Upcoming Seminars and Events
Editors BC Student Networking Event
What: Student networking event for Editors BC student affiliate members
When: Saturday, May 11, 2024, 11:00 am to 12:30 pm PDT
Where: Online through Zoom
Cost: Free
You’re invited to a 90-minute online networking event on Saturday, May 11, to meet other student affiliates, share your knowledge and successes, and learn from your peers.
This free virtual event is designed to help student affiliates support one another in their business and editing practices.
Please follow the “Register Now” link to RSVP.
RSVP by Wednesday, May 8, to receive the event Zoom link. If you are not yet an Editors BC student affiliate member, learn more about the program here.
Please join us!
Sincerely,
Claire, Kim, and Merielle
Editors BC Professional Development Co-Chairs
Fact Checking with Iva Cheung
When: Saturday, April 13, 2024, 9:00 am to 12:00 pm PDT
Where: Online via Zoom
Editors, as fact checkers, are an essential bulwark against misinformation. But knowing what facts to check and how and where to check them requires judgment, persistence, and a healthy amount of critical skepticism.
After this three-hour seminar, participants should be able to:
- name the main ethical and legal issues related to fact checking,
- identify which facts editors are expected to check for different genres and types of publications,
- evaluate the reliability of information sources, and
- list common tools and resources editors use in fact checking.
This session will include hands-on exercises that will help participants put fact-checking techniques into practice.
This seminar will be recorded.
Iva Cheung is a Certified Professional Editor, indexer, publishing consultant, and policy researcher. She has won the Tom Fairley Award for Editorial Excellence, President’s Award for Volunteer Service, and Karen Virag Award for promoting the editing profession. A long-time plain language advocate and scholar, she joined ASC’s Plain Language Technical Committee as an academic member. She is grateful to live as an uninvited settler on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ (>Halkomelem)-speaking peoples, including the Qayqayt First Nation.
AI, Tech, and Editing: A Pragmatic Toolbox with Perrin Lindelauf
When: Saturday, March 2, 9:00 am to 12:00 pm, and Saturday, March 9, 2023, 9:00 am to 12:00 pm PDT
Where: Online via Zoom
The sudden proliferation of AI text tools in 2023 has upended many industries in a very short span, creating in equal parts fear, confusion, and excitement for the future.
This webinar aims to empower editors with a raft of AI tools to enhance their workflows today. It sets aside ethical debates about the technology and instead takes a pragmatic and clear-eyed look at useful tech and the direction in which the market is moving in the short term.
The first of two sessions will provide background to large language models, what the strengths and weaknesses of ChatGPT are, and how they will affect the work of the editor in the foreseeable future. The session will provide live examples of how ChatGPT works and offer editorial problems that it is uniquely suited to help with. Pitfalls of Large Language Models (LLMs) and editing will also be discussed.
The second session will look beyond ChatGPT, first examining lower-tech tools that some editors may not have explored yet (wildcards, macros, TextExpander, PerfectIt), as well as a sample workflow to incorporate them. Next it will cover the emerging market of writing-specific AI tools being built on top of ChatGPT or with their own proprietary LLMs: Grammarly, DeepL, Copy.AI, and any new serious contenders that have recently emerged. The session will conclude with a brief discussion of practical uses that participants can foresee in their own workflows.
Participants are encouraged to have their own free ChatGPT account and to have played with it, even briefly.
This seminar will be recorded.
Perrin Lindelauf is a copy and structural editor living in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island. He got his start as a professional writer and editor by writing travel guides about Japan for National Geographic Books. He’s a graduate of the SFU Editing Certificate program, currently working as an academic copy editor for a university publisher. A tech enthusiast, he has been fiddling with ways to increase his productivity for many years and is eager to see how new AI tools can improve both the art of communication and the editorial process alike.
Build Your Freelance Editing Business Website
When: Saturday, February 24, 2024, 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm PST
Where: Online via Zoom
Are you ready to establish your editing business online? This seminar will guide you through creating and managing a professional website to attract new clients and grow your freelance editing work.
In this seminar, you’ll learn:
- Website technology basics. Get an introduction to domains, hosting, website builders, and key design elements. Erin will demystify the jargon so you can make informed decisions.
- Better site content. What content do potential clients want to see? You’ll learn about the must-have pages and opportunities to keep visitors coming back. You’ll also get an overview of search engine optimization (SEO) best practices.
- Site launching and management. Do you need to launch every webpage at once? How do you keep your site running smoothly long-term? Get a peek into security, site backups, and site redesigns as well.
Whether you’re starting from scratch or revamping an existing website, this seminar will outline the necessary steps to create an effective online presence for your freelance editing business.
This seminar will be recorded.
Erin Brenner is the owner of editorial services firm Right Touch Editing, which specializes in providing small and midsized organizations with writing and editing teams. Additionally, Erin provides freelance editor coaching and website reviews through Archer Editorial Training. She shares her expertise through her blog, The Writing Resource, and by speaking at industry conferences. Erin is the author of CIEP’s Marketing Yourself Guide (with Sarah Hulse), Copyediting’s Grammar Tune-Up Workbook, and 1001 Words for Success: Synonyms, Antonyms & Homonyms. Her book, The Chicago Guide for Freelance Editors: How to Take Care of Your Business, Your Clients, and Yourself from Start-up to Sustainability, will be published by the University of Chicago Press in Spring 2024. Find Erin on the web at https://linktr.ee/erinbrenner
Crafting a Meaningful Land Acknowledgement: The Why and the How
When: Saturday, January 27, 2024, 9:00 am to 12:00 pm PST
Where: Online via Zoom
Since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final report was released in 2015, land acknowledgements have become an integral part of many events, websites, and email signatures in Canada. But some people question their value. Are these acknowledgements simply “woke” culture getting out of hand? Are they performative exercises? Or can they be meaningful statements about the lands we call home and the roles Indigenous Peoples have played in stewarding these lands for millennia? This three-hour interactive seminar will give participants the information they need to ensure that their land acknowledgements are sincere.
To guide participants, Rhonda will briefly explain the history and issues related to using land acknowledgements. Using real-life examples, she will show how to research region-specific acknowledgements, what to include, and what to avoid.
Two weeks prior to the seminar, Rhonda will send registered participants a set of questions they can use to draft an acknowledgement prior to the session. Participants are encouraged to submit their draft to Rhonda one week before the event. As time allows, some acknowledgements will be workshopped anonymously during the seminar to help participants understand what to look for in their own work. Participants will then refine their draft during short working sessions.
Participants will leave the seminar with a draft of a land acknowledgement that goes beyond those we see and hear. Their personal acknowledgement will not be an empty exercise but will reflect their values and reasons for creating a meaningful statement.
This seminar will be recorded.
Bio:
Rhonda Kronyk is a settler/Dene research, writing, and editing consultant. A member of the Tsay Keh Dene Nation (Treaty 8), she calls amiskwaciwâskahikan (Edmonton) in Treaty 6 home. A founding member of the Indigenous Editors Association, Rhonda provides workshops for publishers and university publishing programs on how to publish culturally respectful stories by and about Indigenous Peoples. She has worked on manuscripts by some of Canada’s best known Indigenous authors.
As passionate as Rhonda is about her work, she steps away from it occasionally to make time for gardening, art, photography, reading, and participating in Edmonton’s incredible array of literary events. Fun fact: before opening her editing business in 2013, Rhonda worked in residential construction doing everything from framing to finishing to cabinet building.