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Category Archives: Editorial Excellence
#CIEP2020: a conference of community, support and shared interest
The pandemic that traversed the globe in 2020 prompted the annual CIEP conference to go online for the first time. The Institute's AGM took place in September, with 134 members in attendance, and 218 voting on the resolutions either before or during the AGM. The conference was moved to 2–4 November to allow more preparation time. It attracted 380 attendees, some attending the online sessions as they happened on 2, 3 and 4 November and others watching the recordings released the following week.
Gráinne Treanor reflects on the conference and how digital was different.
Delegates at the 2019 SfEP conference.
A hashtag is such a little thing. Yet #CIEP2020 was like a beacon, which my online Oxford Dictionary defines as 'a fire or light set up in a high or prominent position as a warning, signal, or celebration'.
Before March 2020, many of us were already accustomed to working alone. Lockdown added weight to the isolation, however. This year, no matter how much we wanted to meet others in our field, there could be no conference.
Having been to the 'real thing', I didn't expect I would enjoy an online conference. Yet from the opening address by CIEP chair Hugh Jackson to his closing remarks, the conference was as informative, educational and enjoyable as I imagine it might have been 'in real life'.
The session on mastermind groups reminded me why being part of such a group enriches members as professionals and friends, providing a sense of collegiality despite separation.
The business sessions scared me, as usual, because they reminded me of the part of my job I feel least competent about. But Louise Harnby and Erin Brenner chipped away at my fear, offering encouraging insights into things that can make a difference to how we promote our work.
The sessions on macros, style sheets, PerfectIt and Excel provided me with tips on how to work more efficiently. I used to think I was organised, but I'm not so sure after Maya Berger's session on using Excel to log business records. Fraser Dallachy's exploration of the Historical Thesaurus of English had me so mesmerised I almost forgot to collect a child from school, and Sarah Grey's treatment of inclusive language both moved and empowered me. As for Susie Dent and Denise Cowle? I know I'm not the only one who was impressed by Denise's skill, and the interview was a perfect mix of information, fun, insight and wisdom. My Masters swimming group has a new word in its lexicon: curglaff.
I am an introvert and lockdown suited me at first. But eventually, even I felt lonely. I began to question this way of working, and I struggled with separating work from other parts of my life. My desk beckoned, and let's face it, what else would I be doing? (I could have done with Marieke Krijnen's session on editing in the era of COVID-19 a few months ago!)
Thankfully, a renewed personal commitment to my accountability group and participation in CIEP Cloud forums restored some balance. But it was #CIEP2020 that buoyed me right up. True, digital was different. There were no hugs, leisurely chats around coffee tables or explorations of new places. But despite what we lost, we gained much. There were no travel costs, families who missed us or stressful dashes to train stations and airports. #CIEP2020 was more accessible. We didn't have to choose between excellent sessions or be disappointed that the ones we really, really wanted to attend were full. We could get on with our lives between sessions and sometimes during sessions. There were even times when I cooked dinner while paying attention to presenters. Delegates met people who might not have attended 'in real life' and I think many saw possibilities for online conferences, mini-conferences or workshops to complement a 'real' conference in the future, perhaps at different stages in the year.
Most important for me, however, was the sense of community, support and shared interest I took for granted at 'real' conferences but didn't expect to find online. Now I can't help but imagine a little hashtag dotted around the globe, signalling the presence of what Hugh described in his closing words as 'the humanness and empathy' that mark us out as members of a community with a common purpose, through which we influence what gets published and disseminated and what gets left behind. Thank you, #CIEP2020. May you shine on.
Gráinne Treanor (@EditorGrainneT) is an Advanced Professional Member of CIEP. She lives in the west of Ireland and edits books, papers and other resources, mainly in the humanities. Her special interests are education (theory, practice, philosophy, teaching, textbooks, literacy, special educational needs including autism), child development, society and religion.
This entry was posted in #CIEP2020, Editorial Excellence, Professional development and tagged #CIEP2020, CIEP conference 2020, conference, professional development on 11 December 2020 by Abi Saffrey.
Commissioning, editing and proofreading figures
By Liz Jones
'A picture is worth a thousand words.' We've probably all heard this said, and perhaps we've even said it ourselves. But – as so often in life – the truth is not as clear-cut as that. In the materials we edit, it's not always a case of either-or, words versus pictures. Often text and images work together to convey complex information. But the figures that support a text (or that a text supports) can only function at their best if they are commissioned carefully to work as part of a complete editorial package, and if any text associated with them is written, edited and proofread just as carefully as the main or body text.
What is a figure?
In CIEP courses in the core skills of proofreading and copyediting, a figure is defined as 'any piece of artwork (line-drawing, photo, graph, etc), together with its caption'. Figures appear in all genres of book, from children's picture books and stories to textbooks, workbooks, technical manuals, and all kinds of non-fiction books – from practical to aspirational to academic. Aside from books, we encounter them in all sorts of written communications, from newsletters and press releases to websites, reports, white papers, advertisements … In short, where don't we find them?
But editors are word people, you might be thinking. Aren't images beyond their remit? Well, no. Considering the images that work alongside the text – and are often indivisible from its key message – is a crucial part of most copyediting or proofreading work.
Aside from the image itself, a figure will usually have a title or caption, which the CIEP defines as 'the explanatory words that appear below (or above or beside) an illustration or figure'. There may also be annotations (very short labels) explaining specific parts of the figure, either placed in the relevant position or connected with leader lines.
If the figure is a graph or chart, the axes or sectors will also be labelled with text.
Purpose and function of figures
Figures might be used in text for various reasons:
They give the reader information that cannot be easily or effectively expressed using text alone.
They can be used to amplify or clarify the message of a passage of text.
They work as visual devices that break up large amounts of text and make it more readable.
If the document is about a visual subject, the figures might be more important than the text, even if both are necessary.
How to write a good brief
Sometimes editors are responsible for writing the briefs for figures, whether they are illustrations, photos or graphs. This is especially likely if the editor is project managing or development editing.
The person producing the image, or the picture researcher, will need as much information as you can provide on the following:
What information the image needs to convey – this might include a sketch, or it might be a list of points to cover
Size of the intended image
What colours to use
Guidance on the preferred style
Any cultural considerations, such as images that are not suitable for a particular audience
Visual reference materials, if available and helpful
The budget – most images are not free!
Reproducing or redrawing figures
If figures are reproduced from another source, or even if they are redrawn based on another source, then the copyright holder of the original image will need to give you permission to use that figure. They might charge a fee for this, or they might simply stipulate how they should be credited. Some credit lines must appear alongside the figure; others can be placed at the end of the document.
Make sure you allow time in the schedule for clearing image permissions.
Writing and editing figure text
Captions should ideally be written in such a way that that they could stand alone and provide useful information about the figure, even if the reader reads none of the other text. Of course, we probably tend to hope that the reader reads every word we write from beginning to end. But in the real world, we have to accept that this doesn't always happen. People have short attention spans, and they skip about when they read. Captions should also not simply repeat body text word for word, but add to it, and give the reader specific information on the visuals. For a document to feel authoritative and valuable, it's crucial to write captions that work hard.
Everyone's life is made much easier if text that appears as part of the figure is editable, though this is not always possible. If it's not editable by someone with easy access to the files, make sure to get it proofread early, to allow changes to be made by the illustrator, for example. Bear in mind that the more words appear as intrinsic elements in images, the more of a problem this will be for any editions of the publication in other languages.
When an editor is assessing the scope of their work, they should make sure they include the figures in their fee calculations – both checking their content from an editorial point of view and editing any associated text, which can add considerably to the overall word count and the time needed for the job.
Checklist of common problems
Finally, for anyone tasked with proofreading figures, here are some common problems that crop up time and time again:
Figure numbering – out of sequence, missing numbers, inconsistency
Annotations pointing to the wrong part of an image
Inconsistent capitalisation of captions or annotations
Inconsistent punctuation of captions or annotations – especially terminal full stops
Captions repeated, or applied to the wrong image(s)
Captions that seem to contradict the image (for example referring to a colour that looks different in the picture)
Figure is flipped, so text is back to front.
The most important message in all of this is that figures appearing as part of a document should be considered at every stage of the editorial process. They should not be dismissed as being mere design elements, or someone else's responsibility. When authors and editors ensure that figures and text work together effectively, they are a powerful tool for communication.
