Plain Language for Editors: Join us for a lively and interactive workshop with Moira White

You’ve heard a lot about the importance of plain language in written materials, but what does plain language actually mean? Join us on October 27, 2020, to learn more about helping your clients reach their broadest audience. In this lively, hour-long session, Moira White will first explain what plain language involves and then demonstrate some of the plain language techniques and resources that every editor should have in their toolkit. Finally, she will leave time to share stories and answer members’ questions.

Each member who registers will receive a PDF containing resources, tips, and a plain-language checklist.

An hour-long, friendly discussion about our practical experiences with plain language will immediately follow the workshop.

Details

Date: Tuesday, October 27, 2020
Time: 7:30 – 9:30 PM
Please RSVP by October 20 via email to kwg.twig@editors.ca.

Note. This event is only open to KWG twig members of Editors Canada. If you’re a member of Editors Canada and would like to join us, please send us an email.

Moira White is a versatile communicator with decades of experience in plain language editing, writing, and teaching for government and corporate clients. She teaches a number of highly acclaimed writing and editing courses in Ottawa and across Canada. Last year she taught close to 1,000 students. Since 2006, she has been president of Ottawa-based Ubiquitext Communications.

Moira holds a master’s degree in social policy. She thoroughly understands the public policy making process and plain language guidelines. She has extensive experience editing texts to produce clear, concise documents and helping clients find appropriate means of disseminating information. She has managed onsite production of reports in Canada and Europe; has travelled across Canada with public consultations writing, editing, and producing reports; and has synthesized the work of multiple authors and written executive summaries. She is an honorary life member and past president of Editors Canada and is a member of PLAIN (Plain Language Association InterNational).

Photo depicts five colourful notebooks stacked artfully. The photo is credited to Jubal Kenneth Bernal via Unsplash. (Last accessed on October 12, 2020.) 

October (Virtual) Meetup: The Editor’s Book Club reads Sin and Syntax

We’re back! And we’re meeting up online to discuss C. Hale’s Sin and Syntax: How to Craft Wickedly Effective Prose.

Contact us at kwg.twig@editors.ca to get a copy of the link.

Here’s an excerpt from the introduction of Sin and Syntax as posted on Hale’s website: Language is paradox. Sin and Syntax dwells in contradictions and dabbles in the eloquence of tradition, the intelligence of creoles, the decadence of slang. We’ll root around where language is most playful: in the pop, the vernacular, the mongrel tongues. We’ll examine how the highbrow and the lowbrow define the edges of prose and how the middlebrow dooms it to mediocrity. We’ll diss legalese and computerese and ditch the lifeless rhythms of Standard Written English. We’ll also summon the spirit of renegades who ignore taboos and make the language sing, from Shakespeare to Shake ’n Bake and from Joan Didion to Junot Díaz. With a little Bob Dylan and Nicki Minaj thrown in. We’ll wallow with Walt Whitman, who ridiculed the “dictionary makers,” insisting that language has its base “broad and low, close to the ground.” We’ll accept English as a robust, swarthy tongue, capable of surviving tumult and thriving on change.

Constance Hale has published six books. She writes, hula dances, runs a writer’s retreat in Hawaii, and currently edits for the Harvard Business Review (http://sinandsyntax.com/bio/).

Event details

Date: Tuesday, October 13, 2020

Time: 7:30 PM

Please RSVP by email to kwg.twig@editors.ca by Tuesday, October 6, 2020.

This event is for Editors Canada members only.

Photo of a weathered sign. Photo credited to K. Mitch Hodge via Unsplash.