: Wednesday, April 15, 2015, 7:00–9:00 pm
Where: Welch Room, 4th floor, YWCA Health + Fitness Centre, 535 Hornby Street, Vancouver | map
Cost: Free for EAC members; $10 for non-members; $5 for students with valid ID. Registration at the door.

Transcription, captioning, and subtitling are challenging and interesting areas of work for editors, from both process and service-delivery perspectives. To do this work, an editor needs responsive thinking skills, a full editor’s toolkit, and the ability to break down a job into its constituent parts…and then to recombine the parts to best represent how the text is performed. Please bring your questions!

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March 18, 2015: Writers on Editors: An Evening of Eavesdropping

What: EAC-BC monthly meeting
When: Wednesday, March 18, 2015, 7:00–9:00 pm
Where: Welch Room, 4th floor, YWCA Health + Fitness Centre, 535 Hornby Street, Vancouver | map
Cost: Free for EAC members; $10 for non-members; $5 for students with valid ID. Registration at the door.

Note: New members are invited to a special “welcome session” with our member services chair at 7:00 pm.

What do writers really think of editors? Do they love all that well-intentioned advice and criticism, or do they sometimes, just sometimes, resist it? Which editorial strategies work best for writers, and which are doomed to fail? Do self-published authors have different needs than the traditionally published? Our March author panel is your chance to eavesdrop and learn as three accomplished writers tell all about their editors.

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June 12–14, 2015: Conference 2015—Editing Goes Global

What: EAC annual conference
When: June 12–14, 2015
Where: Metro Toronto Convention Centre, 255 Front Street West, Toronto | map

Compiled by Amy Haagsma; copy edited by Meagan Kus

EAC’s annual conference features industry speakers, professional development sessions, networking opportunities, an awards banquet, and more. This year’s conference will be held June 12­–14, 2015, at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Greg Ioannou is the conference chair.

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February 18, 2015: Language Detectives: Part II

What: EAC-BC monthly meeting
When: Wednesday, February 18, 2015, 7:00–9:00 pm
Where: Welch Room, 4th floor, YWCA Health + Fitness Centre, 535 Hornby Street, Vancouver | map
Cost: Free for EAC members, $10 for non-members, and $5 for students with valid ID. Registration at the door.

Join in as Dr. Lorna Fadden takes us on a journey into the world of forensic linguistics. How do we know if someone understands their rights after they’re arrested? Can we demonstrate an escalation of threat in a series of letters? What does it mean to have a questionable confession? The intricacies of word choice and sentence structure, among other language features, can give us insightful clues into answering these questions.

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March 19, 2015: Getting the Message Across: Clear Writing Tips with Frances Peck

What: EAC-BC professional development seminar
When: Thursday, March 19, 2015, 8:30 am – 11:30 am
Where: Library Square Conference Centre, 350 West Georgia Street, Vancouver | map

Workplace documents have one goal: to deliver a message quickly and clearly to a particular audience. But too often that message gets buried by weak organization, wordiness, abstract language, jargon, unhelpful design, and other barriers to readability.

This half-day introduction to clear writing shows you how to remove those barriers and build a document that says what it means. We’ll talk about the all-important reader, including the different types of readers and their varying needs. We’ll cover seven practical techniques for making written documents clearer. We’ll finish with a look at how page layout affects readability. (Detailed agenda below.)

The workshop includes short exercises to help you apply what you learn. You’ll also receive a list of recommended resources.

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