Liz Jones has been an editor since 1998, and has worked on thousands of projects, involving millions of words and a whole host of other variables. She specialises in highly illustrated non-fiction for a range of clients, and also works as a commissioning editor on the CIEP information team.
Photo credits: flowers by Edward Howell; chart by Isaac Smith, both on Unsplash.
This entry was posted in Editorial Excellence, Professional development, Working practices and tagged caption, chart, commissioning, copyediting, editing, Editorial Excellence, figure, illustrations, picture, proofreading on 2 December 2020 by Abi Saffrey.
'So, there's such a thing as Canadian English, eh?'
By Janet MacMillan
It's a question that many a Canadian has heard many a time.
Yes, dear reader, there is such a thing. And it's complicated, a bit like this large, at times unwieldy nation of nations that I call my home and native land. And like our nation, it carries the influences of our various forebears, starting with the peoples of the various First Nations within the borders of our nation, the Métis, the Inuit, the Québécois (we are officially a bilingual nation), the Irish, Scots and English (of the UK), and the United Empire Loyalists who brought their English after the American Revolution.
A complexity of languages and influences
Added to the amalgam of influences of our more distant forebears, both Indigenous and settler (or 'late-comers' as some Métis and Indigenous Peoples prefer), are those of more recent immigrants, many of whom speak other Englishes (for example, Indian English, South African English and Australian English), and others who are speakers of other languages – almost every language under the sun. In 2016, just over 22% of the population reported 'an immigrant mother tongue'.
At least 70 Indigenous languages are spoken in Canada; the First Nations have their own languages; there is more than one Michif (Métis) language; and there are numerous Inuit languages and dialects. Add to that French (21.4% of Canadians) and English (58.1%), and the immigrant languages, and Canada has a complexity of languages and the influences of each one on our English.
Buffalo jumps and bunny hugs
Many of our loan words – for example, chinook, inukshuk, muskeg, saskatoon, moose – come from Indigenous cultures and are shared with American English since the border isn't a consideration in the Indigenous world, or the natural world for that matter.
Indigenous languages gave us many of our place names: Toronto (Anglicised from the Mohawk language to 'tkaronto'), Mississauga, Nunavut ('our land' in Inukitut), and even our country's name (Kanata). And there's the wonderfully named Okotoks, which comes from the Blackfoot word 'otatok', meaning 'rock'.
Some words that originated in Canada have become internationally used. Some are aspects of Indigenous cultures (buffalo jump, pemmican), or our history (Red River cart), or our inventions (poutine, pacemaker, insulin), or our flora and fauna (purple prairie clover, Canada goose, Canada lynx), all of which are used internationally to mean the same thing as Canadians mean.
Other words are truly Canadianisms, words used elsewhere but that have very different meanings here. Imagine being a tourist looking for a room and seeing a sign for 'Bachelors for rent'! What an odd country that rents out its bachelors. As desirable as some might think that to be, it's not likely to happen! A 'bachelor' is a one-room flat or apartment, a 'studio' in at least a couple of other Englishes.
Do you know what an eavestrough is? It's what an American or a Brit would call a gutter, that thing that collects rainwater at the edge of a roof. That's only one of the many differences between Canadian English and US English and Canadian English and British English. On the other hand, our English has close ties to both of those Englishes; in fact, we're a muddle of both, plus the many multicultural influences, which is a real Canadian virtue, if a constant challenge for editors editing Canadian English.
And for confusion, as well as overlap, let's look at the word 'rubber'. If I'd written this blog using a pencil and paper, I'd have used a rubber to erase my many changes. If a gentleman asks where to put his rubbers, don't recoil, he only means his overshoes, ones that don't extend much beyond the sole of his shoes. Yet someone from Newfoundland or the Maritimes might well be referring to their long waterproof boots. But in American parlance, a rubber is also a condom. Now you know!
What I and many other Canadians wear on our heads in the winter is a toque, what some other Englishes call a beanie or a bobble hat. But get this, we don't necessarily agree on how to spell it! It's a loan word too, from the French-Canadian tuque. And to confuse matters further, the tall white hat that chefs wear on their heads is called a toque too; it comes from an Italian word for a silk-like fabric.
We have loonies and toonies, and, no, the first is not a slur. If I have two loonies and a toonie, I have four dollars. (You do the math.) How did they get those names? The one-dollar coin has a loon on it; so two dollars are two loon(ie)s or a toonie. Makes sense to me.
And as to regional variations, how long have you got? Probably longer than my word count permits. As just one example, for a long time I thought Canadians from the prairies and Alberta particularly loved bunnies and gave them lots of hugs. What kind people, giving all those bunny hugs. Only in more recent years have I realised that what someone from Calgary or Saskatoon calls a bunny hug, I call a hoodie. (Some folks might also call it a kangaroo jacket. Yes, we are an animal-loving nation.)
On the far eastern side of the country, Newfoundlanders, whose English has a deep connection to an Irish and English heritage, will ask you 'Whadda y'at?', meaning what are you up to or how are you doing – a question heard frequently since the start of the pandemic.
Canadian English, like other Englishes, has mutated over time. When I was growing up in Toronto (mumble-mumble years ago), we had a chesterfield in our living room. Today, many, including me, and my mother too, call it a sofa, and others call it a couch. We all mean the same thing, and we know what we mean.
Editing Canadian English
The Canadian dictionary used by most editors is the Canadian Oxford Dictionary (2nd edn, 2004), though as the publication date shows, it's not up to the minute. There are also the Collins Gage Canadian Dictionary (2009) and the Nelson Gage Canadian Paperback Dictionary (2013), which are perhaps lesser used. For style guides, those editing Canadian English refer to Editing Canadian English (3rd edn, 2015), TERMIUM Plus, the federal government's terminology and linguistic data bank, and the Language Portal of Canada, Elements of Indigenous Style, plus a few other resources.
Generally speaking, our preferred spellings are a mix of UK English and US English. While we tend to prefer the -ize spellings (eg organization), we also like our 'u's (eg honour, colour), although that wasn't always the case, and we differentiate between 'defence' and 'defense' and 'licence' and 'license', etc. Our choice of punctuation tends to follow that used in the United States: double quote marks for a quotation, single for quotes within a quote, and most punctuation before the end quote mark, for example.
Confusing, eh? Yes, but that's what makes our language uniquely Canadian, like that interrogative 'eh?' used from sea to sea to sea.
With grateful thanks and credit to Jennifer Glossop (editor extraordinaire, born in England, grew up in the US, and a Canadian for many decades) and Dr Suzanne Steele (Métis, with roots that go back to the first families, French and Anishinaabe), and with a tip of the hat to Katherine Barber, Canada's Word Lady and favourite lexiographer.
Janet MacMillan is a CIEP Advanced Professional Member specialising in law, international development, politics, social sciences, and education, who, with her Editing Globally colleagues, edits in various Englishes. Following a successful international career as a lawyer, Janet's main base is Toronto, with regular spells in Suffolk.
Janet coordinates the CIEP Cloud Club West, helps coordinate the Toronto CIEP group, and attends the Norfolk CIEP group when she can. She happily works in four Englishes and talks regularly in three of them, sometimes all in the same sentence.
Photo credits: maple leaf by Guillaume Jaillet; toque/beanie by Dylan Ferreira, both on Unsplash.
This entry was posted in Editorial Excellence, Language and tagged Canadian English, Editorial Excellence, English, Englishes, language, language variation on 8 October 2020 by Abi Saffrey.
Pocketbook intrigue: a lockdown look at English
By Melanie James
One of the trends of the COVID-19 lockdown has been an increase in online shopping, not only for groceries to avoid long queues and to self-protect (if one could secure a slot), but also to while away those sleepless hours which, too, have become a symptom of the pandemic experience.
During one particular online browse I was offered a free trial of Audible, the audio-bookseller. Since the arrival of podcasts (which enable me to multi-task), I've found my 'books to be read' piling up. Perhaps listening to a book might mean I actually finish it! I promptly downloaded my choice: Wuthering Heights. I'd always meant to read it (love the song/seen several film versions/thought I knew the plot). Fast forward and I'm obsessed with it. Joanne Froggatt's eclectic range of accents to differentiate the dialects and characters is wildly entertaining. Her rendition of the servant Joseph's broad Yorkshire brogue is just brilliant, although it did require particular concentration if I were to remotely comprehend what he'd said and follow the narrative. It could have been another language.
