the Spring 2015 issue - Editors` Association of Canada

Active Voice
Voix active
SPRING
PRINTEMPS
2015
magazine of the Editors’ Association of Canada / le magazine de l’Association canadienne des réviseurs
Editors of
the World,
Unite! /
Réviseurs
du monde
entier,
rassemblonsnous !
Canadian Publications Mail Agreement 40044305
Active Voice
Voix active
NATIONAL OFFICE /
PERMANENCE NATIONALE
505–27 rue Carlton Street, Toronto, ON M5B 1L2
T 416 975-1379
(toll free / sans frais)
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NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COUNCIL /
CONSEIL D’ADMINISTRATION NATIONAL
interim president / présidente par intérim Moira White
interim vice-president /
vice-présidente par intérim Anne Louise Mahoney
past president / président sortant Greg Ioannou
interim secretary / secrétaire par intérim Emily Staniland
treasurer / trésorier David Johansen
Active Voice is the national magazine
of the Editors’ Association of Canada,
published once a year. Views expressed
in these pages do not necessarily reflect
those of Editors Canada.
Voix active est un magazine national
publié une fois l’an par l’Association
canadienne des réviseurs. Les opinions
exprimées dans ces pages ne reflètent pas
nécessairement celles de Réviseurs Canada.
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF /
DIRECTRICE DE PUBLICATION
Brooke Smith
TRANSLATOR / TRADUCTION
Stéphanie Robitaille
COPY EDITORS /
RÉVISION ET PRÉPARATION DE COPIE
Anne Louise Mahoney
Marie-Christine Payette
PROOFREADERS / CORRECTION D’ÉPREUVES
Dean Askin
Nancy Carr
Paula Last
regional directors of branches and twigs /
directrices régionales des sections et des
ramifications
Copyright remains with the authors. /
Les auteurs conservent leur droit d’auteur.
DESIGN / GRAPHISME ET MISE EN PAGE
Anna Sparrow
West / Ouest Lesley Cameron
East / Est Barbara Dylla
PUBLICATION SCHEDULE /
CALENDRIER DES PARUTIONS
CONTACT / POUR NOUS JOINDRE
director of communications /
directrice des communications
Michelle van der Merwe
director of francophone affairs /
directrice des affaires francophones
Marie-Christine Payette
co-directors of professional standards /
directrices des normes professionnelles
Michelle Boulton
Moira White
co-directors of publications / directrices des
publications
Anne Louise Mahoney donalee Moulton
director of training & development /
directeur du perfectionnement professionnel
Gael Spivak
co-directors of volunteer relations /
directrices des relations avec les bénévoles
Breanne MacDonald Emily Staniland
executive director / directrice générale
Carolyn L Burke
BRANCHES AND TWIGS /
SECTIONS ET RAMIFICATIONS
British Columbia / Colombie-Britannique
[email protected]
Hamilton-Halton [email protected]
Kingston [email protected]
Kitchener-Waterloo-Guelph [email protected]
National Capital Region /
Région de la capitale nationale
[email protected] / [email protected]
Newfoundland & Labrador
[email protected]
Nova Scotia / Nouvelle-Écosse
[email protected]
Prairie Provinces / Prairies [email protected]
Quebec / Atlantic Canada / Québec-Atlantique
[email protected] / [email protected]
Active Voice is published in the spring.
We accept draft submissions according
to the following deadline:
spring 2016.......before February 20, 2016
[email protected]
Voix active est publiée au printemps.
Nous acceptons avec plaisir les soumissions d’articles selon le calendrier
suivant :
printemps 2016........ avant le 20 février 2016
[email protected]
EDITORS CANADA EMAIL FORUMS
Active Voice / Voix active
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Toronto, ON M5B 1L2
T 416 975-1379
F / Téléc. 416 975-1637
[email protected]
[email protected]
We welcome your comments and contributions. The editors reserve the right to edit
submissions for length and style, but will
review changes with the authors whenever
possible. Any disputes will be resolved in
favour of the readers.
As a member, you can join in, or just
read, email conversations about editing
with colleagues from across the country
and beyond. To sign up for these members-only forums, visit the members’
area of the Editors Canada website.
Les commentaires et les contributions sont
bienvenus. La rédaction se réserve le droit
de réviser les articles soumis (fond, forme,
longueur) et passe en revue les changements
avec les auteurs. Les conflits seront résolus
dans l’intérêt des lecteurs.
FORUM ÉLECTRONIQUE
DE DISCUSSION DE RÉVISEURS CANADA
En tant que membre, vous pouvez contribuer aux discussions du forum, demander
de l’aide, ou simplement suivre les discussions au sujet de la rédaction-révision.
Pour vous inscrire, allez sur le site Internet
de l’Association et explorez la page « Coin
des membres ».
ISSN 1182-3986 Canadian Publications
Mail Agreement No. 40044305
SOCIAL MEDIA /
MÉDIAS SOCIAUX
Saskatchewan [email protected]
Toronto [email protected]
2
Active Voice / Voix active spring / printemps 2015
Send change of address notices and
undeliverable copies to / Signalez votre
­changement d’adresse à la Permanence
nationale ; les exemplaires non distribués
doivent être retournés à l’adresse suivante:
Editors’ Association of Canada /
Association canadienne des réviseurs
505–27 rue Carlton Street
Toronto, ON M5B 1L2
Cover illustration by / illustration de la
couverture réalisée par GRGROUP
IN THIS ISSUE
DANS CE NUMÉRO
VOL. 35 NO. 1 • SPRING / PRINTEMPS 2015
04
CH-CH-CHANGES /
ALLEZ DE L’AVANT
by / par Brooke Smith
05
SAY HELLO TO
EDITORS CANADA /
SOUHAITEZ LA
BIENVENUE À
RÉVISEURS CANADA
by / par Michelle Ou
06
07
Photograph by MOQUB
08
WHAT’S ENGLISH?
LINGUISTICS,
FRANKLY
by James Harbeck
EDITING GOES
GLOBAL: NETWORKING
OPPORTUNITIES
by Caitlin Stewart
INTERVIEWING
EDITORS: KATHARINE
O’MOORE-KLOPF,
BRENDAN O’BRIEN
AND SARA PEACOCK
10
WELCOME TO T-DOT /
BIENVENUE À « T-DOT » !
by Tammy Burns
12
MYTH: IT TAKES
A CERTAIN
PERSONALITY
TO BECOME
AN EDITOR
by Virginia Durksen
13
ENFIN UNE RÉALITÉ:
LE PROGRAM
D’AGRÉMENT
EN RÉVISION
LINQUISTIQUE –
RÉVISEURS CANADA
par Sandra Gravel
14
EDITING CANADIAN
ENGLISH 3: ONLINE
AND IN PRINT
by Anne Louise Mahoney
15
TYPOGRAPHIE
ET PONCTUATION
par Dominique Fortier
16
A REVIEW OF ARTFUL
SENTENCES: SYNTAX
AS STYLE
by Boyd Holmes
17
THE LUCKY ONES
by Peter Midgley
18
UNE DIFFICULTÉ
GRAMMATICALE
EXPLIQUÉE
par Dominique Fortier
19
DE LA RÉVISION/
CORRECTION DE
TEXTES D’HIER (PAPIER) À
AUJOURD’HUI (NUMÉRIQUE)
par Dominique Fortier
Active Voice / Voix active spring / printemps 2015
3
By/Par: Brooke Smith
Ch-Ch-Changes / Allez de l’avant
In my early days as an editor, I didn’t understand why grammar
rules weren’t constants. And why was there no one form of standard
written English?
