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Welcome to the Editors Nova Scotia twig of Editors Canada!
Editors Nova Scotia
Contact Information
2018-19 Coordinators:
Interested in Editors Nova Scotia news?
You can find out more about Editors Nova Scotia events--past and present, and with photos to boot--by visiting our website. If you would like to hear about events by email, please Subscribe to Editors Nova Scotia emails!
Meetings & Events
SEMINAR
Grammar Boot Camp
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
Date: Friday, September 9, 2016
Time: 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Speaker: Frances Peck
Want to flex your grammar (and punctuation and usage) muscles? This intensive seminar will put you through the paces. Focusing on high-level errors—the ones that make it past editors and proofreaders and into print—this session will help you identify and fix the most puzzling mistakes in grammar, punctuation, and usage. We'll look at errors from a range of publications, discuss up-to-date approaches to eliminating them, and run through a series of challenging editing exercises. Feel free to bring in any difficult examples you've encountered on the job.
Editor-writer Frances Peck (CPE Hon.) is a partner in the BC firm West Coast Editorial Associates. A long-time member and volunteer with Editors Canada, she teaches editing at Douglas College and the University of British Columbia, and gives workshops across Canada. She's a co-author of the HyperGrammar website and author of Peck's English Pointers.
Location:
Thistle Room, Dartmouth Sportsplex, 110 Wyse Road, Dartmouth, NS, B3A 1M2
Parking is free.
Cost:
Editors Canada members and student affiliates, WFNS members, and ATINS members: $150
Non-members: $200
*Coffee/tea breaks and lunch included
Registration Closes: Tuesday, September 6, 2016 at midnight.
Please contact the Editors Nova Scotia co-coordinators (novascotia.twig@editors.ca) with any questions.
REGISTER NOW!
Association of Translators and Interpreters of Nova Scotia (ATINS) is also hosting a seminar by Frances Peck. This seminar (Clear and Concise: Guidelines for Style) will be held at the same place, Dartmouth Sportsplex, on Saturday, September 10, 2016. Registration for this event is through ATINS. Please email ATINS at info@atins.org to register for the Clear and Concise workshop. A discount will be available for Editors Canada members.
Clear and Concise: Guidelines for Style
Clear, concise style is the backbone of strong writing. It’s also the result of cold, hard revision.
This seminar presents a variety of stylistic techniques to help language do its job. We’ll look at how to create flow, eliminate sloppy shifts and inconsistencies, link ideas using parallelism and subordination, tighten sentence structure, and trim wordiness. Through discussion, examples, and exercises, we’ll examine surefire methods for polishing any type of document.
SEMINAR
Plain Language: Rethink, Reorganize, Reword, Redesign (continued)
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
Date: Friday, May 6, 2016
Time: 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Speaker: Diane Macgregor
Diane Macgregor follows up her 2013 seminar on plain language with a full-day, hands-on session. After a (re)introduction to plain language principles, you will work on content provided by local not-for-profit organizations. (But please bring your own content if you wish.) Diane will take you through the process of rethinking from the reader’s point of view: How much do your readers know about the subject? How well do they read? How interested are they in your topic? Why will they read this piece? Under what circumstances will they read it? What must they be able to do next? You will use the answers to these questions to match content, approach, level of detail, and level of language. By the end of the day, you will have practised and polished your plain language editing and communication skills—and you will have helped out your community.
Location:
Valardo Room, Dartmouth Sportsplex, 110 Wyse Road, Dartmouth, NS, B3A 1M2
Parking is free at the Sportsplex.
Cost:
Editors Canada members and student affiliates: $150
WFNS members : $150
Non-members: $200
*Welcome coffee/tea, breaks and lunch included
Registration Closes: Tuesday, May 3 at midnight.
Seminar Coordinator: Nancy Holland
REGISTER NOW!
Diane Macgregor, Editorial Consultant with the Nova Scotia Department of Communications, started in plain language in the 1980s, working on Alberta’s five-year plan to improve government communications. Projects included working with the real estate industry to improve contracts used with homebuyers and with the Alberta Law Reform Institute to demonstrate plain language techniques to the legal community. For the past 14 years, she has been a plain language editor/content designer with Communications Nova Scotia, helping a variety of government specialists reach their target audiences. She has been involved with Plain Language Association International from its earliest days, and her definition of plain language is included in Michèle M. Asprey's Plain Language for Lawyers, 3rd edition (Federation Press, Australia): “words and design working together to create clear communication.”
Here is a sampling of her Nova Scotia projects:
Breastfeeding Basics
Fish Safe
Parliamentary Democracy in Nova Scotia: How It Began, How It Evolved
Votes for Women: A Political Guidebook (various editions)
The Nova Scotia Nine: Remarkable Women, Then and Now
Small Business Safety Toolkit
Take a look at our calendar to find out more about upcoming meetings.