Conference 2018: Education, education, education

Page owner: Conference director

Reports from the 2018 conference at Lancaster University

 

Sunday

Whitcombe lecture

The Whitcombe Lecture marks the traditional start of the SfEP conference, launching the audience straight into the world of words. This year, Lynne Murphy made a welcome return to talk about why US editing adheres to rigid rules while UK editing respects the authorial ‘voice’.

 

Openings, live editing, plain English and not panicking

After a coffee break and a chance to look round the conference fair, the first workshops began.

 

Erotic fiction, an editorial collective, macros and proofreading student writing

On Sunday afternoon the first sessions got under way.

 

After-dinner speech

The after-dinner speech can be a tough assignment for both the speaker and the reporter. Both have to make it through the entire evening. Both succeeded well.

 

Monday

New tools, brand building and increasing income

A hearty breakfast set the delegates up for another day of learning and networking, starting with some workshops.

 

LinkedIn, medical editing and business information

After another coffee break, the work continued with a busy hour of sharing knowledge and experience.

 

Advanced macros and confident coffee

In the final sessions of the day, delegates learned about macros, starting out and inclusive language.

 

These edited articles first appeared in the November/December 2018 and January/February 2019 issues of Editing Matters.

 

 

 

 

Whitcombe Lecture

Lynne Murphy

Reported by John Firth

This year’s Whitcombe Lecturer, Professor Lynne Murphy, addressed our conference in 2016, and those who remember her marvellous after-dinner speech would have enjoyed her more serious presentation here.

Her lecture fell into four parts: a presentation of reported differences between UK and US English in editing cultures, a longer exposition of why these differences might arise, an evaluation of surrounding factors and a report on her own experience (on both sides of ‘The Pond’). Much evidence is in her latest book, The Prodigal Tongue (OneWorld, 2018).

Professor Murphy reminded us that less than 1 per cent of our spelling, and a smaller percentage of our grammar, varies from US usage. Differences in editing style perhaps boil down to a reported US preference for citing ‘rules’ (in various style guides and dictionaries), and a reported British respect for the authorial ‘voice’. She cited Linda Pillière’s ‘Imposing a norm: The invisible marks of copyeditors’ in her Standardising English (CUP, 2018), which asked 48 British and Irish (BI) copyeditors, and 133 US copyeditors, to review two sentences using that/which constructions: more than 70 per cent of the US editors stated that the editor ‘should’ or ‘must’ choose one of them, while 38 per cent of BI editors sat on the fence.

Why the differences? US education favours setting down, then following, rules for reasons including a strong low-church tradition that respects ‘authoritative’ text; a written constitution; high literacy throughout the nation’s history; meritocracy and ‘can do’ beliefs; an insistence that grammar is taught; and a strong belief in access to the written word and a corresponding insistence on ‘including’ readers. Sentence diagramming is taught in schools, and was clearly new to many in her present audience. There exist both a ballet and an opera cycle based on Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style (SfEP Linnets?).

US training of English teachers requires a three-year degree – three semesters of which must be spent on grammar – ending with an exam that must be passed. The PGCE for a UK English teacher includes one day on grammar …

Professor Murphy has carried out her own research, for which five authors (from Britain, Canada and the USA) reported on whether being edited felt different in the UK and the USA (see the box below).

UK editors US editors
… check facts (1 respondent) … check facts (4 respondents)
… focus on consistency of characters (1) … focus on mechanics (3)
  … remove taboo words (1)
… are less involved with the author (3) … are more collaborative (2)
   
Overall: trust the author Overall: more involved

To explore this, The Prodigal Tongue website contains a table comparing copyeditors’ suggestions for the UK edition (published first) and the US edition.

Audience questions drew interesting responses on the differences between a culture with a long tradition and one embracing the ‘melting pot’; how experience and editorial training affect editing styles; and the wide range of practice on both sides of the Atlantic.

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Getting stuck in: Editing narrative openings

Eleanor Collins

Reported by Ian Spackman

The opening of a narrative is famously the most important part; it is also, for both the writer and editor, often the most difficult. As editors we must approach the text with the mindset of a reader to see what works. In her introduction, Eleanor Collins addressed what openings should do, why authors find them difficult and what tools are available to improve them.

An opening should raise an intriguing, unanswered question, be gripping and appropriately paced, have engaging characters and establish the author’s voice; above all, it should display what the author excels at. Yet the pressure to achieve all this makes beginnings difficult. Moreover, there is a vast information gap – a world to be conveyed, and a temptation to describe it at once. There are conventions to adhere to. And, because life lacks beginnings and endings, nowhere more than here does the artificiality of narrative show.

