Presentation and workshop abstracts
When presentations are provided these will be linked below. The complete conference proceedings will also be available shortly from this page.
Plain or just dull? Collateral damage from the Plain English Movement
Editor, Art Gallery of New South Wales
Consulting editor, Words on the Wall
Open the PDF [78kB] or read in HTML
Since the mid 1980s the Plain English Movement has sought to cut a swathe through jargon-filled and obtuse language. Its mantra of eliminating ‘gobbledygook’ in legal and other documents was soon taken up by a broad range of organisations that produced informational texts for public audiences. Short, crisp sentences, everyday vocabulary and above all the active voice were hailed as our linguistic saviours. More recently Don Watson and his best-selling book Death Sentence: the Decay of Public Language have continued the crusade.
But in our enthusiasm to improve readability and accessibility, have we lost the very things that make texts interesting, engaging and memorable? Have we lost sight of other, more appropriate models and solutions? Has plain become bland?
This paper looks at the impact of the Plain English Movement on the writing and editing of texts intended for public audiences – informational and educational booklets, books and catalogues, multimedia, exhibitions etc – across a range of subject areas, including science, history and art. Particular focus is given to issues such as: length and complexity of sentences vs density, the active vs passive voice and vocabulary choices.
Bare bones editing
Principal science information consultant, Biotext Pty Ltd, Canberra
Through giving training courses in writing and editing, we have found that many people would like help in assessing other people's work and giving them constructive feedback. Our participants wanted a ‘framework’ that would allow them to look at a document, work out what was wrong with it and explain to the author how those problems could be fixed – preferably in no more than 10 minutes! In response Biotext developed the ‘bare bones’ approach to editing.
This practical, interactive session presented the bare bones approach and offered participants the opportunity to put it into practice using a four-page scientific report. At the end of the session, participants were in a good position to assess a document and give helpful feedback, rather than just saying ‘this won't do, rewrite it’.
Biotext is a science information consultancy.
Educational editing in an electronic world: The journey from concept to website
Publishing Officer, Department of Education and Children's Services, South Australia
This paper will appeal to editors looking for new challenges and new ways of working in the area of educational publication. As Publishing Officer for the South Australian Department of Education and Children's Services it was my role to provide high quality resources to our educators. This case study paper outlines the journey that I took with an editor/ writer to collect stories of best practice from a range of educational sites and to recreate all the information we collected into an interactive, practical sub web. This process took the editor away from the computer and into sites to work in close relationship with me to collect the stories and then to use her editing skills to create stories succinct enough yet rich with useful information for a web format. This is an example of how in an electronic age when educators are more readily using web based resources, editors can increase their repertoire of skills to truly collaborate from inspiration to publication.
But it's fiction! Getting it right when you're editing fiction
Freelance editor, Curtin Communications, Western Australia
What's the correct term for a nineteenth-century potty? Which Apollo space mission took place in 1972? When do gardenias flower? Do children in 2007 still say ‘golly’? Editors of fiction are no strangers to checking facts and trying to get it right. But occasionally these efforts are perceived as ‘nitpicking’ and we're met with the incredulous response: But it's fiction!
Drawing on opinions and examples from generous colleagues around Australia, as well as my own experience as an editor of adult and junior fiction, I will consider issues of implausibility, inaccuracy and inconsistency in fiction, why they matter and when they don't. I will also open up discussion on where our responsibilities as editors lie.
Audience unknown: the challenges of editing text in new contexts
Melanie Dankel, Managing Editor
Tasmin McNaughtan, Editorial Training Manager
Lonely Planet Publications, Victoria
As publishers embrace new technologies and morph into media companies, the traditional role of the editor must also evolve. Taking Lonely Planet Publications as a case study, this paper will look at the challenges inherent in moving from traditional book publishing to the implementation of new systems for delivering and managing content.
The presenters will consider current and future changes to the role of the editor produced by this evolution, and examine the skills necessary to perform in the digital publishing environment.
Editors map their past to inform their future: how well are they reading the signs?
Marilyn Dorman, Learning and teaching designer/lecturer
Sharon Nevile, Freelance editor/project manager, teacher
Jennifer Wright, Freelance editor, artist, teacher
University of Southern Queensland
Slide show only: open the PDF [3.38MB].
Contemporary literature about employability in the 21st century emphasises the need for individuals to be lifelong learners, able to respond to workplace changes, to be flexible, adaptable and able to market themselves successfully as the consummate employee or service provider.