Ten or so years later, I understood. English is a living, breathing
language, changing as the generations pass. As it should.
Technology, too, has changed: editing on screen saves time and
courier costs, not to mention trees! Many of us connect with each other
through social media and use the web to do research and develop our
skills. And the web offers many work opportunities for editors.
Our association has embraced change this year, voting for a new
logo, font, colour palette, and name (page 5). You’ll see some of these
elements in this issue of Active Voice. We published a revised edition
of our style manual, Editing Canadian English (page 14). And our annual
conference this year is the first international conference for editors
(page 7). Meet three of the conference presenters—Katharine
O’Moore-Klopf, Brendan O’Brien, and Sara Peacock (pages 8–9). By
the way, it’s not too early to start planning what to see and eat in
Toronto (pages 10–11).
Throughout this issue, you’ll find thought-provoking pieces from
the past year of The Editors’ Weekly blog, along with a review of
Virginia Tufte’s Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style (page 16). They may
change how you think about these topics.
Change is everywhere. Embrace it and push forward!
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Active Voice / Voix active spring / printemps 2015
Dans mes débuts de carrière comme réviseure, je ne comprenais pas
pourquoi les règles grammaticales étaient changeantes. Pourquoi
d’ailleurs l’anglais écrit n’avait-il pas un seul format standard ?
Dix ans plus tard, j’ai finalement compris. L’anglais est une langue vivante
et palpitante qui change au rythme des générations. Comme il se doit.
La technologie aussi a changé : la révision à l’ordinateur est plus rapide
et directe, en plus d’être écologique! Nous sommes plusieurs à nous connecter les uns avec les autres sur les médias sociaux et à utiliser le Web
pour faire nos recherches et accroître notre expertise. Le Web assure aussi
des débouchés de travail pour les réviseurs.
Notre association a adopté le changement cette année en votant pour
un nouveau logo, une nouvelle police, une nouvelle palette de couleurs
et un nouveau nom (page 5). Vous verrez certains de ces éléments dans
ce numéro de la Voix active. Nous avons publié une édition révisée de
notre guide stylistique Editing Canadian English (page 14). Soit dit en
passant, notre congrès annuel cette année accueille le premier congrès
international des réviseurs (page 7). On vous présente trois de nos invités :
Katharine O’Moore-Klopf, Brendan O’Brien, et Sara Peacock (pages 8-9).
Un petit rappel : il n’est pas trop tôt pour choisir vos restaurants et vos
sorties à Toronto (pages 10-11).
Dans les prochaines pages, vous trouverez des récits qui vous feront
réfléchir, tirés du blogue hebdomadaire des réviseurs de la dernière année
et une étude de Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style de Virginia Tufte
(page 16). Ces écrits changeront peut-être votre perspective sur ces sujets.
Le changement est partout. Adoptez-le et allez de l’avant !
By/Par: Michelle Ou
Say Hello to Editors Canada /
Souhaitez la bienvenue à
Réviseurs Canada
Over the next few months, we’re undergoing a transition to the
Editors Canada brand. (“Editors Canada” replaces the “EAC” acronym
for better recognition and to highlight our national position; however,
the legal name of the association will not change. We remain Editors’
Association of Canada/Association canadienne des réviseurs.) This
issue of Active Voice features our new look and feel, and you’ll soon
see the new look and messaging about editors and the editing profession taking shape in our national and regional literature, e-blasts,
and social media presence as well. This steady transition will culminate in the launch of a new association website later this year.
With our new brand, we’re shining a light on the only national
association dedicated to advancing editors and the editing profession:
Editors Canada.
A BOLD COMMITMENT
The discovery phase of the rebranding project revealed that one of the
greatest obstacles our association faces is lack of awareness—both of
the association and of the editing profession as a whole. Our challenge
lies in reaching beyond our membership to get recognition for the
work of editors and of our association.
We have a lot to be proud of. We literally set the standards for professional editing in Canada and continue to show our commitment
to editing excellence through our national awards, publications, and
certification programs. We are the hub for editors in Canada, linking
a community of 1,500 members and affiliates nationwide.
The new Editors Canada brand is built on celebrating the important role our association plays in advancing editors and editing in
Canada in a positive, contemporary way.
Editors Canada is supported by a bold new logo and simple, iconic
illustrations that are easily recognized. These new graphic elements
are designed to grab the attention of editors and those who hire them,
and to bring the focus to the editing profession and the association.
“Editors Canada takes up the challenge we have issued to editors
for years to recognize their own achievements,” says interim president
Moira White. “With this new brand, we’re giving ourselves permission
to be as bold as we expect editors to be. And we’re giving ourselves
the push we need to be the best association we can be.”
For more information about the Editors Canada rollout, visit our
rebranding blog at editors.ca/rebranding.
MICHELLE OU is a Toronto-based communication and digital marketing
specialist and the communications manager at Editors Canada.
Au fil des prochains mois, nous ferons la transition vers la marque
Réviseurs Canada. « Réviseurs Canada » remplace l’acronyme ACR pour
favoriser une meilleure notoriété et pour mettre en valeur notre étendue
nationale. Cependant, le nom légal de l’association ne changera pas. Nous
serons encore Editors’ Association of Canada / Association canadienne des
réviseurs. Cette parution de la Voix active présente notre nouveau style
et nouvel aspect et vous verrez bientôt cela dans les diffusions sur les réviseurs et la profession qui prennent forme dans notre littérature nationale
et régionale, notre bulletin électronique national, et notre présence dans
les médias sociaux. Cette transition progressive aboutira avec le lancement
du nouveau site Web de l’association plus tard cette année.
En nous servant de la nouvelle marque, nous mettons la seule association nationale consacrée à l’avancement des réviseurs et de leur profession
devant les projecteurs : Réviseurs Canada.
UN ENGAGEMENT QUI NOUS DÉMARQUE
L’étape de positionnement de la nouvelle image de marque a permis de faire
ressortir l’un des plus importants obstacles auquel est confrontée l’association :
le manque de renom autant pour l’association que pour la profession en
général. Savoir aller au-delà de ses membres demeure le défi que l’association
doit relever pour faire valoir la profession de réviseur et l’association.
Nous avons maintes raisons d’être fiers. Effectivement, nous déterminons les paramètres des normes de la révision professionnelle au Canada et
manifestons toujours notre engagement envers l’excellence en révision par
nos prix, nos publications et nos programmes de certification nationaux.
Nous sommes la plaque tournante pour les réviseurs au Canada, reliant
une communauté de 1500 membres et associés à l’échelle du pays.
La nouvelle marque Réviseurs Canada repose sur la prise de conscience
du rôle capital qu’occupe notre association dans la promotion des réviseurs
et de la révision au Canada de manière positive et contemporaine.
Réviseurs Canada est soutenu par un nouveau logo qui se démarque
et des illustrations emblématiques faciles à reconnaître. Ces nouveaux
éléments graphiques sont conçus pour attirer l’attention des réviseurs et
de ceux qui les engagent en plus de recentrer l’intérêt sur la profession de
réviseur et sur l’association.
« Réviseurs Canada s’attaque au défi que nous avons longtemps lancé
aux réviseurs de reconnaître leurs propres réussites », dit présidente par
intérim Mme Moira White. « Avec cette nouvelle marque, nous nous permettons de nous singulariser comme nous le voulons et nous nous donnons
la poussée nécessaire pour être à notre sommet en tant qu’association. »
Pour de plus amples informations sur le lancement de Réviseurs
Canada, visitez notre blogue sur la nouvelle image de marque à
reviseurs.ca/nouvellemarque.
