I Know Stuff

This past weekend I took an editing course at the University of Guelph. It was put on by the Editor's Association of Canada (EAC). I've taken courses with them in the past and have found them both interesting and useful, this one especially.

It's always interesting to have a group of like-minded individuals come together to learn more about a topic they enjoy, and in this instance it was no different. Well except for the fact that I knew a lot of what was being taught. I knew the standardized editor's marks, I even knew where all the commas should go in a closed sentence style of writing! In all the exercises we did, I knew what I was doing, I just didn't know the principles behind them.

How encouraging! I'm not the big fraud that I thought I was! I actually had more experience than most people attending the course, and especially more experience than the lady who sat next to me for the day. I felt sorry for her, since she was just starting out on this editing adventure. She appeared to be quite lost when it came to most editing functions. She struggled through the fast paced grammar lessons that even left me working hard to keep up. Hopefully she's not too discouraged by the whole process, since she seemed like a nice woman.

EAC always puts on a great seminar/course. Fully catered, these sessions are jam packed with information, handouts and exercises, but also food. Coffee breaks come complete with trays of pastries, big carafes of coffee and hot water for tea. Lunch time brings numerous platters of various sandwiches, oversized cookies and more drinks, with a second coffee break mid-afternoon bringing more of the same.

Instructors are always knowledgeable, real world editors who work hard at what they do, and do it very well. This instructor, Kathryn Dean, has edited work for Robert Bateman, Mordecai Richler and Pierre Trudeau and her first edited work was a history of the Hudson's Bay Company. Besides being my namesake, she was also a fascinating woman, a bit scatterbrained at first glance, but intriguing nonetheless. We danced through many pages of rules, annecdotes, quotes, quips and exercises, all in a relatively pain free manner. The only thing that would have made the day better was if it had poured rain instead of being gloriously warm and sunny.

For the first time, in at least three years, I have homework that I must tackle. Surprisingly, I'm really looking forward to tackling it this week!