For editors, this has meant re-thinking their roles in the editing and publishing process – is there still a role for them between the ‘inspiration’ stage, and the ‘publication’ stage: if so, what? To answer that, editors must be able to articulate what they currently do, what has informed their knowledge and skills base, and reflect on those issues to shape their professional profiles for the future.
At the 2005 National Editors Conference in Melbourne, a group of editors used a mind-mapping approach to record aspects of their work-life history and through that reflective process, to identify opportunities for change or consolidation.
For busy editors, taking time to reflect on their past, present and future may appear to be a luxury, but in these times of discussion about accreditation, it is vital. This paper explores those issues in the context of accreditation, publishing practices, and changing perceptions about who editors are and what they do.
The creative editor: Publishing at the National Library of Australia
Publishing Manager, National Library of Australia
Slide show only: open the PDF [1.53MB].
The National Library is Australia's largest reference library, charged with preserving our nation's documentary heritage in its many forms. Collecting and looking after the stories of our past – stories of exploration, settlement, war, development, immigration, cultural and scientific achievement, stories of individuals and of communities – is at the heart of what we do. These stories, amounting to over 7 million collection items including manuscripts, oral histories and pictures, are also at the heart of the library's trade publishing program.
How does the National Library use its collections to create engaging books? What is the role of the publishing manager and editor in this process? This session will explore the role of the creative editor in the library's publishing program, looking in particular at the recent development of new biography and children's lists. The development of these lists has seen the role of the editors and publishing managers change from being ‘book shapers’ to ‘book creators’.
Between the lines: Additional tasks that editors must perform when dealing with academic manuscripts by non-native speakers of English
Professor, Faculty of Policy Studies, Chuo University
Editors working with scientific manuscripts written by non-native speakers of English are frequently unaware of a number of factors that can significantly affect the accurate transmission of information.
The editor's task involves far more than merely correcting grammatical structure. Editing might necessitate, for example:
- the explanation of terms known within the writer's culture but unfamiliar internationally
- the restructuring of an argument to fit the expectations of an English-speaking audience
- an awareness of mother tongue interference (especially where the English is grammatically correct but where usage is inaccurate).
Editors need to be as specific as possible when requesting changes in manuscripts.
If requested to help with the preparation of materials for conference presentations, besides grammatical corrections, the editor also needs to convert text to the style appropriate to the manner of presentation.
I present specific examples of these and other points drawn from over twenty years' experience editing papers by Japanese authors.
Literary editing
Emend Editing, Sydney
Many professional editors are intimidated by the idea of editing creative writing. There is certainly a strong subjective element to the work, but, with experience, the editor can find ways to improve the writing while respecting and enhancing the voice of the writer. This two-hour introduction to the fundamentals of literary or creative editing looks at the way the text speaks to the reader – through tone and voice, variations on point of view, as well as characterisation, dialogue and plot development. It is suitable for both editors and writers.
The secret to life, the universe and annual reports: using project management principles
Lawrie Kirk (Tanner James Management Consultants Pty Ltd), Canberra
Virginia Wilton (Wilton Hanford Hanover), Canberra
This is a workshop that focuses on using established project management techniques so that the preparation of an annual report can become more effective and enjoyable for all involved.
Participants will be shown how to initiate the project and set up clear roles and responsibilities from the outset, and taught planning techniques that will minimise duplication of effort. We will also explore ways that can significantly reduce the review time when there are multiple organisations, sections or jurisdictions involved in a report.
The workshop draws extensively on the presenters' shared and individual experience in producing annual reports for federal government agencies.
Bridging the gap: web publishing in an educational setting
SingTeach is an e-magazine produced by the Centre of Research for Pedagogy and Practice for communicating research issues and findings to classroom teachers. The newsletter format and online medium were chosen for their reader-friendliness and accessibility to the target audience.
It soon became apparent that bridging the gap between the academic language of the research community and the practical needs of a lay audience was the least of the challenges that lay ahead. As time went by, more gaps began to surface between the goals and the reality of the publication: between academia and practice, between conceptualisation and implementation, between supply and demand of articles, between our editorial and technical expertise, and between being critical yet maintaining diplomacy.
This presentation focuses on our experiences in starting and managing an online magazine in an educational setting. We seek to address some of the issues and problems related to web-based publishing and to suggest some ways to make it a smoother journey. This presentation will be especially useful to those who are thinking of starting an online publication or frustrated editors of such publications.
Navigating the complexity of CMS
Research Associate, Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice, National Institute of Education, Singapore
The digital age is transforming the publishing landscape. It has opened up new opportunities for publishing enterprises and has spawned a bewildering array of new technologies. One of the major e-publishing tools to emerge is the content management system (CMS), online applications designed to closely model the print publishing process.