Active Voice / Voix active spring / printemps 2015
5
By: James Harbeck
What’s English?
Linguistics, Frankly
Here’s a quick quiz. Tell me which of the
following are English and which aren’t. For
each one, say why it is or isn’t English and, if
it’s not, what language it is.
1. There’s no place to plug your car in in the
parkade.
2. A wha dat dey dem people deh nyam ih
smell sweet.
3. He was found to have contraband in the
boot and under the bonnet, so he is in
gaol.
4. Breid is a staple fuid prepared by bakin a
daich o floor an watter.
5. That pom’s running around like a chook
with its head cut off.
6. Biiolojii esa saiens, daa studehs lief,
plant a’ anamal.
7. Sildenafil is contraindicated in
hypertension.
8. I might have the odd poutine, but mostly
I don’t pig out.
9. Tell me, what is one to do yaar? They are
like that only.
10. Ðā ġeseah ðæt wīf ðæt ðæt trēow wæs
gōd tō etenne.
11. If y’all are fixin to go, I might could leave
early.
12. One coffee regular. All set?
13. I damn tired den langgar the car lor. Dun
know oreddy lah!
Wasn’t that fun? As you may have guessed,
all of the above are versions of English from
different places (and, in one case, a different time). But of course they’re not equally
acceptable in all contexts, and some are
sometimes treated as different languages
6
now. I’m willing to bet that several of them
were more than a little hard to understand,
and most of them seemed somehow “wrong”
to you. So, let’s look at what they are and
what they mean.
1. Albertan: There’s no place to plug in the
block heater on your car engine in the
parking garage.
2. Jamaican (patois; from Chat Jamaican
by J.J. Thomas): What are those people
eating? It smells sweet.
3. British: He was found to have
contraband in the trunk and under the
hood, so he is in jail.
4. Scots (from http://sco.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Breid): Bread is a staple food
prepared by baking a dough of flour and
water.
5. Australian: That British person is running
around like a chicken with its head cut
off.
6. Pitkern and Norfuk (Pitcairn and Norfolk;
descendants of the crew of the Bounty;
from http://pih.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Biiolojii): Biology is a science that studies
life, both plant and animal.
7. Medical jargon: Viagra® should not be
prescribed to people with high blood
pressure.
8. Canadian: I might have the occasional
dish of french fries with cheese
and gravy, but mostly I don’t eat
to excess.
9. Indian English: Tell me, what can one do,
man? They are just like that.
10. Old English (Anglo-Saxon; from http://
www.oldenglishaerobics.net/fall.html):
Active Voice / Voix active spring / printemps 2015
Then the woman saw that the tree was
good to eat.
11. Southern U.S. English: If you [plural] are
getting ready to go, I just might be able
to leave early.
12. New England English: One coffee with
cream and sugar. Is that everything?
13. Singlish (Singapore English; from http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singlish): I was
really tired, which is why I crashed into the
other car. I don’t know any more about it!
There is not one “right” English; English is
a language complex. All languages have
different levels and tones and different
usages for different contexts, but English,
due to its spread, has more variation than
most. Within their own systems, all of the
above are perfectly grammatical. Obviously,
most of them would only be acceptable in
a conversational tone directed to a specific
audience, but to that audience they would
sound entirely natural.
And that’s the take-home message: What
sounds natural to you, and what sounds
natural to the audience you’re editing for, in
the context of your document? Are you sure?
The Albertan sentence sounds perfectly
normal to me, but there are many Canadians
who would scratch their heads at it…
JAMES HARBECK is a web editor and trained
linguist and is author of the blog Sesquiotica,
articles for TheWeek.com, and the book Songs of
Love and Grammar. Follow him on Twitter if you
have the nerve. This article was originally published
on The Editors' Weekly blog: [email protected].
By: Caitlin Stewart
Editing Goes
Global:
Networking
Opportunities
The opening keynote speaker is Carol Fisher Saller, an editor at The Chicago
Manual of Style
This will be the world’s first international
editing conference....It will be an amazing
opportunity to meet people...from Canada,
Australia, India, Ireland, New Zealand, the
U.K., and the U.S.
Whether you’re a brand new editor trying to
make your mark on the world or an experienced
professional looking to meet new colleagues and
attend great seminars, Editing Goes Global is the
event for you!
This year’s conference promises to be the largest one yet, with editors from all over Canada and
beyond. This will be the world’s first international
editing conference, with the largest scope of networking opportunities ever available. It will be an amazing opportunity
to meet people with lots of different perspectives (and style guides) from
Canada, Australia, India, Ireland, New Zealand, the U.K., and the U.S.
To give everyone something to discuss, we’ve lined up an all-star
roster of speakers. The opening keynote speaker is Carol Fisher Saller,
an editor at The Chicago Manual of Style and the author of The Subversive
Copyeditor: Advice from Chicago (or, How to Negotiate Good Relationships
with Your Writers, Your Colleagues, and Yourself). Katherine Barber—who
was the editor-in-chief of the Canadian Oxford Dictionary and is the
author of Only in Canada, You Say and Six Words You Never Knew Had
Something to Do with Pigs—gives the closing keynote on Sunday.
It’s not just the keynotes who have plenty to offer: there are talented
speakers from all over the world attending the conference. In the field of
plain language we have Joseph Kimble, Dominique Joseph, and Cheryl
Stephens—all experts in the subject. Daniel Heuman (the creator of
PerfectIt) and Adrienne Montgomerie (editing PDFs) will be discussing
editing tools. And Katherine Barber, Peter Sokolowski, John McIntyre,
and James Harbeck will be speaking about the English language.
Editing Goes Global will take place June 12–14, and will be held
in Toronto. The prices and registration information can all be found at
http://www.editors.ca/conference/2015/index.html under Professional Development. Don’t miss this unprecedented networking
opportunity, and make sure to register today!
Le congrès de cette année est le plus grand à ce jour et le
premier congrès international. C’est une occasion unique de
rencontrer des réviseures et réviseurs d’un peu partout dans le
monde et de participer aux ateliers abordant une foule de sujets.
Au plaisir de vous voir à Toronto !
CAITLIN STEWART is about to graduate from Ryerson’s publishing
program and is very excited to be part of this year’s conference.
Active Voice / Voix active spring / printemps 2015
7
INTERVIEWING EDITORS
Editing can be quite a solo endeavour—particularly if you’re a freelance
editor. Perhaps you talk to your pet about the benefits of the serial
comma. And maybe it answers back! If it doesn’t, that’s why it’s great
to meet up with friends and colleagues at our annual conference.
It’s also great to hear editing insights from the range of speakers. But
in case you don’t get a chance to discuss why the use of whom should
live on or how to start your freelancing business with all of them, we’ve
interviewed three about their thoughts on the changing industry, their
editing woes, and their favourite punctuation mark.
Katharine O’Moore-Klopf (U.S.)
WHICH WRITER/PIECE OF WRITING WAS THE
MOST CHALLENGING TO EDIT AND WHY?
Some of my most challenging projects are
manuscripts for biomedical journals written
by authors who are non-native speakers of
English. I have to take the time to puzzle out
what they intended to say, and sometimes
that’s quite difficult and requires some
online research. But I enjoy working with
these authors very much because they are
always supremely grateful for my assistance,
especially if a U.S. or U.K. journal accepts their
edited manuscript for publication.