But it was when I heard that Joseph 'brought out his pocketbook' that I was really puzzled. 'Pocketbook'? That's an American term, surely, not one we Brits have ever used. I consulted my trusty OED. There it was:
'A pocket-sized folding case for holding banknotes, papers, etc.; a wallet. Now chiefly U.S.'
'Now chiefly U.S.' Clearly then, along with those old chestnuts: 'sidewalk'; 'gotten'; 'Fall' and -ize spellings, 'pocketbook' used to be part of what we now term 'British English'.
And so began my deep dive into the study of English, a language which has become and will doubtless continue to be such a medley of variations on a theme – rather a family or a web of languages – that I wondered whether a more appropriate label might not be coined to better express its global texture and fluid nature. But of course, we already have at least two candidates: World English and Globlish.
Which English?
English is my first language. It is also the lingua franca of 60–70 countries, spoken by an estimated 2.3 billion people (2018), either as their first language or as their second or third language. As an editor, I strive to enforce consistency in terminology and spelling in any given manuscript, ensuring the author's preference for either British English or American English throughout the text. But why do so many of us only adhere to those two varieties? Why not Scottish English or Irish English, Australian English or Canadian English? Why not Singaporean English? Who decided the standard? And when?
According to David Crystal, the linguistics guru, a language becomes a global one because of the power of those who speak it. Once Britain had established itself as an empire, English was adopted by those who aspired to be part of the elite groups associated with it. It may be surprising to read that access to learning English was expressly reserved for the colonial elite and was not imposed on Indigenous peoples. Limiting access to it was a way to exercise control over them. With Indigenous languages and local dialects being actively encouraged, this also had the effect of firmly segregating those peoples. And so English became the 'gold standard'. Those who achieved a good command of it could strive for better jobs and enter the world of commerce, the arts, politics and science. Had the British followed a policy of linguistic imperialism, English might even have been resisted.
Standardisation and domination
It was not until 1755 with Samuel Johnson's authoritative dictionary that rules and standards were applied to English, although word lists had been compiled before. Sixteenth-century English was not as prescribed as it is today, and we find different spelling variations of the same words in Shakespeare's works, for example, as evidence of that, such as 'learnt'/'learned'; 'inke'/'ink'; 'hypocrisie'/'hypocrisy'. Today we (still) talk of the 'Queen's English'. What we mean by that lofty standard is that those who speak and write that variant may be judged differently from those who do not. Even now, those who learn English around the globe are encouraged to acquire the haughty tones which might classify them as, perhaps, 'better' English speakers.
There is more than an element of kudos attached to speaking and writing English; it offers access to worldwide opportunities. We know that academics simply must publish in English if they are to reach the widest possible audience, whatever their specialised subject. English is the language used at international conferences, the working language of many global organisations, and of the travel industry. I worked in France, Belgium and Germany for over 20 years and was fortunate enough to work with some iconic brands. The working language of all of them was English – British English.
American English has, however, become the dominant standard since the American rise to superpower status after the Second World War. British and American English had been diverging since the two nations first separated and likely as soon as the first British settlers found animals and vegetation they'd not encountered before which they needed to classify. Perhaps divergence did not seem important then, given the geographical divide.
Adoption and adaptation
When a country adopts English, it immediately adapts it, claims Crystal. It will use standard English for global purposes but it will reshape it and fashion it, manipulate it every which way in order to better express its own particular needs. The adapted version will encapsulate the local cultural identity and be a means of expressing solidarity, even to the point where it may even become unintelligible to other English speakers – which perhaps is the aim.
Webster's 1783 American English dictionary sought to give every letter in a syllable its due proportion of sound which means that today we see 'traveler' and 'honor' in American English but 'traveller' and 'honour' in British English. Small matter perhaps because such minor adjustments are still understood. But evidently, over time, the English language has been used as a framework to create other versions specific to particular groups and communities. Such variants became languages in their own right, unique and particular to those who created them based on their own narratives. Take, for example, 'Singlish'. The fusion of English and Singaporean is so highly stylised, it cannot be understood by most English speakers. Language expresses identity, solidarity, inclusion … exclusion. Enslaved African Americans developed their own dialect from the English they learned in order to conceal their intended meaning from their enslavers. Such a tactic created a new language community by manipulation of a forced second language.
Take, too, the various dialects that are drawn from multiple ethnic groups today, typically spoken by young people, often dismissed, even stigmatised, such as 'Jafaican' (fake Jamaican). What about the secret languages which emerge as a way to show belonging in a marginalised subculture such as the gay community? Not so long ago, its very existence was deemed so immoral its members were forced to develop a secret code to talk to each other as a form of self-protection. Urban Dictionary, the online slang repository, may be denigrated by purists for its low-brow content but it has 65 million visitors each month. Such variants, anti-languages, used by subcultures often on the very edge of society, can become 'cool' and trickle into mainstream usage, even being adopted by those who originally deemed them to be socially unacceptable. Urban's motto, 'Define Your World', is most illuminating, encapsulating the very essence of language.
The American melting pot into which Indian, Yiddish, German, Chinese, African, Italian, Caribbean, South American, Spanish and myriad other languages were poured, stirred and simmered over time has produced a version of English which caters to the needs of all those peoples. It is undoubtedly a compromise, but it does the job. Today we see the Yiddish 'klutz' (clumsy) and 'schmuck' (fool) in British English, both having been incorporated into American English during the great migrations of the last two centuries. American English certainly influences British English. But there are many differences, too. The American 'cookie' for example, from the Dutch 'koekje' is vastly different from the British 'biscuit' which is the same baked treat nevertheless. In American English, 'biscuit' translates to 'muffin' and is served at breakfast but which I would tuck into it at afternoon tea! The potential for misunderstanding
is rife.
Some transformations, however, can be easily identified. 'Santa Claus' derives from the Dutch, 'Sinterklaas'. In that derivation we not only see the word morph but also the 'sint' (no a) himself. Traditionally he's a Dutch/Flemish religious character, in crimson robes with a staff, who bestows gifts on children on 6 December. Santa Claus today is a corpulent, bearded, jolly fellow, in a fur-trimmed bright-red jumpsuit who rides the skies bearing gifts for all on 25 December/Christmas Day. In Britain he is known as Father Christmas but the American English version of 'Santa' is becoming more and more popular as American English continues to influence and permeate its British forebear.
Borrowing, accommodating and evolving
As I moved around Europe with my family, we mastered the different languages as best we could but also borrowed from them so that now we often find ourselves mixing them all to arrive at the best sense of what we might mean. I still use German words of command for my dogs even though one of them didn't even live with us in Germany and came from Greece. And I admit to cursing using a particular French term. Such mixing and borrowing, or code switching and code mixing, is common behaviour. Language transfer can be just the ticket if you can't remember or don't know a word in a particular language, or if you know that your interlocutor knows the foreign language word which expresses a concept better than the language you are using. Our daughter coined the term, 'I blaguise' by which she means 'I'm joking'. There is no verb 'blaguiser' in French. The verb is 'blaguer' – 'to joke' – or must be constructed using 'faire' (to make) to arrive at 'faire une blague' or a different word altogether, 'plaisanter'. She also concocted 'cahootian', meaning one with whom she is in cahoots! Both terms are part of our family-speak now.
I've always marvelled at how other nationalities could speak English so well. As an expat I did my best to learn my host country's language but I could never equal my colleagues' linguistic abilities; those who flitted from their first language to English so effortlessly. Indeed, for many of them it seemed as if English was their second first language! Nevertheless, it was common to articulate more clearly in their company and to speak more slowly, avoiding jargon and word plays. Brutt-Griffler claims that such changed behaviour should not be seen as 'talking down' but rather as a way to accommodate. She asserts that the price a world language must be prepared to pay is that it will be transformed and adapted. It will inevitably become a hybrid and purists will simply have to hold back.
