Edifix is an online system for formatting and retrieving references. For medical editing jobs, I’ve been using Edifix to find references, which I then put into Endnote. For example, one document contained 10 chapters written by different authors, only half of whom had used Endnote. Edifix made it relatively easy to obtain the references for the remaining chapters from PubMed, and export the …
Learning about e-books
I’ve just started an online course — Editors and e-Books — with the Editorial Freelancers Association in the US. The blurb about the course says that it will ‘help editors learn the ins and outs of e-publishing, so they can confidently guide self-published authors from manuscript to e-book.’ Which is exactly what I need, given that I’m currently working with …
An alternative to an infographic CV
This week I’ve been writing a newsletter article about my attempts to get myself an infographic CV (for those who aren’t familiar with the concept, this article explains it well). An infographic proved to be beyond my budget, but in researching the topic, I found some alternatives, such as Visualize.me and Re.vu, both of which can create a graphic from …
LinkedIn to the rescue
I’m currently editing a travel narrative, which makes a change from my normal fare of technical documents. However, I’m also formatting the document in MS Word, and yesterday I hit a snag. The author starts each chapter with a level 1 heading immediately followed by a level 2 heading. He wants both headings to appear on the contents page, but …
A science writing MOOC
I’m pleased to have completed the Writing in the Sciences course from Coursera. It was an interesting experience, and a good introduction to MOOCs. What did I learn? Primarily, that my usual practice of starting with a blank page and expecting to fill it with erudite prose is NOT the best way to write something. Instead, I now go for a …
Coursera — a fantastic resource!
I discovered Coursera a couple of weeks ago, thanks to a conversation with a friend who is retired, but mentioned that he’d been taking a free course on model thinking from the University of Michigan. I looked up the organisation and noticed that a science writing course was starting shortly. I signed up for it, mainly to see how someone else …
Making progress on grammar
I’m enjoying the online course that I’m taking (Grammar, Mechanics, and Usage for Editors). The assignments are quite challenging, particularly those that involve identifying different sentence types or parts of sentences. I’m still struggling with the difference between phrases and clauses, and between simple, compound and complex sentences. However, the course notes are helpful, and the main text for the course …
Grammar course
This week I signed up to UC Berkley’s online Grammar, Mechanics, and Usage course (even though the title of the course includes the serial comma, which I wouldn’t use). It’s over 10 years since I last took a grammar course, so I thought it might be a good idea to have a refresher. Also, I’ve realised that I really enjoy studying. My business coach has …
A new skill
Last year I bought Adobe InDesign and a book on how to use it (InDesign CS4: Classroom in a book). My plan was to learn the basics so that I could make small changes to a designed document, without having to go back to a designer. In reality, over the past year, only one client has asked me to undertake the design …
More resources
This week I picked up yet another book – The copyeditor’s handbook: A guide to book publishing and corporate communications. So far I’ve only read the preface and a few pages of the first chapter (What copyeditors do), and I’ve already found some useful ideas for the copyediting checklist I’ve been working on. I also found out how to access …
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