WHAT WAS THE HARDEST PART OF
TRANSITIONING FROM EDITING
ON PAPER TO EDITING ON SCREEN?
The hardest part, now many years ago,
was learning how to work with a computer
and realizing that it wasn’t just a glorified
8
typewriter. But I quickly fell in love with
onscreen editing and never, ever want to go
back to editing on paper.
IF YOU WERE REINCARNATED AS A
PUNCTUATION MARK, WHAT WOULD
IT BE AND WHY?
I would be an em-dash, because I’m always
interjecting asides when I write material for
myself. When I write for publication, I try to
watch that tendency.
WHAT WAS THE FUNNIEST MISTAKE
OR ERROR YOU’VE MADE/SEEN IN YOUR
EDITING HISTORY?
I have 31 years’ experience as an editor. And
yet as recently as 2013, I made a whopper
of a mistake. I edited a fascinating cultural
memoir for a local author who grew up in
Active Voice / Voix active spring / printemps 2015
India and then moved to the United States
as a young adult; he compared his life in
India with his life here. The book went
through two rounds of editing, one round of
proofreading, and multiple rounds of corrections in page layout. Despite that, I missed
an error on the very first page of text! The
proofreader and the book designers missed
it, too. On that page, where the author
describes a scene during worship in a temple
in India, he intended to note that many worshippers walked around one man who was
prostrate on the temple floor. But the printed
book says that the man was prostate. Sigh.
KATHARINE O’MOORE-KLOPF is manag-
ing editor for the Journal of Urgent Care
Medicine and edits journal manuscripts for
non-native English speakers.
Interviewing Editors
Sara Peacock (U.K.)
Brendan O’Brien (Ireland)
WHICH WRITER/PIECE OF WRITING WAS THE MOST CHALLENGING
TO EDIT AND WHY?
I once worked on a six-volume reference book on Irish history that
contained millions of words. As the project progressed I realized that
the author didn’t want anything changed—even style points that she
had agreed to in advance. She responded to all my queries with ‘Stet!’,
grew angrier and angrier with me for interfering with her prose, and
eventually insisted that her cousin be brought in as a proofreader.
Luckily, the cousin was reasonable, but it was a trying experience.
WHAT WAS THE HARDEST PART OF TRANSITIONING FROM EDITING
ON PAPER TO EDITING ON SCREEN?
I was quite pleased to leave editing on paper behind—fitting words
into tight spaces, occasional complaints from typesetters about legibility, and having to proofread everything against copy. Typesetters’
errors were a bigger factor then than now. Onscreen editing was
probably harder on the eyes, but other than that I liked it fine.
IF YOU WERE REINCARNATED AS A PUNCTUATION MARK, WHAT
WOULD IT BE AND WHY?
I would like to be reincarnated as an em-dash—elegant, stretched
out, horizontal. The most relaxed punctuation mark of them all.
WHAT DO YOU DO TO RELAX?
I pretend to be an em-dash. Alternatively I walk in the fields with
my wife and our dogs, or sing and play music with friends.
WHICH WRITER/PIECE OF WRITING WAS THE MOST CHALLENGING
TO EDIT AND WHY?
I have had a few authors who, perhaps because of bad past experiences, have seen the editor not as a colleague but as an adversary, and
I have found that very hard. I prefer to collaborate rather than do battle.
WHAT WAS THE HARDEST PART OF TRANSITIONING FROM EDITING
ON PAPER TO EDITING ON SCREEN?
It was so long ago now that it’s hard to remember. But I think it was
persuading my clients to trust the system—some of them found it
very hard to accept that they could proceed without a marked-up
typescript on file.
IF YOU WERE REINCARNATED AS A PUNCTUATION MARK, WHAT
WOULD IT BE AND WHY?
Probably a comma—people think they understand how to use it,
but they often don’t.
WHAT DO YOU DO TO RELAX?
For myself, knitting, running, singing, and learning languages. But
I also enjoy socializing in one way or another, to counteract the
solitude of the job.
WHAT WAS THE FUNNIEST MISTAKE OR ERROR YOU’VE MADE/SEEN
IN YOUR EDITING HISTORY?
I think my favourite was in a rare foray into fiction editing (helping some
friends get a manuscript into better shape before the press’s “proper”
editor saw it) back in the 1990s, and the protagonist in a thriller was in a
library researching the case in old newspapers...on the microfish.
SARA PEACOCK is an academic editor of nearly 25 years’ standing
BRENDAN O’BRIEN is a freelance editor and writer with 26 years’
publishing experience. He is based in a rural part of County Cavan, Ireland.
and has served as the Chair of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders
since 2013. She is based in Cardiff, Wales.
Active Voice / Voix active spring / printemps 2015
9
By: Tammy Burns
| Photography by: Tammy Burns
Grenadier Pond, High Park
CN Tower
Kensington Market
Welcome to T-Dot
Bienvenue à « T-Dot »!
Toronto is constantly described as a city of neighbourhoods.
From Chinatown to Greektown, Kensington to Liberty, the city is
a collection of communities, each one distinct but still undeniably
Torontonian. The upside to this is, no matter where you go in the city,
you’ll find something to explore. The downside: it’s hard to cram in
Toronto’s best in one weekend. Which means, of course, you’re just
going to have to come back, right?
Of course, there are the classic sights to see: the CN Tower,
Royal Ontario Museum, Science Centre, and Casa Loma. But if you
want to get a taste of local life in T-Dot, here are a few neighbourhood gems to check out, all easily accessible via public transit from
the conference venue.
West Queen West was recently named by Vogue as the
second-hippest neighbourhood in the world, just behind Tokyo’s
Shimokitazawa district. So no surprise, if you’re into shopping,
that’s where to go. Head west of all the big-box stores along the
Eaton Centre strip and you’ll find cool indie shops such as The
Store on Queen, Thieves Boutique, Type Books, and The Paper
Place. Alternately, vintage hunters should head to Kensington
Market, which remains Toronto’s ultimate ’hood for the antiestablishment crowd.
For a breath of fresh air, hop the ferry to Toronto Island, or
10
Active Voice / Voix active spring / printemps 2015
Toronto est une ville de quartiers : le Chinatown, Greektown, Kensington, Liberty et pleins d’autres. Il y a tant de choses à voir! Mais
comment choisir?
Les sites touristiques sont un classique et valent la peine, bien
sûr : la tour du CN, le Musée royal de l’Ontario, le Centre des
sciences de l’Ontario, et le château Casa Loma. Mais pour vivre
la vie torontoise, voici quelques trésors locaux qui sont accessibles
par métro ou par autobus : boutiques, nature, restos et bars.
head far west to High Park, Toronto’s largest public park. Or take a
walk along the water: the Martin Goodman Trail stretches from the
hilly Scarborough Bluffs to the Mimico harbour.