Three sorts of changes are available to repair an opening. There are changes of structure, such as inserting or cutting a prologue, or using a framing device or pastiche. Changes of chronology include the moving of events, whether in the order of telling or of occurrence, but also changes of pace: a slow start might be condensed or cut. Changes of voice include changes of tense, moving from first person to third or being the narrator.

Next, we were invited to introduce ourselves and give examples of memorable good openings. Then came the time to share our own editing experience. Finally, we read a first chapter and discussed what could be learned from it. But so well attended was the workshop that time ran sadly short!

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Don’t panic! How to stay calm in a crisis

Melanie Thompson

Reported by Lesley Clayton

We are on our own, as freelancers, working without the safety net of an employer’s healthcare provision, IT support or compassionate leave to take care of personal and family emergencies. This session was an exercise in risk assessment and emergency planning to make sure you can cope in the kind of situations that might affect your business and your ability to work.

Using a board-game format, with enthusiastic audience participation, we explored what to do should our gas/electricity/water supply fail, how to deal with office equipment/computer problems and, ultimately, how to cope in more scary personal emergencies. We were introduced to the vital 11th (editors’) commandment: ‘Thou shalt back up thy computer regularly.’ The pros and cons of various back-up systems were debated.

Also covered were strategies to deal with such issues as deadline drifts and clashes; unwanted or unlawful client behaviour; late payments; internet security; and crises such as sickness/injury to yourself, family and pets. General discussion threw up many great ideas from delegates’ own experiences.

The take-home message was to collect and document all the information that might be needed in any emergency. To aid this, Melanie has produced a business resilience booklet (available directly from her: melaniethompson.co.uk) in which to record all your vital information. Fill it in, keep it handy, and take it with you as you flee the burning building!

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Live editing: Non-fiction

Erin Brenner and Sarah Grey

Reported by Jane MacArthur

‘We are all experts, but we can all learn from each other’ was how Erin and Sarah opened the workshop.

We were given seven practical exercises to try, with Erin and Sarah tag-teaming the teaching. Exercise 1 was to copyedit a passage of academic text written in UK English. We discussed what changes needed to be made and why. There were many options for improvement, but the main points were agreed upon.

Exercises 2 and 4 involved converting passages written in UK English to US English and vice versa. Erin asked us what tools we would use to start the conversion. These exercises generated a lot of debate.

Exercises 3 and 5 were about using gender-neutral language and authors’ chosen pronouns. These were challenging, and the class went a little quiet while we tried to get our heads around using ‘judy’ as a pronoun for a particular theatre review. How does one tackle this? Can ‘search and replace’ be used? Yes and no. The exercises showed that line editing is required in these instances, as things such as singular versus plural and number agreement come into play.

There were also exercises on using a style sheet and how to deal with a very ambiguous proposal email, where we had to shout out the red flags spotted.

This was a very useful workshop. Everyone left feeling enthusiastic and reassured that the editing they are doing is, in the main, in agreement with what others are doing too.

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Plain English for editors: Concepts, techniques and selling ‘plain English services’

Luke Finley, co-authored by Laura Ripper

Reported by Heidi Mattock

What is plain English and how can editors use it? With real-life as well as imaginative and humorous examples, this was a wide-ranging and interactive presentation.

Having ignorantly imagined plain English to be a somewhat novel specialist subject, I did not know that the movement has a history of engagement in promoting clear communication in public services and politics dating back to George Orwell. Using plain English can empower people!

We explored the assortment of factors that make text unclear for the reader, the reasons why a writer might struggle to communicate a clear message, and how applying plain English techniques can disentangle the gist from the gibberish. Guidelines on how to reveal the essential information concealed in murky text included eliminating jargon and obfuscation, reducing complexity, improving grammar and structure, releasing smothered verbs, using direct active language, and considering context and inclusivity.

We learned that the use of plain English techniques can improve any text, from poetry to publicity, and even abstracts for scientific journals; however, these tools require skilful handling. Translating into plain English goes beyond copyediting and can be a creative challenge requiring a sensitive touch. We discussed how editors as language experts are in a great position to offer plain English services, and touched on potential benefits for clients and editors. Personally, I was interested in how plain English might improve publications destined for an international scientific audience that includes non-native English speakers.

Look out for the upcoming plain English training course designed by Luke and Laura!