English may be the world's lingua franca now. It may not always be. In the meantime, it will continue to evolve, be shaped and moulded to suit the purposes of its many users. Whatever has been, English, or World English or Globlish will have to be more flexible than ever and take account of genders, race, new and emerging cultures and lifestyles if it is to continue to dominate. If American English persists, perhaps, too, we might see 'pocketbook' in use in British English again.
Brutt-Griffler, J (2002). World English: A Study of its Development. Australia: Footprint Books.
Crystal, D (2003). English as a Global Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Crystal, D (2012). English Worldwide. In R Hogg (ed.), A History of the English Language, 2nd edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 420–39. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511791154.010.
Crystal, D (nd). davidcrystal.com
Luu, C (2018). The Unspeakable Linguistics of Camp. Lingua Obscura. https://daily.jstor.org/unspeakable-linguistics-camp/
McArthur, T (2009). World English and world Englishes: Trends, tensions, varieties, and standards. Language Teaching, 34/1: 1–20, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444800016062
Ro, C (2019). How Linguists are using Urban Dictionary. Daily JSTOR. https://daily.jstor.org/how-linguists-are-using-urban-dictionary/
Melanie James, from Take it as read, writes for businesses but also edits anything to do with history, particularly WW1. Having lived in Europe for over 20 years, she likes to think she speaks French, German and a smattering of Dutch. She also knows one word of Lëtzebuergesch ('moien'). Melanie's husband works in Luxembourg so she visits when she can. Having just returned from the Grand Duchy, she is now in quarantine!
This post originally appeared on Melanie's own blog in July 2020: From pandemic browsing to pocket-book intrigue
Photo credits: Haworth moor by Rachel Penney; Father Christmas/Santa Claus by Alicia Slough, both on Unsplash. Dictionary by PublicDomainPictures on Pixabay.
This entry was posted in Editorial Excellence, Language and tagged Editorial Excellence, English, Englishes, global English, Globlish, language variation on 7 October 2020 by Abi Saffrey.
Grab your thongs and the esky, we're off to the (Australian English) beach!
By Tim Curnow
Following on from Lynne Murphy's recent focus paper about global Englishes, the CIEP information team asked if I'd write a piece about my native variety, Australian English. Of course, Australian English is spoken by around 25 million people over a huge area, and there are some small regional differences, but much less than with UK English. Most of the differences are simply a handful of different words, and it's generally impossible for one Australian to tell which part of Australia another speaker is from just from their accent, though there are potentially one or two subtle signals: for example, if someone talks about Malbourne [æ] rather than Melbourne [e], they're likely to be from Victoria; but many Victorians say Melbourne in any case. Leaving aside pronunciation, though, what is written Australian English like, and what sources would an editor use to copyedit it?
UK- or US-focused?
The conventions of Australian English tend to be UK-based rather than US-based, although this is perhaps gradually changing. So spellings such as centre, theatre and defence are usual, and you would normally find traveller rather than traveler. Equally, in cases where there is no single UK English convention, the same is true of Australian English: for example, the verb suffix is more likely to be -ise (and this is required by the Australian Government's Style Manual and is given first in the Macquarie Dictionary), but -ize is also common.
There are some peculiarities. One of the most notable relates to -our versus -or. The standard convention in Australian English follows UK English, with -our, although one of the major newspapers, The Age, used -or until the 1990s (when, I suspect, stories began to be more commonly written for several newspapers with the same owner, requiring consistency across different newspapers). However, for historical reasons that no one is entirely certain of, one of the two largest political parties in Australia is the Australian Labor Party, with no u. (The other large party is called the Liberal Party of Australia, although it is the equivalent of the UK Conservative Party; this leads to Australians talking about small-l liberal values when they need to make it clear they don't mean conservative ones.)
Then there's program(me). Leaving aside computer programs, and simplifying the story, the spelling program became usual in government documents by the 1980s. Following that, the word became a political football, with a more conservative prime minister insisting on the government having programmes, then with a change of government there were programs again, then programmes, and now things seem to have settled back with programs. This means that if you want to find out, for example, about the Australian Government Reef Programme, you need to consult the website of the National Landcare Program. For a while there, you could tell someone's political leanings on the basis of their spelling …
Australian words
Apart from pronunciation, the most obvious differences between UK and Australian English relate to vocabulary items. Of course, there are the names of animals and plants found only in Australia, but authors and editors are much more likely to trip up on concepts which are shared but where there are different words to refer to them, particularly when the same words are used with different meanings in the two varieties: the fact that an Australian can be entirely respectable when dressed in nothing but a T-shirt, pants and thongs sometimes amuses the British, for example, although why being dressed in a T-shirt, trousers and flip-flops should be amusing, I don't know.
One minefield for authors and editors relates to words used in reference to the Indigenous peoples of Australia: as you might expect, there have been changes over time and it is a vexed issue. Probably the earliest modern position was that represented by the 1988 version of the Australian Government's Style Manual, which recommended Aboriginal as the adjective but Aborigine(s) for the noun to refer to Indigenous Australians; but some people preferred Aboriginal(s) as the noun, on the basis that this was simply saying something about the person in question, rather than categorising them. This debate continues, and it is often avoided in practice by ensuring that the word always modifies some other noun. However, there are also entirely separate groups of Indigenous Melanesian people on Australian territory, the various Torres Strait Islander peoples, who historically were often mistakenly referred to using the term Aborigines. By the time of the development of the (now disbanded) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission in 1990, it had become common to explicitly link the two sets of groups, especially in more official contexts; and health or census forms commonly ask 'Are you of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin?' The term Indigenous Australians is relatively neutral, but some Indigenous people consider that this is an external, bureaucratic, imposed label, and prefer to refer to themselves as First Australians or First Nations Australians; many will often also use the term Black, although because of its history, that can be considered offensive if used by non-Indigenous people to refer to Indigenous Australians.
In fact, before the European settlement of Australia, there were over 250 groups of Aboriginal peoples, and there are 14 inhabited islands in the Torres Strait, so the search for a general term is often a little like trying to decide whether Asians would be the appropriate term to use when introducing a woman from Indonesia together with a man from Israel. Modern usage is generally to follow the preference of any individual, and otherwise to use the most specific possible term: a Pitjantjatjara man, one of the Kaurna people. To complicate matters, there are also approximately state-based terms used by many Indigenous people themselves (and by others), such as Koori for an Aboriginal Australian from Victoria or New South Wales, or Murri for an Aboriginal Australian from Queensland or northwestern New South Wales. (See the Style Guide for a more in-depth discussion.)
More subtle differences
While complex, all of the issues above are relatively easy to notice, if sometimes hard to resolve. Trickier for an editor are the more subtle differences between Australian English and UK English.
Some of these differences stem from geography and social history. I'm still always startled when in the UK I'm told someone is Asian, and then they invariably turn out not to be from China, Thailand or Vietnam, the default meaning of Asia in Australian English (like in US English); and while Australia has one of the most urbanised populations in the world, there is a strong cultural attachment to the bush and the outback, words that tend not to be used in the way non-Australians think.
The outback, not the bush. The view from Chambers Pillar, a sandstone formation near (ie 100 miles away from) Alice Springs.
Australians also think of distances in a different way from Britons, and the realities of travel in an often highly mobile population add to this. Not everyone in Australia has my experience while growing up of alternate holidays consisting of driving north for 10 hours to visit my paternal grandparents or west for 13 hours to visit my maternal grandparents, but it's not considered particularly unusual (and in each case, isn't even a third of the way across the country). So Australians are entertained by my anecdote about queuing behind a woman at Sainsbury's who was justifying buying two packets of lollies (well, she was English not Australian, so she said sweets) because she had to keep the children happy during a 'long' drive the next day; it turned out she was going slightly less than two hours away.
Then there are those subtle differences that are inexplicable, and sometimes almost unexplainable. In both Australian and UK English, collective nouns such as committee and government can come with singular or plural verb agreement; but as an Australian, I often hear the singular used in UK English where I would be expecting the plural. And plural nouns are more commonly used in the UK pre-modifying other nouns: you wouldn't expect a charity to be called the Cats Protection League in Australia; instead, you have the Cat Protection Society of NSW.