Hungry? Bar Buca in the King West neighbourhood is the place
everyone has been talking about lately—a destination to see and be
seen at. For something less fancy, try the street food–styled guilty
pleasures at Lisa Marie on Queen West—the owner, Matt Basile, is
the host of the television show Rebel Without a Kitchen, and his food
truck, Fidel Gastro’s, is a Toronto legend. If you’re more the type to
revel in hidden gems, Big Crow on Dupont will make you feel like
you’ve stumbled upon a big secret—this easily missed backyard BBQ
Bar Hop menu
Electric Mud chicken
Sweetest Kill cocktail at Weslodge
joint serves up fantastic smoky, meaty fare. Other new and great
dining options include Dailo and Bar Isabel on College, Electric Mud
off Queen West, Bent on Dundas West, Kingyo in Cabbagetown, and
416 Snack Bar on Bathurst.
When evening comes, indulge with a few cocktails at Spirit
House or Weslodge on King West, both of which specialize in oldfashioned libations. A cheaper option, Prohibition Gastrohouse
on Queen East, has a beloved daily $5 hooch hour (actually three
hours). If beer is your preference, visit either Bar Volo on Yonge
or Bar Hop on King West—both are adored by craft-beer-loving
locals. You can also head straight to one of the city’s independent
breweries: Amsterdam on Queen’s Quay, Bellwoods on Ossington, or Mill Street in the Distillery District (a historic space with
plenty of trendy—albeit pricey—shops worth exploring).
TAMMY BURNS is a Toronto-based writer, editor, traveller, runner, and
red wine drinker. She is the content marketing specialist for Intrepid
Urban Adventures and currently volunteers her time as vice-chair for the
Toronto branch of EAC. The only thing Tammy loves more than words is
travel, and she has combined the two into a career she loves as a travel
writer and editor. Her travel blog is http://anywhereandhere.com.
Electric Mud mac-and-cheese
Active Voice / Voix active spring / printemps 2015
11
By: Virginia Durksen
Myth: It Takes a Certain Personality
to Become an Editor
Any profession draws certain personality
types to it more readily than others. But
just as there’s no single lawyer or doctor or
teacher type, there’s more than one editor
type. Editors come in all sorts.
Editors can be achievers, caretakers,
managers, control freaks, idea generators,
intellectuals, entrepreneurs—and are often
a bit of everything rolled into one all-seeing,
all-knowing package. In our dreams, at least.
My point is that really good editors play to
their personal strengths and work to overcome their areas of weakness.
That’s what makes us so interesting
(wouldn’t you agree?). We live in the twilight
zone between reading and writing, between
culture and business, between the tiniest
details and the biggest picture. Perhaps as
a class we have earned our stereotype as
fastidious, detail-driven, copy-editing word
mavens. But we more than make up for it by
being as varied and eccentric as our counterparts in any other profession.
If we have one overwhelming fault, it’s that
we’re far too humble about our vital role in
quality control for the information economy.
Three cheers and hurrah for all sorts of editors.
When we first formed the Alberta
Editors' Association in the early 1990s,
my colleague Anita Jenkins and I helped
plan a party for the editors. Of course we
bought enough wine, red and white, for
the evening’s festivities. That supply lasted
for nearly two years, so greatly had we
overestimated our colleagues’ capacity for
polite drink. I doubt that scotch would have
been a better choice. Perhaps pots and
pots of herbal tea? Vats of coffee? We have
been discovering and appreciating our local
12
If we have one overwhelming fault, it’s
that we’re far too humble about our vital
role in quality control for the information
economy. Three cheers and hurrah for all
sorts of editors.
diversity for several decades now. With
beverages of many sorts.
Then, when our group joined the editors
from Ontario and Quebec, we discovered a
whole new cultural divide. Some freelance editors, we learned, make an entire living working
just for book publishers. Like many editors in
our province, editors right across Canada also
made a living working for government. As one
of my learned colleagues is fond of saying,
“Editing for government can’t be done. But
there’s good money to be made trying.”
The oil and gas industry in Alberta is still
the main employer of opportunity for many
editors. One employer I work with has an inhouse editing team of more than 20 editors.
Their senior editors are mentors who build
on their long-time experience in book publishing to fine-tune new editors who produce
volumes of regulatory reports every month.
Even my experience of working with
educational materials is sideways to the traditional publisher of textbooks. My favourite
client writes, designs, illustrates, animates,
and produces online and print resources for
teachers and students. But her clients are
agricultural producers who love the idea of
programming Smart Boards to let students
discover bugs and invent creatures of their
own imagination. The bugs have parts for
Active Voice / Voix active spring / printemps 2015
munching and parts for pollinating—parts
that devour and damage as they chew their
way through crops and parts that pollinate
and help increase the yield.
I’m thinking of asking my client to create
a similar animation for building the perfect
editor. Part marketer, part educator, part
speller, part cat.
WHAT TO DO?
Instead of volunteering to proofread the
newsletter, volunteer to do marketing for the
organization.
RECOMMENDED READING
• Editors on Editing: An inside view of what
editors really do, edited by Gerald Gross
• 419 by Will Ferguson [a novel about a
copy editor]
• The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide
[another novel about a copy editor]
VIRGINIA DURKSEN teaches writing and edit-
ing workshops through her company, Visible
Ink: Writing @ Work. She practices gentle editing for a small group of favourite clients. She
is also a lightly published poet. This article was
originally published on The Editors’ Weekly
blog: [email protected].
Par: Sandra Gravel
Enfin une réalité:
Le Programme d’agrément
en révision linguistique –
Réviseurs Canada Avoir accès au titre de réviseur agréé ou de réviseure
agréée est maintenant possible, car le premier programme
canadien d’agrément en révision linguistique de langue
française est bel et bien devenu une réalité.
Le Programme d’agrément en révision
linguistique – Réviseurs Canada permet
aux professionnels de faire officiellement
reconnaître leur compétence en regard de
la révision linguistique en général et de la
révision comparative de textes traduits de
l’anglais vers le français.
Photograph by www.tradingacademy.com
UN PREMIER EXAMEN
À L’AUTOMNE 2015
Le programme prévoit deux examens : le premier, et préalable au second, concerne la révision linguistique générale; le deuxième porte
sur la révision comparative. Un examen aura
lieu tous les ans, à l’automne, et l’examen
général et l’examen en révision comparative
se tiendront en alternance.
Les examens se feront entièrement sur
support informatique et s’appuieront sur la plus
récente édition des Principes directeurs en
révision professionnelle.
Les deux examens porteront sur les connaissances de base des réviseurs et sur leur aptitude
à réviser des textes. Les questions proposeront
des situations réelles pouvant être vécues par
les réviseurs dans l’exercice de leur fonction.
L’INSCRIPTION ET LA PRÉPARATION
Les candidats qui le désirent peuvent dès
maintenant se procurer, sur le site de Réviseurs
Canada, le Guide de préparation à l’examen
d’agrément général.
Toute personne intéressée à prendre part
à l’examen général 2015 peut s’inscrire en
ligne sur le site de Réviseurs Canada et y
trouver l’information détaillée du Programme
d’agrément en révision linguistique – Réviseurs
Canada.
En plus d’être réviseure, SANDRA GRAVEL
est rédactrice agréée et formatrice en
perfectionnement du français écrit. Avant
d’être pigiste, elle était gestionnaire des
communications régionales du Québec
au gouvernement du Canada.
EDITORS CANADA WILL LAUNCH
ITS FRENCH PROFICIENCYTESTING PROGRAM IN 2015.
Le Programme d’agrément en
révision linguistique – Réviseurs
Canada will allow editors who work
in French to earn a professional
title: réviseur agréé.
The program includes two
tests: the first, a prerequisite
for the second, concerns general
French editing; the second covers
concordance editing of texts translated from English to French. The
general and concordance tests will
alternate yearly.
The tests will be done on computer
and will be based on the most recent
version of the Principes directeurs en
révision professionnelle (Professional
Editorial Standards). Questions will
be based on realistic situations that
editors face during their daily work.