While promising to facilitate collaboration and simplify workflows, they nonetheless present their own set of challenges and considerations for editors, especially those of small-scale, not-for-profit publications. More often than not, they find themselves assuming double duties: to uphold the quality of the publication's content and to manage the CMS behind the publication. This is no mean feat, as we have found, due to the considerable technological expertise required to oversee the development and administration of a CMS.
This paper presents a retrospective take on our attempt, as a small publications team in a major educational research centre, to implement CMS for three very different publications with diverse requirements: an online e-magazine for teachers, the centre's web portal, and a print academic journal. We will share what we, as CMS rookies, learned along the way; and discuss the issues and challenges encountered in implementing and maintaining the various CMS.
Expanding horizons
WriteEdit Manager, Write Group Limited, New Zealand
Slide show only: open the PDF [0.98MB].
It's a shorter route from inspiration to publication in corporate and public sector editing. But the ride is just as exciting and full of unrecognised opportunities.
We'd like to inspire writers, editors, and proofreaders to look at developing a career in corporate and public sector editing by telling the story of Write Group, a New Zealand company that specialises in plain English business writing and editing.
Our seminar:
- tells you who we are, what we do, and why we do it
- explains the plain English platform that underpins Write Group
- talks about the opportunities offered by corporate and public sector editing
- outlines the skills editors need to develop to become successful corporate and public sector editors
- excites participants with the range of work and examples of plain English editing
- touches upon the need for editors to shape the work they do to fit their skills and their philosophy
- inspires participants to aspire to what we see as being the pinnacle of a corporate and public sector editor's career.
There’s room for more: Opportunities in science editing
Editor (sciences), presenter of writing workshops for scientists
Tasmania
Open the PDF [165kB] or Read in HTML
Editors tend to shy away from working in the sciences if they don't have a science degree. This degree is probably a reasonable requirement for journal editors (most of whom work in a specialised area) and school textbook editors (whose authors are often error-prone). But I don't think a science degree is essential for editors who work with authors on their scientific papers, books and reports – as I've been doing for some 25 years.
Even if I had a basic science degree, I would not be brave enough to query a scientist's science (which has usually been thoroughly scrutinised by other scientists anyway). But I am brave enough to rehash their sentences in the name of greater clarity, to cut out their waffle and trim the verbiage – just like any editor working outside the sciences.
In this paper I focus on the opportunities I am aware of, discuss some of the characteristics of these generally bright – and always ambitious – clients, and suggest that skills in science editing can readily be extended to offering writing workshops for scientists.
Reversing an abridgement of popular colonial fiction
Senior Lecturer, English
School of English, Journalism and European Languages, University of Tasmania
In 1881 London editor Gertrude Townsend Mayer undertook the task of turning the popular double-decker novel The Broad Arrow by Caroline Leakey, into a single volume. The novel, about the transportation of a young woman to Van Diemen's Land, remained popular for many years and was a reference for Marcus Clarke's For the Term of His Natural Life.
Having ‘unabridged’ the novel, I discuss that process and what it has revealed about the work of the 19th century editor and her author.
The scientist and the novelist
Director of Publishing, Quintus Publishing, University of Tasmania
Senior Curator, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
Slide show only: open the PDF [1.12MB].
David Owen and David Pemberton are co-authors of Tasmanian Devil: a unique and threatened animal (2005, Allen & Unwin, Australia; Natural History Museum, UK; Independent Publishers Group, USA). This first-ever book about the world’s largest marsupial carnivore is packed with information that has either never been published or has only been found in scientific publications. In their presentation, scientist Pemberton and novelist Owen, will talk about their collaboration, one that has produced a funny, sad and surprising book.
Experiencing Antarctica
Wendy Pyper, Editor & Communications Officer
Cathy Bruce, Communications Officer
Australian Antarctic Division (Tasmania)
Slide show only: open the PDF [1.19MB].
Antarctica – a place of heroic human endurance, extreme weather and unique beauty – captures the imagination of many. But most people will only ever experience this special place through stories and images presented in magazines, on the internet or on television.
At the Australian Antarctic Division, the Australian Antarctic Magazine and the division's website provide the public with information on the frozen continent by communicating the activities and achievements of Antarctic scientists, policy makers and logistical experts, within the context of the government's goals in Antarctica.
This session gives an overview of how we write, edit and produce stories for the magazine and website to ensure we provide accurate, interesting, entertaining and accessible information to the public, that is consistent with the Australian Government's goals and interests in Antarctica.