Style guides and dictionaries
Just like in the UK, there is no overall authority on what formal Australian English writing should look like. The most widely known style guide is the Style Manual, originally published in 1966, which has gone through a number of editions, with changing recommendations. The manual is only intended for publications written by public servants (civil servants) who work for what more recent editions refer to as the Australian Government, but earlier ones refer to as the Commonwealth Government; the manual is not even used (explicitly) by the governments of the different states and territories. The online beta version of the 7th edition is currently getting quite a lot of publicity (including on the CIEP forum!), with one of most controversial suggestions being that one should 'generally write numerals for 2 and above'. This reflects the fact that this recent edition takes an explicit 'digital-first approach', with many of the suggestions based on readability guidelines that were developed specifically for web-based content.
As an alternative, there is also the Cambridge Guide to Australian English Usage (previously the Cambridge Australian English Style Guide), written by Pam Peters. However, this is very much more like Fowler's, with an alphabetical listing of points you may wish to be aware of, and which might be debatable, rather than a style to follow.
Through much of the 20th century, there were 'Australianised' editions of major UK dictionaries, particularly the smaller versions, and these still exist (eg the 6th edition of the Australian School Oxford Dictionary appeared in 2016). However, in 1981 the first edition of the Macquarie Dictionary appeared, the name relating to the fact that the editorial committee for the original edition consisted largely of staff from Macquarie University. This dictionary, now in its 7th edition and with various different versions (eg the Macquarie Concise Dictionary, the Macquarie Dictionary Online), is now generally accepted as 'the' dictionary of Australian English. The larger versions contain encyclopaedic entries, including the names of many famous people and places relating to Australia.
There is also the Australian National Dictionary, originally published in 1998, part of the Oxford University Press line-up of Australian dictionaries. However, it is not a generalist dictionary, but rather one that focuses more specifically on Australianisms, with words either used only in Australia or with particular Australian-related meanings.
Antipodean English?
People sometimes talk of Australasian English or Antipodean English, and there are similarities between Australian English and New Zealand English. Both are UK-focused in stylistic terms – NZ English probably more so than Australian English – and there are some words used in the two varieties and not in other Englishes. But each has its own peculiarities: possibly most famously, Australians wonder why New Zealanders call an esky a chilly bin, and NZers wonder why Australians call a chilly bin an esky, while the rest of the world wonders what on earth we're on about (a cooler or cool box). There are also differences relating to the historical presence of only a single Indigenous language, Māori, on the main islands of NZ/Aotearoa, and the declaring of this language as a national language in 1987. But we'd need an editor from NZ to elaborate on this, whether they were Māori, Pasifika (with ancestors from other Pacific islands), Pākehā (of European descent) or other – anyone out there willing to take it on?
Tim Curnow grew up in Canberra (apart from a year in Ecuador, a year in Colombia and a year backpacking around Europe), then worked as a linguist and applied linguist at universities in Canberra, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. Then he moved to Royal Leamington Spa in the middle of England and started TJC Editing so that he could copyedit other people's academic work instead of having to write his own.
This entry was posted in Editorial Excellence, Language and tagged Australian English, Editorial Excellence, English, Englishes, language variation on 6 October 2020 by Abi Saffrey.
Lekker editing in South African English
By Katherine Kirk
A favourite pastime of South Africans seems to be seeing how many dialects we can squeeze into a sentence. South Africa has 11 official languages, and at least ten distinct dialects of English, so when I was invited to write about 'South African English' I thought it might be a bit hectic. In the end, I had a jol, and I hope you will too on this lexical adventure.
Hopefully, I can save our colleagues from elsewhere a little time and trouble by giving you some basics. I hope this can be a kiff resource for future chinas who are helping to bring South African writing to wider audiences.
Spoken South African English is made up of several varieties: White South African English, Indian South African English (which closely resembles Indian English), Cape Flats English and Black South African English (BSAE). White South African English (WSAE) can further be divided into 'Cultivated' or 'Conservative' SAE, 'General' or 'Respectable' SAE and 'Broad' or 'Extreme' SAE. As you can imagine, there is a fair bit of not-so-lekker prejudice towards some of the Englishes; not all Englishes are considered equal. And this can be even more confusing for editors!
Black SAE
Indian SAE
Cape Flats SAE
Acrolect Mesolect Basilect Acrolect Mesolect Basilect
Spoken by individuals whose first language is an indigenous African language. Spoken by South Africans of Indian descent. Resembles Indian English. Originally associated with inner-city Cape Coloured speakers.*
White SAE
Cultivated/Conservative General/Respectable Broad/Extreme
Approximates England's standard RP and is associated with the upper class. Social indicator of middle class and is the common tongue. Associated with the working class, low socioeconomic status and little education. Approximates Afrikaans English.
*Note: The term 'Coloured' is currently treated as a neutral description in Southern Africa, classifying people of mixed race ancestry. Cape Coloureds are particularly from Cape Town, where their Malaysian roots have contributed to their distinct language and culture. The Coloured community in South Africa uses the term to refer to itself as a group.
In writing, it is a little simpler, thank goodness. Written SAE tends to fall somewhere between 'Cultivated' and 'General' WSAE depending on the purpose and register of the text, so that is what I'll be talking about for the rest of this blog post. It helps to be aware of the others, though, as they might crop up in dialogue in South African fiction, or in communication with South African clients.
How widely is South African English used?
South African English is used primarily within South Africa, but authors like Lauren Beukes and JM Coetzee are widely read abroad. However, there is a feeling among authors in South Africa that by writing in SAE they risk siff reviews from readers who are unfamiliar with its quirks. As a result, many South African fiction authors tend to write in US or UK English to appeal to a broader market and get those schweet five-star ratings. Poms tend to be more forgiving than yanks. South African fiction authors might then favour US English, although they learned in school to write with British spelling. This can lead to a mixture of the two in writing, as well as occasionally idiosyncratic usage of idioms.
Corporate, academic, governmental and other such non-fiction writers don't get tuned so much by reviewers, so they usually keep it simple and stick with a more British version of SAE.
Does it follow more a UK or a US style in terms of punctuation and spelling?
South African English mostly follows UK spelling and grammar, but mixes US and UK punctuation. We use double quotes with nested singles, open en-dashes, and -is- rather than
-iz-. We like keeping the u in words like colour and we pronounce the h in herbs.
South Africa uses a decimal comma rather than a decimal point, e.g. 4,5 not 4.5. Dates are written in day-month-year order. When in doubt, aim for consistency.
How is the vocabulary different from other Englishes?
This is perhaps the most fun part of SAE. With the influence of so many languages and cultures, we have a wide repertoire of slang. Slang is regional, cultural, class-divided and used interchangeably by many people of all groups. We have words from Afrikaans like lekker, some Zulu words like babelas (from ibabalazi) and, like the Aussies, we even have Cockney rhyming slang like china (plate = mate). We have words borrowed from Yiddish, Lebanese and Portuguese.
Some words have been co-opted into corporate-speak like indaba (a meeting or conference, from Zulu). Some words are thrown in for flavour just-for-just, like ag, eish and eina! And there are some temporal markers we use for deliberate obfuscation, and to get out of doing things we don't want to do, like now–now ('I'll proofread the footnotes now-now').
We refer to our money as bucks rather than krugerrands. We put our groceries in a trolley and then transfer them into packets at the till.
We call our mothers Mom and fathers Dad, although some folks use the British Mum and, just to confuse you, Pop.
There are some words we have to be careful not to use in books aimed at mainstream US or UK audiences, like:
hooter: the loud bit on a car
robot: the traffic light
boot: the back of the car
bra: also bru, used like bro to refer to our male buddies
slops: flip-flop sandals (we may giggle at thongs)
Pants are trousers. A jersey is a cardigan or jumper. Cooldrinks are fizzy.
If you are still having trouble distinguishing between broer and boerewors, or boetie and baboetie, you might want to look up some South African colloquialism lists, lest you accidentally eat your little brother.
Grammatical quirks
Must has a much lower impact in SAE and is used as a synonym for should or shall. You might also encounter constructions that have been influenced by German and Dutch, such as come with ('Are they coming with?').
Are there any pitfalls or sensitivities to be aware of?
It is important to be aware of the prejudices towards certain varieties of SAE, as I mentioned earlier. The social effects of history linger on, and we must pay extra attention to accurate, authentic and respectful representation in literature.