Active Voice / Voix active spring / printemps 2015
13
By: Anne Louise Mahoney
Editing Canadian English 3: Online and in Print
In 1979, a committee of the Freelance Editors’ Association of
Canada decided to produce a booklet on the particular problems
of Canadian editors. After eight years and many intense discussions, the first edition of Editing Canadian English (ECE) was born.
In time, it needed updating; the second edition appeared in
2000. Now here we are 15 calendar years (and many digital light
years) later, celebrating the launch of the third edition—in both
online and print formats.
SO, WHAT’S NEW IN THE NEW EDITION?
• All chapters have been thoroughly revised, adapted, and updated
by expert editors.
• All chapters incorporate the influence, resources, and other
impacts of the Internet on the editor’s work.
• For the online component, changes can be made quickly and
easily so the text stays up to date
This edition, like the first two, is not a definitive
guide. Instead, it aims to help editors, writers,
and anyone who works with words make sensible
choices based on best practices and on the authors’
experience and expertise.
Want to explore the online edition? Go to
editingcanadianenglish.ca to sign up for your free
30-day trial. The annual subscription fee for Editors
Canada members is only $25 ($35 for non-members).
Institutional subscriptions are available as well.
The print edition will be available in June at the Editing Goes
Global conference in Toronto or from your favourite bookseller.
Editors Canada branches and twigs can also order copies in bulk
to sell to members.
first-ever online edition
launched in February 2015
• new print edition to launch
at the Editing Goes Global
conference in June 2015
• all chapters have been revised,
adapted, and updated
•
THE STAGES OF REVISION
• • • • • • Planning (started in 2011)
Global review of ECE2
In-depth reviews of each chapter in ECE2
Creation of categories and sub-categories for the new edition
Writing
Offering of input into and raising key questions about
particular sections
• Exploring of online databases to find out what worked well
• Uploading of files into the content management system
• Proofreading
En février, la nouvelle édition de Editing Canadian English, le manuel de
style de Réviseurs Canada, a vu le jour en ligne ! La version imprimée sera
lancée au Congrès annuel au mois de juin.
QUOI DE NEUF DANS CETTE 3E ÉDITION?
• Le texte a été complètement révisé, adapté et mis à jour par
des réviseurs experts.
• chaque chapitre inclut l’influence, les ressources, et d’autres
impacts de l’Internet sur le travail des réviseurs
• pour l’édition en ligne, nous pouvons apporter des changements
rapidement et facilement pour garder le texte à jour
Vous voulez voir la nouvelle édition? Visitez editingcanadianenglish.ca
et abonnez-vous pour 30 jours gratuitement! Si vous travaillez avec des
documents bilingues, ce manuel pourrait être très utile pour vous.
(suite de la page 19)
On le voit, la race des réviseurs-artisans travaillant sur papier a
lentement muté vers celle des réviseurs-techniciens travaillant sur
ordinateur dans un univers totalement informatisé en constante évolution technologique et mobile. Ils doivent sans cesse acquérir de nouvelles
compétences (surtout informatiques) afin de suivre le cortège du numérique sous toutes ses formes et tous azimuts sous peine d’être déclassés.
Et tout cela, dans un contexte frénétique d’autant plus infernal qu’on
se trouve en français langue d’arrivée.
ANNE LOUISE MAHONEY is an editor based in Ottawa. She served
DOMINIQUE FORTIER est réviseure à la pige à Québec. Article initialement
as managing editor of Editing Canadian English 3.
publié dans l’Hebdomadaire des réviseurs : blog.editors.ca
14
Active Voice / Voix active spring / printemps 2015
Par: Dominique Fortier
Typographie et ponctuation
L’espace fine insécable dans les documents HTML
Photograph by www.freeimages.co.uk
S’il y a bien une espace difficile à reproduire
sur Internet, c’est l’espace fine insécable.
Dans les documents imprimés, et avec l’aide de
logiciels de mise en pages professionnels, il est
possible d’insérer une espace fine insécable
devant le point-virgule, le point d’interrogation
et le point d’exclamation.
Dans les documents HTML, l’exemple le plus connu d’espace insécable
est l’élément «   ». Celle-ci a les mêmes propriétés que l’espace régulière
complète, avec l’avantage de garder sur une même ligne les caractères se
trouvant de chaque côté. Pour l’espace fine, l’élément «   » fonctionne
sous la plupart des fureteurs récents. Mais l’élément «   » est sécable,
ce qui veut dire qu’en fin de ligne, les caractères suivants seront poussés à la
ligne suivante (ce que personne ne désire voir).
S’il y a bien une espace difficile à reproduire sur Internet, c’est l’espace
fine insécable. Celle-ci n’est tout simplement pas définie dans la norme
Unicode. Alors plusieurs optent pour l’utilisation de l’espace insécable
ordinaire «   », ce qui n’est pas la bonne solution.
Heureusement, Unicode définit le « NARROW NO-BREAK SPACE »,
qui se rend par l’élément numérique «   ». Cette espace étroite est
insécable et peut être utilisée à la perfection comme espace fine insécable
dans tout document HTML.
En typographie soignée, on prendra donc soin d’utiliser l’élément
«   » comme espace fine insécable si l’on veut à tout prix
insérer cette espace devant le point-virgule, le point d’interrogation
et le point d’exclamation.
Mais il faut surtout garder à l’esprit qu’à défaut de pouvoir utiliser
l’espace fine insécable (parce que trop compliquée à obtenir), lorsque
l’on révise des textes pour le gouvernement du Québec et le gouvernement du Canada, il vaut mieux s’en tenir aux Tableaux des espacements
des ouvrages de référence de ces deux ordres de gouvernement qui
recommandent de ne jamais mettre d’espace devant le point-virgule, le
point d’interrogation et le point d’exclamation, et d’insérer une espace
insécable ordinaire devant le deux-points.
Alors pourquoi faire compliqué quand on peut faire simple?
Source : Le présent article est fortement inspiré du site Typographe
futé: trucs et astuces pour la typographie imprimée et sur la Toile.
DOMINIQUE FORTIER est réviseure à la pige à Québec. Elle a com-
mencé sa carrière en révision au Musée canadien des civilisations
à Gatineau, une école formidable! Elle aime particulièrement la
révision de textes en lecture parallèle anglais-français et la correction d’épreuves en contexte bilingue. Article initialement publié dans
l’Hebdomadaire des réviseurs : blog.editors.ca.
Active Voice / Voix active spring / printemps 2015
15
By: Boyd Holmes
BOOK REVIEW
Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style
by Virginia Tufte
Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press, 2006. 308 pp.
“The adjective,” declared Voltaire, “is the
foe of the noun.” His ghost had better avoid
Artful Sentences, Virginia Tufte’s brilliant guide
to English prose technique. Adjectives, Tufte
retorts, together with adverbs, actually “offer
to writers extraordinary resources and subtleties.” Selection is key, she argues. She then
reproduces paragraphs culled from modern
literature, quotations that are “attractive and
colorful but selective, because their adjectives have all been chosen, assigned, and
fastened together with attention to rhythm,
clarity, impact, and focus.” It’s the see-saw
structure—thesis then quotation—that she
uses throughout her 14 chapters.
The book is remarkable. Her sections—
clauses, openers, inversions, appositives,
moods, modifiers, cohesion, the parts of
speech—work to build a comprehensible,
almost airtight edifice. It is not exhaustive, though at times it may seem to be.
I can think of other guides like it, but
none as rich.
Tufte knows when we should break
the rules. She defends the passive voice.