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Introduction to editing erotic fiction

Maya Berger

Reported by Heather Musk

The session on editing erotic fiction was a lot of fun, as you can imagine, with lots of opportunity to have a giggle at the kind of work that may cross your desk. Bad writing can be taken to a whole new level with such a topic as erotica, but, as Maya Berger discussed, it is treated in the same way as any other type of fiction.

There’s no doubt that a lot of stigma surrounds this kind of fiction, but once we’d got past the initial humour of reading an example of what bad erotic fiction can look like, Maya showed us that the writers of this genre deserve as much respect and care with their work as any other author. It’s clear that a certain element of delicacy is required when discussing particular topics or areas, perhaps more so than for other genres of fiction, but the basic elements of plot, characterisation and continuity are addressed in the same way.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this session at first, but Maya’s presentation of the material and topic went a long way to dispelling my own misconceptions about this genre. I’m not sure if I’d feel comfortable going straight into this kind of work just yet, but if I do in the future, then I’ve gained a lot from this session in preparation.

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Editing Globally: Working as an editorial collective, internationally

Janet MacMillan, Katherine Trail and Kelly Lamb

Reported by Michele Howe

‘An editorial collective’ – what’s that then? How does it work? How do I join one?

These were just some of the questions I had when I first heard about Editing Globally last year. The conference session by three of its members provided the answers.

The collective was formally launched in February 2017 but was several years in the making, one of the members explained.

It was born out of an existing, informal collaboration between the five members, four of whom are APMs of the SfEP.

Joining forces had a number of benefits, the members said, including enabling them to take on large projects or projects with a fast turnaround and to work across different time zones.

They gave the example of one client who wanted 50,000 words edited quickly. The deadline was tight but by putting three people on it, they met it. ‘It was nuts but we could do it. One person alone couldn’t do it,’ a member said.

Key to a collective’s success is trust, they said, stressing that it’s important to know the people you’re working with and to work with people who are experienced.

So how does it work in practice?

The collective has a common email address, and jobs are logged as they come in. They communicate using Slack, have a joint Twitter account and share style guides using Dropbox.

The collective has its own website, editingglobally.com, and each member lists both Editing Globally and their own business on their business cards.

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What can macros do for you?

Paul Beverley

Reported by Nichola Spencer

Did you know a macro is just a way of automating repetitive keystrokes and mouse movements?

Before attending Paul Beverley’s two-hour talk I was vaguely aware that macros were tools that could be used in Microsoft Word but knew little else about them. I was surprised to learn that functions such as Find and Replace can be duplicated by macros.

Paul made the concept of macros much easier to comprehend by comparing them to apps on a mobile phone and by demonstrating on screen some of the basic ways of using them.

They are, Paul explained, great tools for carrying out mundane tasks in a document, such as spell-checking or deleting double spacing. This frees up your time to engage with the more intricate and rewarding elements of your work.

As with any tool, there are pitfalls, and it’s best to avoid becoming over-reliant on macros. Paul likened them to chainsaws, able to cut a lot of trees very quickly, but with the danger of doing much unintended damage to both yourself and the forest.

Paul left me feeling confident that integrating at least the most basic macros into my work patterns will help improve my overall productivity. I’m looking forward to trying out macros for preparing a style sheet and carrying out wholesale changes throughout a document.

The macros Paul has created over the past 12 years are freely available, together with training videos, from his website.

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Differing interventions, worrying findings: Proofreading student writing

Nigel Harwood

Reported by Caroline Condron

The ubiquity of proofreading services offered on university campuses nowadays cannot be denied, but what is ‘proofreading’ in this context? How do conceptualisations of proofreading differ, and how do different interpretations affect the end product? This session focused on answering these questions.

Nigel began by identifying two main viewpoints of what proofreading in a university context is: the first strand labels it as ‘unethical’, with proofreaders ‘selling academic literacy’ and the general feeling among students that proofreading can eliminate problems and lead to higher grades; the second strand views it as a legitimate form of support. These polarised views seem to stem from the lack of a clear definition of what proofreading actually involves – and more importantly doesn’t involve, a problem being made worse by some unscrupulous proofreading services promising high grades, or your money back.

The lack of consensus about what proofreading actually is extends to the conceptualisation of proofreading, which affects proofreaders’ approaches to this work. Nigel presented the results of a study that analysed how a student essay was marked up by different proofreaders, and identified three approaches to proofreading:

  • making few changes to the essay
  • making a larger number of changes
  • suggesting changes of argumentation, ideas and content (clearly not proofreading).