Editors must also be alert to common errors like aswell and isit, and the confusion of borrow and lend, which are fine in conversation but unacceptable in writing. If you can catch things like that, you'll be hundreds.
What are the main resources?
The OUP has published four editions of the Oxford South African Pocket Dictionary. It has a good introduction with more detail on the quirks of South Africanisms and includes South African slang terms and borrowed words.
For specifics regarding punctuation, spelling and grammar, I was able to find this government-issued style guide. I also tracked down this style guide from the University of Johannesburg, which may help academic editors. It is best to get a style guide from the university in question, if possible, since there may be differences between institutions.
The general rule of thumb is to follow UK spelling and grammar and aim for consistency – what a relief!
Mesthrie, R, (ed.) (2002). Language in South Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
De Klerk, V and Gough, D (2002). Black South African English. In Rajend Mesthrie (ed.), Language in South Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 356–78.
Katherine Kirk is a South African-born proofreader, copyeditor and developmental editor who married a Texan. They spend most of their time arguing over whether to call them pavements or sidewalks.
When she isn't torturing her spouse with incomprehensible regionalisms, Katherine hunts down commas and misused apostrophes in fiction. She especially likes applying her love of etymology to worldbuilding in science fiction. She currently lives halfway up a mountain in Ecuador, where the weather is always lekker.
When we posted Katherine's blog on Facebook, two distinguished editors, Jill Wolvaardt and Penny Silva, got in touch to tell us about the Dictionary of South African English, which, following extensive digital enhancements, has been released as a Mobile Edition designed for use on smartphones and tablets. First published in print as A Dictionary of South African English on Historical Principles (Oxford University Press, 1996), this unrivalled record of the development of the language variety over three centuries is available with free access at https://dsae.co.za.
Photo credits: Flag by Barend Lotter, on Pixabay; South African Time by Katherine Kirk (Gecko Edit).
This entry was posted in Editorial Excellence, Language and tagged Black South African English, Cape Flats English, Editorial Excellence, Englishes, Indian South African English, lekker, South Africa, South African English, White South African English on 29 September 2020 by Abi Saffrey.
Wise owls: dialects
There are many different Englishes – and there are Englishes within Englishes. The wise owls have turned their thoughts to their favourite features of dialects of England.
Louise Bolotin
I've been a sucker for a flat northern vowel ever since I watched Coronation Street as a kid (long ousted for EastEnders, whose mockney lacks the same appeal). I'm a southerner by birth so when I moved to Leeds in the 1980s I was thrilled to be called 'duck' by the Loiners and hear them rhyme bath with math(s). I have an unconscious tendency to mimic other people's accents, so it wasn't long before I started flattening my own vowels when in the company of northerners. I quickly added owt, nowt and summat to my verbal repertoire, and have been using them ever since because, well, they are just so much more succinct.
What I also love about northern dialects is the rich vocabulary – I've been in Manchester for more than 12 years now and I'm still learning the lingo. Words like bobbins (rubbish) and brew (a cup of tea) roll off my tongue as easily as fookin' hell (no one swears quite as awesomely northernly as Liam Gallagher), often shortened to 'kinell. However, I doubt my stepson would approve if I called him 'our kid'. My absolute favourite is 'out out', as in 'Are we going out, or out out?' This is Mancunian for deciding how dressed up you ought to be for a night on the tiles.
Obviously, I still get confused when Mancunians say dinner when they clearly mean lunch; I've had some awkward attempts to diarise meetings thanks to that. But when I turn up for lunch/dinner, I'm as likely to greet my companion with 'Yallright?' as I am to say hi. I've lived far longer in the north of England, or Oop North, as I call it, than I have anywhere else, so the accents and vocabulary have left a bigger imprint on my brain than those of all the other
cities and countries I've lived in. And that's not bobbins. Maybe one day I'll be taken to be proper Manc.
Hazel Bird
A variant of dialects that I find interesting is idiolects, which are
uses or coinages of words particular to individuals or small groups (such as friendship groups or families). They tend to grow organically out of day-to-day interactions, and unlike dialects they can be
cross-regional.
For example, I have just looked up the term 'hoon' in the Oxford English Dictionary and learned that it is an Aussie/Kiwi term for 'behav[ing] in a loutish or irresponsible way; spec. to drive fast or recklessly'. However, by way of a link with rally car culture, my family has come to use it to refer to ruminant animals' prancing across a landscape. Our definition is quite precise: sheep can hoon; cows, horses and such cannot.
We also use the word 'puggle' to refer to (1) the act of moving foodstuffs around a cooking pan to prevent them from adhering to the bottom or (2) fussing a cat. The OED has the meaning 'to poke out', which bears passing resemblance to (1) but not to (2). How we came to adopt these meanings is a mystery.
Another oddity is the spelling 'baout' (pronounced with extreme emphasis on each vowel) for 'boat'. A baout can be a water-worthy object of any description, with the word denoting a sense of longing. However, like many dialect and idiolect words, it has a shared significance that is hard to put into words.
I often encounter dialect and idiolect words in my creative non-fiction editing work. When
used well, their effect can be powerful, conveying intimacy, alienation or a little of both.
They can make the reader the author's closest confidante or deliberately shock them into
a new perspective.
Melanie Thompson
Nah then, mardy bum! There are often discussions in the CIEP forum about whether it's permissible to quote song lyrics, but in this case the famous line is part of my childhood vernacular, and if you tell me I can't write it, I'll get a reyt face on.
One of the biggest thrills of my life was to hear that line sung at full throttle by the passengers on the crammed tram conveying myself and my (then) teenage son to hear Arctic Monkeys play in their (and my) home town: Sheffield.
Unlike the next-most-famous city band (the Human League) who adopted the ubiquitous
1980s musicians' twang, Arctic Monkeys are proper tykes who know how to pronounce Beauchief (Beechiff) and will know that they need to pack their brollies if someone tells them
it's silin' it dahn.
Lots of people think they can 'do' a Yorkshire accent by splatterin' apostrophes awl o'er t'ro-ad but Sheffieldish doesn't work quite like that. Indeed, there are regional variations even within the city boundaries depending on whether the speaker hails from the northern or southern side – and it's nothing to do with whether they support the Owls or the Blades.*
TV and radio programmes often fail to do the Sheffield accent justice: not all shows can afford Sean Bean (sadly!). But to hear a bit of authentic Sheffield banter, try Tom Wrigglesworth
and 'family' on BBC Radio 4. Every time I hear Tom's fictitious dad answer the phone with 'Sheffield 973629' I am transported 150 miles north! (Why do my older northern relatives recite their number?)
I had the full force of my Sheffield accent elocutioned out of me, as a teenager, but my dad is an aficionado. This has been known to cause major confusion among his southern careworkers, but the fuss is usually somert and nowt, such as a mix-up between putting something o'r'ere or o'r theer.
To me, dialects are not just about words and pronunciation, but a way of life – some of which is sadly now dwindling.
Back in the day, my nannan used to gerron t'bus to go shoppin' dah'n't'cliff armed wi'a bag o'spice to share with the other passengers! She'd gerroff and buy some breadcakes, peys, a pound of tripe and a bottle of Hendo's, then reverse the journey to be home in time for dinner.**
As I set off out to play, my mum might have told me not to get my clo'e's loppy from scrawmin' around in't' gennel; and if a friend later called round for me, the response would be 'She in't-in'.
Dialects can be problematic in formal writing and speaking, but they are a matter of great local pride and shouldn't be regarded as a lesser form of English, in the right context. Nuff said?
Ah'll si'thi'!
* Sheffield Wednesday and Sheffield United football teams
** My grandmother would get on the bus to go shopping at Attercliffe, carrying a bag of sweets … to purchase bread, peas, tripe and the local delicacy Henderson's Relish [try it on pie!], and return in time for lunch.
Sue Littleford
It is my abiding regret that I wasn't born in my grandmothers' generation so far as dialect goes, to hear their grandmothers speak. Alas, I am a child of the Fifties, by which time dialect was fading rapidly, and almost gone from my little corner of Hyde, a Pennine foothills mill town eight miles east of Manchester. We were in that select group of people that says scoan, not sconn (much smaller geographically than I ever imagined), and we had ginnels (though not as generally defined – ours were always covered). A buffet (pronounce that T!) was a broad, low wooden stool, an exceedingly useful article, especially for a tiny kid as, if you turned it upside down, you could sit on the underside, surrounded by rather solid framework, and pretend it was a rowing boat. I'm delighted to find it in Oxford Dictionaries at definition 3 (sans boat) and the etymology appears to be Old French into Middle English 600 years ago.