She is more descriptive than prescriptive,
showing strengths rather than prohibiting
weaknesses. Those prohibitions, when they
do appear, are tight, taut, smart, smooth,
and clear. “One premise of this volume has
been that syntax and style are reciprocal
concerns—that it can make good sense,
and help to make good prose, to think of
syntax as style.” Her chapter on the tools of
poetry—called Syntactic Symbolism—suggests a near-perfect command of tough
material. The chapter would gain further, I
16
suspect, from analyses of the respective last
paragraphs of Henry Roth’s Call It Sleep and
Margaret Laurence’s The Fire-Dwellers.
Her empiricism is daunting. Tufte quotes
530 authors and 664 documents; certain
items she uses more than once, bringing the
number to a cool 933 quotations, excluding
book and chapter epigraphs. Almost all the
documents are accessible to the reader.
Technically, the guide is a second edition.
The first was released in 1971 as Grammar as
Style—but the additions, amplifications, new
arguments, and cuts make it de facto a different text. She has had 35 subsequent years
to hone and sharpen, and it shows. (Her
publisher, incidentally, is Graphics Press. The
company otherwise publishes only the work
of her spouse, the graphic designer Edward
R. Tufte. The adjective-noun structure of her
title is interesting, as it matches that of Visual
Explanations and Beautiful Evidence, two of
her husband’s four books.)
What the book is not also matters. It
is not light. It cannot be read fast. It is not
passionate, although it is precise. It cannot
be read just once to be grasped fully.
There are other things the book is not,
and here we hit the problems. Tufte sees
valid use for the comma splice, but seems
blind to the runniness it can also yield. Her
excellent pages on parallelism oddly omit
Edward Gibbon, its clear king. A subsection
that promotes sex inclusivity in language
strikes me as somewhat uncertain, as if Tufte
herself does not entirely agree with what
she is writing. I submit that certain exclusive
expressions—she includes “manned space
Active Voice / Voix active spring / printemps 2015
flight” and “man in the moon”, and I would add
Mother Nature, Father Time, and Mother
Necessity—give tonic to the language, and
should thus be kept.
I take Tufte to task, too, for an aspect of
how she displays her evidence. In her quotations, she uses italics to call attention to her
immediate points. Coupled with her font—
Monotype Dante—these parts prove hard
to spot. I would recommend she instead
change the ink colour, shifting the black to
red. Gwynne’s Grammar uses this strategy
effectively, as does Envisioning Information—
a third book by her husband.
George Orwell is absent, save Animal
Farm. One of his rules for writing—that
a word not needed should always be
cut—Tufte clearly accepts and consistently
follows. Her spouse is the same. By extension, he also adheres to this rule, both in
his prose and in his figures, tables, charts,
and graphs. Information design, he tells his
audience directly, fails whenever it presents
information that need not be there. Each
Tufte teaches the other: Visual Explanations
contains a chapter on parallelism and repetition in graphic design. It is symbiotic. I could
produce scores of pages on this fact, but my
goal right now is to sum up Artful Sentences.
Here I go. For the reader, the book is bronze,
for the writer, silver. And for the stylistic
editor—platinum.
BOYD HOLMES holds a PhD in library and
information science from Western University.
He works in Toronto as an editor and indexer.
By: Peter Midgley
The Lucky Ones
Photograph by Joel Kramer
Writers are told to practise daily to hone their
skills; editors seldom receive the same advice.
Editors are chameleons who are required to
change colours and emulate different voices and
styles with every new piece of work they tackle.
How often have I heard the comment that
editors are failed writers—or, in the scholarly
environment in which I work, failed academics.
Even when said in jest, the underlying suggestion is that one way of interacting with words
and ideas—the editor’s—is somehow inferior.
Such statements also hint at a sense of exclusivity: If you are one, you cannot possibly be the
other. This idea troubles me, for there are many
good writers who are also excellent editors. Ezra Pound is one of
these: he who scythed sheafs off Eliot’s The Waste Land could be as
brutal with his own work—to wit, “In a Station of the Metro,” which
famously went from 32 lines to the two we know. Eliot, too, was as
astounding an editor as he was a writer. His editorial input graces
the works of Ted Hughes and Amos Tutuola, whose “creepy crawly
imagination” mesmerized him.
Not all of us can be both, but we should learn from each other’s
trades. Writers are told to practise daily to hone their skills; editors seldom receive the same advice. Editors are chameleons who
are required to change colours and emulate different voices and
styles with every new piece of work they tackle. Just like writers.
Spending some time rewriting a piece in different voices and styles
is good practice for editing. Take a passage from a classic—let’s say
the passage where the pirates sleep on the island in The Adventures
of Tom Sawyer. Rewrite it in the voice of Stephen King. Do it in the
voice of Faye Kellerman or Arthur Koestler. You may never get your
masterpiece published, but it is a writing exercise that will make you a
better editor.
Just as editors need to understand how narrative works, writers need
to understand how editing works so that they can return to their own
work and remove the flotsam from their drafts. The stock advice to writers
holds true for editors as well: Is everything that is there necessary, and is
everything that is necessary there? In the end, writing and editing are not
that different. Both writers and editors gain from reading widely and from
honing the same skills; they simply put them to different purposes in service of the same goal: more good books. Some editors may not be able to
create an original scene, but their strength lies in recognizing the excesses.
Those who, like Pound, can both write and edit are the lucky ones.
PETER MIDGLEY won the Tom Fairley Award for Editorial Excellence
in 2014. This article was originally published on The Editors’ Weekly
blog: [email protected].
Active Voice / Voix active spring / printemps 2015
17
Par: Dominique Fortier
Une difficulté
grammaticale expliquée
Le naufrage « du Irving Whale » ou « de l’Irving Whale »?
Le français est plein d’exceptions qui
confirment les règles, c’est bien connu. À l’école,
on a appris les règles de grammaire élémentaire
et, en principe, les particularités (exceptions)
qui les caractérisent. Toutefois, pour différentes
raisons, certaines nous ont échappé. C’est le
cas des déterminants définis (anciennement
articles définis), élidés et contractés, qui comportent leur lot de difficultés et qui constituent
autant de pièges à éviter lorsqu’on rédige ou
révise un texte.
Voici un exemple, tiré du journal, qui
nous aidera à mieux cerner le problème et
à ne pas commettre l’erreur: « … l’organisme
Attention FragÎles écrivait que ‘le naufrage
du Irving Whale est resté dans la mémoire
des Madelinots’ … »
La première étape consiste à repérer ce
qui nous semble clocher (la source du questionnement) : ici, le du de Irving Whale, qu’il
faudrait remplacer par de l’.
– Le naufrage de l’Irving Whale (et non :
du Irving Whale).
VOYONS POURQUOI :
1. D’abord, on est en présence
du déterminant défini le qui se
place devant le nom [bateau/pétrolier]
(sous-entendu [qu’on appelle
« référent »], dont il prend le genre
masculin et le nombre singulier) Irving
Whale qu’il détermine.
18
2. Ensuite, le déterminant défini le s’élide
(élider = remplacer la voyelle par une
apostrophe) lorsqu’il est placé devant
une voyelle ou un h muet. Il devient
alors déterminant défini l’. – L’Irving
Whale a coulé dans le golfe du SaintLaurent (et non : le Irving Whale).
3. Maintenant, devant un nom
masculin singulier commençant
par une consonne ou
un h aspiré, ledéterminant
défini le précédé de
la préposition de (de + le) prend
la forme contractée du :
– Les hydrocarbures se trouvant dans
la cale du bateau/pétrolier Irving
Whale (et non : de le bateau/pétrolier).