Our presentation will cover issues encountered by science editors in both government and non-government environments: how to decode and edit complex scientific concepts, horror stories and lessons learned, editing for style, web accessibility, death by acronym, editing constraints, common problems, maintaining relationships with writers, our responsibilities to government, the importance of accuracy, and useful resources.
The information will be of interest to those new to editing and may also prove useful to more seasoned editors.
Fact checking
Senior Editor & Head of Fact-checking, The Atlantic magazine, Washington DC
Fact-checking is a formal process frequently applied to non-fiction publishing in the United States. In this practical, interactive workshop Yvonne will show how her department at The Atlantic, one of the highest standard public affairs magazines in the US, uses primary sources, libraries, web services and interviews to try to check facts, generalisations, quotes and even opinion.
In her work, Yvonne also ‘determines how problematic or sensitive an article's content may be’, and says, ‘although fact-checking is an important part of the editorial process because we need to be able to stand behind our content, the reality is that we must also do our damnedest to avoid being sued due to false or defamatory statements. If individuals report mistakes or (even worse) threaten legal action concerning what we have printed, I take primary role in all communications with our lawyers, retrace the steps the checker took, and figure out what recourse, if any, we must take.’
The language of scientific evidence
Biotext Pty Ltd, Canberra
Slide show only: open the PDF [425kB].
Most scientific publications, including the science columns of newspapers, are littered with the term ‘evidence’ and public perceptions of science are closely related to what people think ‘the evidence’ means.
According to the dictionary, evidence is ‘that which proves or disproves something’; while juries are told that the evidence must be ‘beyond all reasonable doubt’ before a person can be found guilty. But how much evidence is enough? For example, how much is enough to say that hormone replacement therapy will increase the risk of cancer or that global warming is indeed happening?
In recent years, I have identified several problems with the use of the term ‘evidence’ in scientific publications. These include:
- overuse of ill-defined adjectives to ‘rank’ evidence (such as good-quality, compelling, reasonable, weak)
- inconsistent use of the term ‘no evidence’ (meaning either no studies or studies that show no significant effect)
- use of biased language.
These language problems impair the reader's ability to understand the information presented, leading to misinterpretation of the science. Writers and editors therefore need to take care with the way they describe scientific evidence, particularly in summaries of evidence intended to inform practice, policy making or public opinion.
This workshop alerts editors to the problems of describing scientific evidence and explore simple methods to achieve greater clarity.
Keeping culture and collecting voices: The National Museum of Australia's Tasmanian Aboriginal project
Senior Editor, National Museum of Australia
Slide show only: open the PDF [1.06MB].
In 2003 the National Museum of Australia embarked on an ambitious collecting project. Its aim was to collaborate with the community to develop a new collection of Tasmanian Aboriginal material that would form the basis for a major new exhibition in the museum's permanent galleries in Canberra.
Interestingly, rather than an object, the first item collected was a poem. Among the tools, shell necklaces, artworks and artefacts that flowed into the collection were more poems, songs and other verbal expressions of this reinvigorated and at times highly politicised community.
While the museum was busy collecting from the community, members of the community were responding by writing about the historical and contemporary experience of ‘being collected’. It soon became clear that in order to represent people of such diverse talents and preoccupations, an exhibition would not be sufficient in itself, and so the idea of publishing a book was born.
This was a multi-authored project with a difference. The Tasmanian Aboriginal community is as fractured and fractious as it is creative and vibrant. Terms and spellings vary from writer to writer. Authors were given unparalleled access (in my experience) to edited copy and proofs, leading to interesting negotiations on the point of going to print. As the museum's in-house editor assigned to this project, I trace in my talk how fraught with potential and real difficulties such a truly consultative publishing project can be, the particular sensitivities that arise when working with Indigenous authors, and the strategies the museum put in place to overcome both actual and potential problems.
Communicators in the legal and financial sector
Publishing Manager, Office of Corporate Affairs, Australian Securities and Investments Commission, New South Wales
A growing number of technical communicators in Sydney are finding employment within the legal and financial sectors. A wide variety of organisations are seeking communicators, including editors, to develop hard copy, online and other documentation for their customers, their clients as well as their own staff.
Some of this demand has developed because of law reform changes, for example in areas such as financial services and company reporting. Most of the work in these sectors does not demand legal or accounting qualifications and there are opportunities for full-time employees as well as contractors.
Demand for communicators has also increased with the large investment in new technology in financial services institutions. In my presentation I outline the type of products that technical communicators are producing and some of the main issues facing them in the financial services and legal sectors.