Mum kept an odd bit of grammar going well into the present century. She'd say 'When I'm waken' for 'When I awoke'. And I distinctly recall a small schoolfriend (we must only have been six or seven) tell someone to 'Stop thy skrikin' ' – a term that wasn't used in my house, a couple of hundred yards away (not metres, back then), but was easy enough to figure out ('Cease that noisy crying, forthwith!') and if you couldn't, well, it's in Collins. Its etymology is harder to find, but it looks like being Old Norse for, not very excitingly, to scream or cry. We were just within the Danelaw, back in the day, so that sounds about right. Of course, the people around me didn't speak a dialect, just as we didn't have an accent – we just spoke how we spoke, but we knew it wasn't like those posh folk on the wireless or telly – unless it was for comic effect and Marriott Edgar was being recited (I gave this monologue at a school show, and that was accent, really, not dialect). I've been living away for too long now to retain any strong linguistic links to home, and though I do still rhyme grass with crass, and bath with math, I no longer rhyme book with souk. Thanks for a lovely nostalgia trip!
The wise owls pop up on the blog every couple of months to reflect on their experiences on various topics. All are Advanced Professional Members of the CIEP.
Posted by Abi Saffrey, CIEP blog coordinator (who is quite a fan of bishy barnabees).
This entry was posted in Editorial Excellence, Language, wise owls and tagged dialect, Editorial Excellence, England, English, language, wise owls on 23 September 2020 by Abi Saffrey.
Of Indian Englishes, eating heads and doing the needful
By Ayesha Chari
'I can't get it done on time if you eat my head from the morning!' Words I said aloud to my other half just before sitting down to write this. (Unusual, given that I'm the one who's generally doing the nagging.) I am glad no one asked me to prepone submission.
Indian Englishes are as diverse as the people who speak them, and the buildings those people inhabit.
Indian English, as is widely acknowledged, comes in as many colours and variations as people in the sub-continent. It is not the equivalent of Hinglish, not the sole domain of Bollywood, nor the caricatured 'incorrectness' painted eloquently in English language literature. It seeps effortlessly through urban, semi-urban and rural terrains in the spoken and the written, and is accepted as the glue binding the 22 constitutionally 'scheduled' Indian languages and hundreds of other language-dialects, recognised or otherwise. Not without contention, of course, perhaps highlighted most by the 'non-native English speaker' label forced on the nation's people by bureaucratic forms in all fields and worldwide.
Historically, introduced to the Indian elite via the East India Company, the formal teaching of the English language was established with Macaulay's Minute on Indian Education and the English Education Act of 1835. Taking a shape of its own in post-colonial South Asia, ironically English became the tape for a linguistically and culturally fragmented nation and its Indian diaspora. Among the earliest documented works on the characteristics of Indian English is linguist Braj Kachru's 1961/62 thesis, available from the University of Edinburgh Research Archive (Prof Kachru's The Indianization of English and The Alchemy of English are widely used as references in the field). The controversial 2019 Draft National Education Policy re-emphasises the three-language formula first introduced in 1968, leading to questions on the role of English as a link-language for bilingual citizens of a multilingual nation.
A basic internet search on Indian English will throw up scores of researched articles and resources (old, not-so-recent and more recent) on:
the history: British, but also Portuguese and Dutch influences;
extent of use: exponentially growing, as I write;
British in formally taught style, grammar, spelling and punctuation – a legacy of colonisation
increasingly American in business, spoken and other forms of quick communication – the unquestionable influence of TV, social media and globalisation of the sub-continent's 'service face'
respectfully Indian in colloquial usage written and spoken – expansively mixed in idiomatic usage and everyday writings;
vocabulary, phrases, expressions, idioms and pronunciation: all distinctly Indian, reflective of regional vernaculars, all as diverse as the nation itself.
It won't come as a surprise, then, if I say there are no standard resources, manuals, guides or websites to help editors edit.
For useful discussions on the myriad issues, pop in to the Facebook groups Indian Copyeditors Forum and the Editors' Association of Earth. To keep up with contemporary urban lingo, bookmark Samosapedia. Interesting, informative reads include Kalpana Mohan's An English Made in India (2019), Binoo K John's Entry from Backside Only (2013) and the multi-authored Chutnefying English (2011).
And then there is the kaleidoscope of Indian English literature: from the traditionally recognised writings of Salman Rushdie, Mulk Raj Anand, RK Narayan, Ruskin Bond, Anita Desai, Nirad C Chaudhuri and Vikram Seth to the engaging, controversial, academic, popular (yet, often, quieter, less talked-about) and/or award-winning literary works of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Kamala Markandaya, Arundhati Roy, Arvind Adiga, Vikram Chandra, Jeet Thayil, Amitav Ghosh, Nissim Ezekiel, Gieve Patel, Kamala Das, Anuja Chauhan and Chetan Bhagat, to those of Jhumpa Lahiri and Amit Chaudhuri, writing in English but not agreeing with the label of the genre, the list is endless and reveals there is no standard written form. And new tales continue to be embraced over chai and aadda.
Bottom line: Being aware of regional sensitivities, variations, expressions and context is key to recognising and understanding 'Indian Englishes' for their own sake. Because we are like this only.
Dear Ms Cathy,
Thank you to blog team for asking me to write up.
Please find herewith my draft blog contribution.
Please let me know if you wish to know any further. I will do the needful and revert back.
Disclaimer: No offence is intended to native or non-native speakers of any language. All errors and inconsistencies are the author's and the editor's, who are both same-to-same.
Ayesha Chari is an Indian editor with ancestral, native and adopted linguistic roots in New Delhi, Benares and Lucknow (northern India), Behrampore, Dhanbad, Arrah and Calcutta (eastern India), Bombay (western India), and Madras, Madanapalle and Palakkad (southern India), not to leave out Rangoon (in now Myanmar) and Jessore (in now Bangladesh). Currently based in the UK, she has done the needful, sat on the computer and written – in true character of the topic – twice the number of words Catherine Tingle requested for this blog. When not doing timepass, she teaches her 2.5-year-old Indian English among other languages.
Lynne Murphy discusses a standard Global English and editing English for global audiences in a CIEP focus paper: In a globalised world, should we retain different Englishes?
All illustrations by Ayesha Chari.
This entry was posted in Editorial Excellence, Language and tagged dialect, Editorial Excellence, English, Englishes, Indian English, Indian Englishes, variety on 16 September 2020 by Abi Saffrey.
Not working with words
An editor attempting to describe their job to a non-editor will often talk about 'working with words'. This is essentially what we do: we take a client's raw text, and we make it fit for purpose. But working with words is not all that an editor does. This post looks at some tasks editors might do as part of an editing job, as well as separate but related roles.
Non-textual editorial tasks
There are many things an editor might do in the course of a typical editing job that have nothing at all to do with words.
Checking illustrations, photos and other figures
Many of the things we work on involve pictures and diagrams, whether we're editing books, websites, marketing materials or annual reports. Sometimes we'll be specifically briefed to check the figures in a document, especially if they do contain text, but often this expectation will be implicit, and it's down to the common sense of the editor to make sure that if the text mentions five green apples, the accompanying image doesn't show three red tomatoes. It's common for photos to appear with a wrong caption, or for annotations to be misplaced.
It's also sensible to check that photos haven't been flipped – which might be fine, but not if they depict something that includes lettering, such as a shop sign, or people carrying out activities that have a specific orientation, like driving cars. Other things editors need to be alert to are items that look out of place or even inappropriate – like red telephone boxes in a publication with a global audience, or people drinking alcohol or smoking in a book for children.
Checking numbers and dates
Many editors say they love words but hate numbers – but still it's necessary to engage with numbers in all forms, in most of the work that we do. Folios need checking for a start, and cross-references. The degree of elision in number and date ranges must be consistent, and this will often be specified in a house style. Many numbers that we encounter need sense-checking, too. For example, would it be feasible to describe a 1,500km car journey as having taken four hours? Could that historical person possibly have died before they were born? And in certain types of work, such as medical editing, numerically expressed quantities are literally a matter of life and death.