It is clear from this wide range of approaches that there are issues of fairness and ethics here. Nigel proposed one clear way of mitigating these: regulate proofreading by defining it in a university policy that everyone knows about and adheres to.

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After-dinner speech

Sam Leith

Reported by Ian Howe

One of the benefits of having the SfEP conference running alongside that of the Society of Indexers is that we had the pleasure of being addressed by its president, Sam Leith. This year, Sam entertained us with an after-dinner speech that was the perfect conclusion to the gala dinner in the splendid surroundings of Lancaster’s Great Hall.

As literary editor of The Spectator, Sam was alarmed at the increasing number of books submitted for review that contained no index at all. Having said that, bound proofs often arrive with the index marked ‘to follow’, meaning that ‘some poor sod had been given about three days to do it …’.

On arriving at Lancaster station and taking a taxi to the university, Sam had received a worried look from the driver. ‘Ooh,’ he said, ‘there’s a lot of proofreaders up there this weekend.’ The taxi driver was, however, delighted to report that the coach used for the pre-conference visit to Lancaster Castle had been hired from a company called Travellers Choice – ‘with no apostrophe’!

Sam turned to the question of whether the ‘map’ of a book that an index creates still has a role in today’s age of information overload. Aside from its value for navigation, the index also offers one of the best ways of dipping into a book without reading the whole thing: simply turn to the index and look under ‘Bits, juicy’.

In Cornwall, he had discovered a biography of John le Carré in a holiday cottage. With no time to read the whole thing, he scanned the index for references to le Carré’s son Nick, whom he knew. As a result he found himself enthralled by a vodka-fuelled encounter between the novelist and a Russian mobster, in which the son’s presence was merely incidental, but which could have brought the writer’s career to a premature end.

Ours is an age in which there is too much information, and in the surrounding chaos it’s hard to make sense of it. When Donald Trump googles ‘great presidential speeches’ and finds they’re all by Obama, he blames bias, but it’s really just an algorithm. So the slow, careful organisation of information in the medium of a book, showing the connections between pieces of information, has never been more important.

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eEditing for multi-channel publishing

Chris Jennings

Reported by Bonnie Reynell

How might working with new editing software compare with more established editing tools? In Chris Jennings’s talk on eEditing for multi-channel publishing, it was helpful to get a glimpse into the world of browser-based editing software and see how it differs from traditional, widely used programs such as Microsoft Word.

In particular, browser-based software facilitates collaborative projects, allowing editorial teams to work from multiple locations and choose from a range of output options to print and digitise products, including ebooks and websites.

Another strong feature is the lightweight markup languages of editing software such as Markdown: simpler than HTML and in contrast to code-heavy Word documents that are far less easily transferable. Markdown text is easy to send directly to Adobe InDesign and roll back for further editing. Word documents can be exported to ePublisher, and from there more easily output to multiple formats.

A particular question that arose during the session was how new software could offer the same efficiency as Word macros. An answer can be found in software such as Editorial, which enables the creation of editorial workflows such as Find and Replace or preserving line breaks in Markdown syntax.

Other software mentioned by Jennings included Ulysses, a Markdown text editor; Editoria, an open-source, web-based editing and production workflow tool; Git, popular with software editors, and GitBook for collaborative writing and editing; Penflip, for collaborative writing and version control; Booktype, an open-content management system; and ePublisher for online publishing.

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Building a brilliant editorial brand

Louise Harnby

Reported by Natalie Weiner

You know you’re in the right workshop when you’re given a goodie bag of chocolates on arrival! Louise Harnby clearly knows all about how to get people to like you, and her workshop illustrated how to get the ‘flavour’ (brand) of your business right in order to attract the right clients for you.

Branding provides a succinct means of communicating who you are and what you do. As Louise said, we’re all qualified, hardworking editors. So, how do we go beyond ‘selling chocolate based on its brown-ness’?

We were taken through a framework that helps identify three core brand values. This involves listing the attributes of your ‘nemesis’ (who you never want to be as an editor/proofreader), your ideal client and you.

The gradual reworking of these lists, eventually providing three named values, requires a ‘deep dive’ – it took Louise three weeks to finalise hers, one of which is ‘Professional Labrador’ …!

Louise then looked at visualising brand values. Brand recognition increases through consistent use of colour and imagery across all platforms. She suggested playing with hue and opacity. ‘There are probably people who could make dusky pink look aggressive!’

