Editing and writing resources

Help with hiring a freelance editor

From Editors Canada:

• Definitions of editorial skills: find out what kind of editing you need.
• What do editors charge?
• Professional Editorial Standards: a detailed description of what an editor can be expected to do at each level of editing.
• Find an editor through the Editors Canada Online Directory of Editors.

Editors’ organizations

These editors’ associations offer support for both freelance and in-house editors, including advocacy, networking, job postings, conferences, accreditation, learning resources, and professional development.

• Editors Canada has branches throughout Canada. Members can advertise through the Online Directory of Editors.
• Professional Editors Association of Vancouver Island (PEAVI)
• Northwest Independent Editors Guild: an organization of editors in the Pacific Northwest. Their Red Pencil conference is excellent.
• Society for Editors and Proofreaders: based in the UK. Directory of Editorial Services
• The American Copy Editors Society offers news and information, a conference, editing boot camps, an editing certificate in partnership with Poynter News University, and a job bank.

Dictionaries

• Dictionaries: Oxford Dictionaries; Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition.
• The Canadian Oxford, 2nd ed., is often used as the spelling reference for Canadian English projects. If you need to look up word breaks, make sure you get the hardcover edition.
• The Vancouver Public Library provides cardholders with free online access to the full Oxford English Dictionary, as well as a number of other amazing resources.

Style guides and editing references

• Editing Canadian English, 3rd ed., published by Editors Canada, is a short, readable overview of what a Canadian editor needs to know. The tables comparing US, UK, and Canadian spellings are worth buying the book for in themselves.
• Chicago Manual of Style is the bible of North American editing. Access to the online version costs a very reasonable $39 a year, and there is a 30-day free trial available.
• Proofreaders’ marks: a short guide to the standard set of symbols used to proofread on paper.
• The Economist’s style guide online: This is a very complete online guide to Economist style. The old version of the style guide is still available in the Internet Archive.
• The Canadian Style: an online guide produced by the Bureau of Translation.
• Subtleties of Scientific Style by Matthew Stevens. This is a great guide to the special considerations for editing science writing.

Learning to edit or improving your skills

• The Copyeditor’s Handbook: A Guide for Book Publishing and Corporate Communications, with Exercises and Answer Keys by Amy Einsohn
• Meeting Professional Editorial Standards produced by Editors Canada. A set of exercises with sample solutions and discussion. Available in four modules: proofreading, copy editing, stylistic editing, and structural editing.
• Developmental Editing: A Handbook for Freelancers, Authors, and Publishers by Scott Norton

Grammar and writing

• Peck’s English Pointers: A collection of clear and entertaining articles on English grammar, punctuation, usage, and clarity. Most sections include a short quiz.
• Diagnostic Grammar Test used by Ryerson University in their publishing certificate program. Marking sheet.
• The Writer’s Toolbox from Geist magazine
• George Orwell’s essay “Politics and the English Language”
• Excerpt from William Zinsser’s book On Writing Well

Editing fiction

• The Fiction Editor, the Novel, and the Novelist by Thomas McCormack
• Save the Cat!: The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need by Blake Snyder. The rules for writing a good story are similar for novels and screenplays. Save the Cat is a fun read and provides some interesting commentary on movie genres (“Monster in the House,” “Institutionalized”) and structure.
• Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee. This book has a lot of excellent content about the conflicts, themes, characters, and structure that make a compelling story.
• TV Tropes: An entertaining and impressively thorough wiki about the patterns that appear in stories.