4. Un Si qu’il vaut la peine d’examiner :
* Si les articles définis “la” ou “ l’ ” sont
précédés des prépositions “à” ou “de”
ils ne se contractent pas :
- J’accompagne les garçons qui vont à la
représentation de théâtre - Je ne suis pas
libre pour accompagner les filles qui veulent
aller à l’exposition. (On ne dit pas > aller au
représentation ou au exposition).
Ne pas confondre l’article défini précédé
de la préposition “de” et les articles partitifs
(voir plus loin) “du ou de la” :
Active Voice / Voix active spring / printemps 2015
- On vous invite à la réunion du maire et des
notables. (Du et des = articles contractés) - Il
mange du poulet et boit de la bière. (Du et de la
= articles partitifs).
Source : http://aidenet.eu/grammaire08b.htm
Le problème vient du mauvais usage
du déterminant contracté du. On aura pensé :
« Comme “le naufrage de le Irving Whale” ne
se dit pas, il faut dire “du Irving Whale” » (en
référence à bateau/pétroliersous-entendu, donc
contraction de de + le en du). Et, difficulté supplémentaire, il est facile de confondre le déterminant contracté du (du bateau et non : de
le bateau) et le déterminant partitif (qu’on ne
peut pas compter) du (du pain et non : de le
pain). D’où la tendance à avoir recours au du.
Et c’est là que réside le piège, car contrairement
au de + le qui se contracte en du, le de + l’ ne
secontracte pas. D’où « le naufrage de l’Irving
Whale » (et non : du Irving Whale).
La même règle s’applique dans le cas du
pétrolier Exxon Valdez, qui a aussi causé un désastre environnemental majeur, cette fois sur les
côtes de l’Alaska. On dira donc : « le naufrage de
l’Exxon Valdez » (et non : du Exxon Valdez).
Vous est-il arrivé de vous poser des questions
du même genre et de piocher pour « confirmer votre
sentiment » qu’il y avait là une faute à corriger?
DOMINIQUE FORTIER est réviseure à la pige
à Québec. Article initialement publié dans
l’Hebdomadaire des réviseurs : blog.editors.ca.
Par: Dominique Fortier
De la révision/correction de textes
d'hier (Papier) à aujourd'hui (Numérique)
L’article What Do Editors Need To Know Now?, (Lana Okerlund dans
L’Hebdomadaire des réviseurs, le 7 mai 2013), m’a beaucoup fait réfléchir.
Elle mettait en mots ce que j’ai l’intuition qui se passe dans l’univers de
la révision depuis quelque temps déjà. C’est-à-dire que la révolution technologique engendrée par l’accessibilité accrue au Web, l’avènement des
nombreux nouveaux médias sociaux et la mobilité galopante chamboule
radicalement et continuellement le processus traditionnel de révision et
de publication d’ouvrages ou de textes.
Ainsi, dans le domaine de l’édition, est-on passé du tout papier au tout
numérique en moins de trente ans. Un document imprimé prenait jadis
plusieurs années à voir le jour, alors que cette même publication s’effectue
aujourd’hui en quelques mois, voire en quelques semaines (et en français,
c’est toujours pour hier, n’importe comment…). Alors on peut imaginer
les bouchées que les réviseurs doivent prendre pour maintenir la qualité
des textes tout en répondant aux exigences de la publication assistée
par ordinateur (PAO) et à la frénésie qui s’est emparée de chacun dans la
course à la publication en ligne!
Sous la poussée de cette évolution, la révision est elle-même passée
du tout papier, une technique connue pratiquement immuable et appliquée
par de réels artisans, au tout numérique, se moulant pas à pas aux nouvelles
technologies qui font leur apparition et sont en mouvance perpétuelle.
Ainsi est-on passé de la révision sur support physique individuel —
attaché à un bureau (avant les années 1980) — tel que :
LE PAPIER;
• modèle de publication papier
> rédaction (papier) > révision du manuscrit (papier) > mise
en pages (photocompositeur-sortie papier) > révision/correction
des jeux d’épreuves (papier) > insertion des corrections (photocompositeur-sortie papier) > bleus > révision/correction des bleus
(papier) > production du film (photocompositeur) > impression > approbation > mise en marché de l’ouvrage
à celle sur support numérique individuel — toujours attaché à un bureau
(vers le milieu des années 1980) — tel que :
LA DISQUETTE MOLLE (LE DINOSAURE DU NUMÉRIQUE),
LA DISQUETTE RIGIDE;
• modèle de publication au début du numérique
> rédaction (ordinateur-traitement de texte-transfert par
disquette) > révision du manuscrit (ordinateur-traitement
de texte [.doc]-transfert par disquette) > mise en pages
(graphiste-ordinateur [PAO]-sortie papier) > révision/correction
des jeux d’épreuves (papier) > insertion des corrections (graphisteordinateur-sortie papier) > bleus > révision/correction des bleus
(papier) > film > impression > approbation > mise en marché de
l’ouvrage
à celle sur support numérique communautaire — toujours rattaché au
bureau, mais accessible aux personnes qui partagent votre « circuit » (vers
les années 2000) — tel que :
LE COURRIEL, LE RÉSEAU INTRANET, LE RÉSEAU INTERNET;
• modèle de publication au fil du numérique
> rédaction (ordinateur-traitement de texte-courriel) > révision/
correction du manuscrit (ordinateur-traitement de texte-courriel) > mise en pages (graphiste-ordinateur [PAO]-sortie PDFcourriel) > révision/correction des jeux d’épreuves (ordinateur
[PDF]-courriel) > insertion des corrections (graphiste-ordinateur) > finalisation du fichier PDF pour transmission électronique à
l’impression (ordinateur-courriel) > impression papier > approbation > mise en marché > et publication sur Internet sous forme de
page Web en .html ou de fichier .pdf
à celle sur support virtuel (peut-on vraiment parler de support? puisqu’il
n’y a plus rien « qui tienne ») planétaire communautaire ou individuel —
c’est désormais votre bureau qui vous suit, accessible de partout (on y
vient à grands pas) —, tel que :
LE NUAGE INFORMATIQUE (STOCKAGE DE DONNÉES
DE GRANDE CAPACITÉ PROPOSÉ PAR LES GROS JOUEURS
DU NUMÉRIQUE).
• modèle de publication tout numérique (aujourd’hui) > rédaction (ordinateur-traitement de texte-courriel) > révision
du manuscrit (ordinateur-traitement de texte [.doc, .txt]courriel) > mise en pages (graphiste [PAO]-sortie PDFcourriel) > révision/correction des jeux d’épreuves (ordinateur
[PDF]-courriel) > insertion des corrections (graphiste-ordinateur) > finalisation du fichier et sauvegarde en divers formats numériques
— .pdf (impression papier et Web), .html (Web), .xhtml (livres électroniques), .css (accompagnant les fichiers .html et .epub) — (graphisteordinateur-courriel) > besoins émergents en révision/correction de
textes (métadonnées, mots clés, catégories, descriptions, légendes,
index-logiciels éditeurs/codeurs de textes-fichiers .txt, .html,
xhtml, .css [et autres?]) > mise en marché/orbite/nuage (impression
papier | site ou page Web | livre numérique et j’en oublie probablement)
(suite à la page 14)
Active Voice / Voix active spring / printemps 2015
19
and
New oved!
Impr
Editing Canadian
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