She felt that one of her biggest shifts forward was keeping her ideal client in mind at all times. For example, she refocused her website from being typically editor-centric to client-centric.

Visibility of branding is also important, whether it’s via blogging, advertising or listings. Louise suggested creating one or two resources to give away on your website. A bit like our individually tailored goodie bags. Louise had made a good impression from the start, just as branding should help us impress potential clients.

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Show me the money!

Laura Poole

Reported by Sanjay Dari

This session was focused around changes and actions that could be made or taken to improve the income of your freelance business. There was a range of useful information and advice for both experienced participants and newcomers. Laura shared her own real-life experiences to elaborate on her points, which was very helpful and provided context. The core ideas she suggested were the key focus of individual sections, which were broken down nicely during the session. Sections were also interlinked, which helped the information to sink in more easily.

The examples were engaging, as was the session overall. Laura discussed raising rates, which involved encouraging freelancers to know their worth, and to look at their experience level. She also went into finding new clients, discussing creating the space and energy for new work, and going after better-paying clients. Laura emphasised the importance of sharpening your saw, talking about the importance of polishing skills and specialising. The importance of conference sessions, networking groups and professional groups was also discussed, once Laura moved on to the importance of verbal communication.

To me, this session was accessible because of the relevance of finance to any business, and because of the range of information for inexperienced and experienced individuals. The examples used from different points in Laura’s career ensured relevance for everybody. Laura made it clear there are many possibilities, but also made the effort to give attendees the confidence to make necessary changes, which increased the overall value of the session.

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Build a presence and find work using LinkedIn

John Espirian

Reported by Clare Gathercole

This was a very well-presented and well-attended session, which packed a lot into a single hour and could probably have filled two.

The session was aimed at inexperienced (or stalled) LinkedIn users who currently use LinkedIn as a glorified online CV. John began by urging us to see the platform instead as a professional relationship-building tool that, properly used, can give better business results right now than any other social media platform.

John then took us through a series of steps for making the best use of a free account on LinkedIn by:

  1. improving your profile (especially the headshot, banner, headline and summary sections)
  2. building a presence (by regular posting and commenting)
  3. looking for work (by finding the right organisations and people and – gradually – working up to connecting with them).

There were lots of specific tips for each step, many of which can be found in John’s LinkedIn Starter Guide, part of the free resources in his LinkedIn Learner Lounge, which is well worth checking out.

The core message was to engage – to make use of LinkedIn as a social media platform – rather than waste its considerable potential. I’d imagine this will come more naturally to some of his audience than to others and that the advice to ‘post once or twice a week’ might be hard to follow for some, certainly at the moment. But at least none of us can any longer innocently treat LinkedIn just as an online CV.

Mission accomplished.

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Introduction to medical editing

Julia Slone-Murphy

Reported by Kathryn Wright

Medical editing can be perceived as being very specialised: this introductory session attracted a mixture of prospective medical editors, inquisitive people from related areas and seasoned pros.

After overcoming a few technical difficulties with aplomb (and a little help from John Espirian), Julia described the publication process for medical journals and why clear communication is essential in medical publishing. She explained peer review and how a well-written typescript is more likely to receive a positive response. A medical editor can help researchers to communicate the science, eliminate embarrassing errors, beat the competition, improve the peer-review process (for both researchers and reviewers) and publish effectively.

Not only researchers but publishers, non-publishers (institutions such as the NHS and the World Health Organization), medcomms agencies writing for pharmaceutical/biotech companies (the more creative side of medical communications), students and editing companies all need medical editors and proofreaders. A background in medicine or science is often a job requirement. Specific qualifications or training (eg the SfEP’s Medical Editing course) can help.

Julia also described some of the things to check or look out for as a medical editor: typos, nomenclature, clarity and consistency, plagiarism, accessibility, sensitivity and inclusivity, abbreviations and readability. She illustrated these with some funny examples, including a 25kg mouse!

The session was an informative and interesting overview of medical editing for both newbies and old hands. Julia also provided a list of resources, available at neuroedit.com/sfep2018: this is a great place to start if you’re considering moving into medical editing.

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Using business information to increase your profits

Erin Brenner

Reported by Gemma Jones

This one-hour session by Erin Brenner focused on how to collect and organise, analyse and make use of business information to maximise profits from an editing or proofreading business.

