Board of Editors in the Life Sciences

The Board of Editors in the Life Sciences (BELS) was founded in 1991 to evaluate the proficiency of manuscript editors in the life sciences and to award credentials similar to those obtainable in other professions. The Board was founded by 10 editors who had long been active in national and international professional associations in scientific editing and publishing. They began working on the development of the certification program in the early 1980s. They were assisted by consultants in testing and by administrators of certification programs in other professions. BELS was incorporated in the state of Maryland on January 23, 1991, and the first official certification examinations were offered that year. BELS now has hundreds of members in the United States, Canada, and several European countries.

BELS. Organizations>Editing>Scientific Communication>Biomedical

Breaking into Corporate Editing

For many companies 'information' is their most important product. Forget the myth of the paperless office; most offices are flooded with research reports, studies, white papers, marketing surveys, analyses, annual reports, reviews -- enough paper to consume a small rainforest.

Allen, Moira. Writing World (2001). Careers>Editing

A Brief Guide to Communication Products Used in Online Learning

An overview of the various genres of information about online learning products.

Carliner, Saul. Saul Carliner Studio (2003). Articles>Editing>Online

Bug Reports: Your Road to Visibility  

Argues that technical writers have a professional duty to report defects in software and presents examples of software problems that require bug reports.

Leritz-Higgins, Sarah E. Intercom (2002). Articles>Writing>Editing

Can the Computer Improve your Writing Style?  

We have spell checkers. We have grammar checkers. What we really need is a style checker.

Cohen, Gerald. STC Proceedings (2000). Articles>Writing>Editing>Word Processing

Can You Edit a Direct Quotation?

A TV network would never put words in a person's mouth, of course, but print journalists take this liberty all the time.

Walsh, Bill and Linda Jorgensen. Editorial Eye, The (2003). Articles>Editing>Journalism

Careful Scientific Writing: A Guide for the Nitpicker, the Novice, and the Nervous  

Writing scientific documentation has a unique set of caveats, pitfalls, and red flags that other types of writing do not have. The very nature of scientific writing demands the precise use of words and phrases, however, this precise usage is often discounted as being pedantic by many people. The reason for this precision is to communicate sometimes highly technical information to others who may, or may not, be as knowledgeable as the author, and who may, or may not, be a native speaker of the language in which the author is writing. To do this, accurate words and phrases must be used, especially in light of globalization and sciences that involve multiple disciplines.

Firestone, Elaine R. and Stanford B. Hooker. STC Proceedings (2001). Presentations>Scientific Communication>Editing

Certifications and Credentials for Scientific Editors  

Most professionals want to further their careers over the course of their working life. Scientific editors as a whole do not have well-defined paths for establishing their careers, unlike professionals such as lawyers and doctors, where the educational and credentialing processes are well established. Where can scientific editors get their training? Where can they get experience? This paper will explore experiences, certifications and credentials, as well as training, and degrees, specific to scientific editing that can help further the careers of scientific editors.

Firestone, Elaine R., Tony Caruso, Barbara Simmons, Earlene Hammock, Michael Ebinger and Sushil K. Oswal. STC Proceedings (2003). Careers>Certification>Editing>Scientific Communication

Checking Cross-References

Before publishing your index, you need to ensure that the 'See' and 'See also' cross-references work correctly. The text in each cross-reference must exactly match the text in the index heading it refers to.

Brown, Fred. Allegro Time! (2002). Articles>Indexing>Editing

Citing Internet Sources

Citation styles for Internet publications are still evolving. Printed style manuals offer little guidance, and few even mention the World Wide Web. But that's no excuse for failing to credit your sources.

Ivey, Keith C. Editorial Eye, The (1996). Articles>Editing

Collecting Books about Editing  

Intercom's 'friendly editor' discusses his extensive collection of dictionaries, grammars, and other books of interest.

Bush, Donald W. Intercom (2005). Articles>Editing>Style Guides>Grammar

Color Correcting Digital Camera Images

As far as digital technology has come, there's still one thing that digital cameras won't do: give you perfect color every time. In fact, if they gave us perfect color 50% of the time, that would be incredible; but unfortunately, every digital camera (and every scanner that captures traditional photos) sneaks in some kind of color cast in your image.

Kelby, Scott. Layers Magazine (2005). Design>Graphic Design>Image Editing

A Commitment to Excellence: A Systematic Approach to Training Editors  

Creating and maintaining a high quality work environment that attracts and retains talented editors requires a commitment to excellence at all levels of a company or organization. A company dedicated to a nurturing work environment for its employees provides systematic training opportunities for professional growth. This paper describes how a company can meat its ongoing training needs for editors by offering formal and informal training programs and fostering learning at the group, department, division, and company levels.

Moell, Patricia G. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Editing>Education

Common Proofreading Symbols

A list of symbols, their meaning, and an example of usage.