To start with, Erin discussed how to categorise jobs into ‘bread and butter’ (the regular, steady work that might not be the most exciting), ‘blue chips’ (the exciting and/or well-paid jobs), ‘Halley’s comets’ (the once-in-a-while jobs, one-offs and new ventures that stretch one’s horizons) and ‘cattle calls’ (the low-paying/boring jobs that we all want to avoid as much as possible).

Next, Erin offered advice on how to record job offers, analyse where work is coming from and make better pitches to increase the number of blue-chip jobs we land. She explained that business information systems can initially be a little time-consuming to set up, but that they pay dividends once we start using the information.

Erin’s workshop was well structured and flowed nicely. She answered questions from the audience very eloquently throughout, and there was just the right amount of humour in her delivery. Throughout her presentation, Erin provided lots of useful links to business analysis templates and tools, as well as online tutorials for further learning. Her attendees were even treated to chocolates!

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Advanced macros

Paul Beverley

Reported by Sheena Billet

The final session of the conference found many of us feeling rather weary, but Paul’s energy and enthusiasm for macros soon had us sitting up and taking notice. The aim of the session was that each of us would go away with at least one ‘wow’ moment, resulting from the macro smorgasbord available, and, judging from comments around the room as we delved ever deeper into the mysteries of the macro world, this certainly seemed to have been achieved. The first area that Paul talked about was how to maximise the effectiveness of macros that analyse text, including DocAlyse, SpellingErrorList, ProperNounAlyse and HyphenAlyse – macros available for free from his website (see the end of this report). We then moved on to macros, such as FRedit, that can implement changes.

We learned about the seemingly endless possibilities of Find and Replace using FRedit, including the fact that it can find and replace bold, italic and highlighted text. A ‘wow’ moment for me was the discovery that FRedit will automatically exclude any struck-through text in any pass! From there we progressed on to MultiFileText, which will copy sections of one document into another, and then onto the heady heights of CopyTextWithFeatures, which allows us to make decisions about how we see the copied text, including the ordering of sections.

Paul’s macros are available from his website.

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Confidence, commitment and lots of coffee

Stephen Pigney

Reported by Graham Shaw

Stephen spoke candidly about his experiences of establishing his editorial business and provided valuable insights that others could use to help them realise their dreams.

He stressed the importance of developing self-confidence and overcoming imposter syndrome – which made him feel the need to demonstrate his perfectionism while being extremely anxious that others would discover his weaknesses. Through taking small, positive steps each day, he gradually changed his negative default approach to one of saying ‘yes’ to most opportunities.

To further build confidence and commitment, Stephen had developed a business plan so that he could understand more easily what he needed to do. He likened this to reverse engineering: he decided where he wanted to be in three years’ time, and then worked backwards to identify what he needed to do to reach that objective. He pointed out that a business plan is always a work in progress and should periodically be reviewed based on experience.

To market his skills, he identified his specialist market and key clients to be targeted, taking small steps to ensure the delivery of quality work – thereby building a good reputation and resulting in referrals to other potential customers.

Reflection continues to be a key part of Stephen’s approach, helping him to appreciate the value and importance of his business, which, in turn, has further built his confidence and motivation to achieve a higher level of quality and professionalism and to cope with challenging situations – including his ongoing coffee consumption!

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Inclusive language: The ethics of conscious editing

Sarah Grey

Reported by Sarah Calfee

After the #MeToo movement and in a time when ‘sensitivity readers’ have come to exist as a service, Sarah Grey’s talk on inclusive language could not have been more poignant – especially for editors. Her main point was that we, in our capacity as editors, can help treat all readers with respect by identifying excluding language and then avoiding it entirely.

One example of excluding language is ‘othering’ – the act of calling attention to people’s differences for no reason. This phenomenon can be experienced by women every day through the simple act of shopping and finding ‘women’s computer bags’, which sends the message that men are the norm and women are the other. Another example of excluding language is the use of micro-aggressions towards certain groups of people, which can be done unintentionally by writers. Sarah illustrated this with the write-up of a Tibetan restaurant and instructed us to count the stereotypes: ‘As if framed in a marionette theatre, the chef and his assistant can be seen through a small rectangular window. A blessed quietude prevails, as immigrants from various Asian countries, often wearing their national outfits, scurry by in the street outside.’

Sarah finished her presentation by saying, ‘There is a lot of hard work to be done to make English more inclusive, more humane and better at meeting the needs of all its speakers. We’re the gatekeepers. We’re the ones who decide what goes into edited prose, what goes into the corpus that shapes the dictionaries and style manuals.’

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