Capital Community College. Reference>Editing

Communicating Style Rules to Editors of International Standards: An Analysis of ISO TC 184/SC4 Style Documents    

Committees within international standards organizations write standards. Prior to approval, these standards must pass through several reviews for technical accuracy and stylistic appropriateness. The style considerations are based on documents published by both the umbrella organization (International Organization for Standarization, or ISO) and the various committees and subcommittees within it. Because authors and editors who use these documents frequently do not have English as a first language, the documents must explain unambiguously just how committees should prepare their documents. This study looks at a sample of those instructional documents using Restricted and Elaborated Code and metadiscourse analysis to determine how easily users can read and understand the material. The findings suggest that the documents do not send a clear message to authors and editors and can be stylistically hard to understand. Consequently, the approved standards themselves are hard to read and interpret.

Warren, Thomas L. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2001). Articles>Editing>Style Guides>Standards

Complementary Undertow

In this introductory paragraph to a column by the Washington Post's Stephen S. Rosenfeld, the subject seems to be paddling helplessly against a strong undertow of contradictory wording in the complement: To look in on current official and expert thinking about the world population problem is to become aware of a disappearing act that has transformed and mooted much of the common public understanding of this issue. There's enough happening in this sentence to make parsing helpful. Nothing's grammatically wrong with the parallel infinitive phrases: the subject is to look in and the complement is to become aware -- no mixed construction here (for more about that, see Test Yourself). But some mixed-up thinking is tugging the adjective-heavy prepositional phrases away from the infinitives they modify. And what's being equated is sunk by the fact that the complement is itself qualified by a paradoxical statement.

Editorial Eye, The (2003). Articles>Editing

Conseil des Rédacteurs Techniques

Professionnel de la communication technique spécialisé dans la conception et la réalisation de documents destinés à l’utilisateur professionnel ou grand public de produits techniques.

CRT. (French) Organizations>Editing>Regional>France

Controlled Languages in Industry

A Controlled Language is a form of language with special restrictions on grammar, style, and vocabulary usage. Typically, the restrictions are placed on technical documents, including instructions, procedures, descriptions, reports, and cautions. One might consider formal written English to be the ultimate Controlled Language: a form of English with restricted word and grammar usages, but a standard too broad and too variable for use in highly technical domains. Whereas formal written English applies to society as a whole, CLs apply to the specialized sublanguages of particular domains.

Wojcik, Richard H. and James E. Hoard. Oregon Health and Science University (2005). Articles>Language>Technical Editing>Controlled Vocabulary

Coping with Wordslaughter and the "Good Enough" Syndrome  

Connatser provides advice for technical editors who aren't granted enough time or money to perform extensive revisions on poorly written documents.

Connatser, Bradford R. Intercom (2004). Articles>Editing>Technical Editing

Copy Editor  

A language newsletter, companion Web site, and job search site for copy editors. We encourage you to post jobs, look for job opportunities, view a sample issue, enhance your skills through workshops, or subscribe. When you subscribe to our bimonthly newsletter, you gain access to the current issue online, ongoing interactive opinion surveys about language trends, a reader forum, and archives of past issues.

Copy Editor. Journals>Editing

Copy Editor Job Board

Jobs for Copy Editors is a free service provided to the publishing community. If you have an opening and would like to advertise it here, just complete the job form. Ads are only accepted for positions containing the words copy editor or proofreader and from organizations that identify themselves. To view current job openings visit our job board.

Copy Editor. Careers>Editing

Copy Editors and Technical Editors: We are Family      

The authors of this paper have the unusual background of having worked in both the newspaper (copy editors) and business (technical editors) fields, which are not as diverse as people might think.

Huth, Elizabeth Ann and Kevin J. Schmidt. STC Proceedings (1995). Careers>Editing>Technical Editing

Review: Copyediting: A Practical Guide  

If you could own only one book on copyediting, Karen Judd's Copyediting: A Practical Guide would be an excellent choice. Even if you already own the second edition, published in 1990, you will certainly find useful updates in the new third edition.

Judd, Karen. Technical Communication Online (2002). Articles>Reviews>Editing

A Copyeditor's Adventures in Multimedia Land

Publication in the 1990s encompasses worlds that most copyeditors never dreamed of when, with a mixture of delight and mistrust, we cautiously approached the first spell checkers. At least we could relate to the idea of mechanically checking spelling. The whole idea of multimedia is a little more unnerving.

Whalen, Elizabeth A. Editorial Eye, The (1998). Articles>Editing>Multimedia

Review: The Copyeditor's Handbook: A Guide for Book Publishing and Corporate Communications  

The Copyeditor's Handbook is a solid resource for novice and experienced copyeditors alike. Although it functions well as a textbook and a general learning tool, it certainly is not a replacement for The Chicago manual of style, nor does it purport to be. It's a book that acknowledges an assortment of vexing copyediting questions and offers multiple answers to most of them.

Hernandez, Gary. Technical Communication Online (2002). Articles>Reviews>Editing