Checking typographical details
Meanwhile, being able to spot a rogue italic comma is not a matter of life and death, but it is arguably still important in its way. And the difference between a hyphen and an en dash may seem trivial to some, but a document that has all its typographical details correct will somehow seem more finished, more credible, than one that has been carelessly formatted – even if the reader can't quite put their finger on why. Typographic details help to signpost the reader – often unconsciously – and when correct they all add up to a seamless reading experience, enabling the message to be imparted with minimum fuss and maximum accuracy.
Checking layout features
An important part of editing – and proofreading in particular – is ensuring that the layout of a piece of text, along with any accompanying images and graphics, makes sense. You'll need to develop an eye for 'page furniture', whether you're working in print or online: running heads, menus, pull quotes, breadcrumbs … Often different elements within a larger document will work together and interlink, and each will have a particular meaning, which may be more intuitive than explicit to the reader – but as the editor you will need to understand the rationale behind such design decisions, to be able to assess whether all layout features are present and correct.
Bear in mind, too, that it's easy when editing to be great at spotting the tiny textual details, and then overlook a typo in a title ten times the size of the rest of the text. Or not to notice that a box or a panel is the wrong colour for its function, or that an entire section of a book is labelled wrongly. One of the hallmarks of an outstanding editor is the ability to step back and see the bigger picture as well as focusing on the tiny details.
Related roles
Some editors take on roles that are related to editorial work and may even be combined with it, but use a different set of skills.
Many of the documents editors work on include images or text that come from somewhere else. Sometimes they can be used with a simple acknowledgement, without asking for permission from the rights holder. But depending on the context, and the amount of material being reproduced, often it will be necessary to seek permission. An editor might be asked to handle this aspect of a project alongside their editorial work, or it could be subcontracted as a discrete job. Either way, it's a useful skill for an editor to be able to offer, and the CIEP now runs a course on copyright for editorial professionals.
Sometimes, editors go beyond just looking at pictures, and help to choose them. Picture research can be a really interesting facet to our work. Just as when you're checking images that have already been placed, you'll need to keep an eye out for details that fit with the text that needs to be illustrated. Consider the audience, and ensure that any picture you use works as hard as possible to support or augment the text, to ensure maximum value of paid-for images. Some images are free, or may be used freely with a credit (see for example Unsplash or Pixabay). Others must be paid for, and the cost per picture will depend on the size of the image and the type and reach of the publication.
Many freelance editors are employed to manage editorial projects. This can involve setting and monitoring budgets and schedules, as well as commissioning contributors such as authors and illustrators, and freelancers like designers, editors and indexers. Attention to textual detail is still important, but at this level of work you'll need to be able to cope with tight schedules and increased responsibility, as well as keeping a range of people updated on progress at all stages of the project. You'll also need to assess the work of others and provide feedback where necessary. The CIEP offers a course in editorial project management, and it also publishes a guide to this subject if you want to find out more.
Photo credits: open book – Blair Fraser; letters – Octavian Dan, both on Unsplash.
Proofread by Victoria Hunt, Intermediate Member.
This entry was posted in Editorial Excellence, Professional development, Working practices and tagged dates, editing, Editorial Excellence, figures, illustrations, layout, numbers, permissions, photos, picture research, project management, typography, words on 3 August 2020 by Abi Saffrey.
From desktop to publication
Averill Buchanan works primarily as a fiction editor, but it's not the only way she helps self-publishing authors. Here she talks about her background in graphic design and explains how it has enabled her to offer book production services as well.
From Word document to InDesign to printers' proofs to finished book
I've been working as an editor now for 14 years, specialising in fiction, but it isn't the only aspect of the publishing process I can help with. I started my working life as a graphic artist, serving my time as an apprentice at a printers before moving on to run my own design consultancy. Twenty odd years later, the advent of self-publishing has drawn me back to my first career, and nowadays I also provide a range of book production services – typesetting and design for print, as well as ebook conversion.
The graphic design industry has transformed since I left it in the mid 1990s to study English at university as a mature student. Computers and desktop design software have replaced Letraset and SprayMount, and designing for the web is a new area of expertise. But the thing about graphic design is that regardless of the tools you use, you never lose your aesthetic sensibilities, your feel for what works visually, or your tendency to volunteer an opinion of a book cover or logo even when you haven't been asked. Once a graphic designer, always a graphic designer, I add by way of apology.
Me as a graphic designer in 1990
I joined the editing profession at just the right time. Around 2009, technology was making self-publishing available and accessible to anyone who had a computer – no design ability required. It didn't take me long to realise how useful I could be to many of my editing clients – self-publishing authors who just wanted to write but didn't have the design nous or patience to teach themselves how to produce good-looking books.
When I first offered book layout services, I used Word to create the interior of books destined to be printed through CreateSpace, Amazon's old Print-On-Demand (POD) service. But I've since taught myself to use professional design software, notably Adobe Creative Suite, and now do all my typesetting and layout work in InDesign. It was a steep learning curve, but well worth it. Among other things, InDesign gives you superb control of text, pagination and layout, and I've been able to progress from producing text-only novels to full-colour coffee table books.
I've also taught myself how to make ebooks, thanks to extensive on-the-job training in xml encoding and html during a stint as an academic research assistant. I use Jutoh software to convert well-formatted Word documents, with or without images, into epubs and mobis (Kindle's proprietary ebook format).
I tend not to offer cover design unless the client is publishing for friends and family only or is on a very tight budget. I prefer to send clients with commercial aspirations to a professional cover designer. It's quite a specialised field and I don't have the Photoshop skills (yet!) to make covers that can compete with trade-published books.
Many authors find the online world challenging and it seems a shame to allow that to get in the way of them pursuing their life-long dream. So in addition to actually making the books, I also offer a hand-holding service to shepherd nervous authors through the online publishing process.
For instance, using screen-sharing software, I can sit with the client online as they set up their Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) account and upload their book(s), or I can record a short video of me doing it on their behalf, which I later email to them. Some authors just want it all done for them, leaving them to log in to their dashboards to check sales figures.
Publishing consultancy
As the self-publishing industry has matured and become more professional, the options available can be overwhelming for authors. I can explain things in layman's terms and offer advice about the route to publication that best suits their needs.
It's important to establish authors' objectives at the outset – not everyone wants to be published to make money. Some have written memoirs that are only for family and friends; others want to raise awareness for charities. For many writers it's simply a personal ambition to get a book published – they don't want to make a career out of it. At the other end of the spectrum are authors determined to set up their own presses and be as professional and business-like as their budgets will allow.
I advise authors with little to no knowledge of publishing about things like buying ISBNs, setting up their own imprints, the differences between POD and litho printing, and the value of producing ebook editions. I can also help them cost it out. I don't offer marketing as a service, but it needs to be factored in when offering advice about production. For example, if it's important to an author that they see their book on the shelves of a high-street bookshop, they need to be aware of how difficult that is to achieve as a self-publisher. Or if an author's ultimate goal is to give talks and handsell their book at events as well as online, they might want to consider getting, say, 100 copies printed at a printers, in addition to publishing via KDP. My aim is to help authors make the best decision for their circumstances, taking into account their goals and priorities, their budget and how they plan to market their book.
While some authors prefer to build their own self-publishing teams, hiring different freelancers to handle each aspect of book production, others prefer to work with the same person from start to finish. It's easier for them to manage the project this way, and as we develop a good working relationship, things go more smoothly. I alert authors to the pitfalls of having the same person edit AND proofread the text, and often, with their permission, I'll outsource the proofreading. But if they prefer me to do it, for whatever reason, I'm somewhat reassured in the knowledge that other processes, like typesetting or layout further down the line, are another opportunity for me to see the text in a new way; any lingering typos or inconsistencies usually leap out at me later on.
When I quote for large projects that involve several steps, I break the work down into its discrete tasks and agree staged payments with the client in advance. Scope creep is almost inevitable in a big job; the important thing is to keep the author updated and informed of any increased costs.
Some of the books I've worked on recently
Book production uses a different part of my brain – I can listen to music while I do design work, whereas I need total silence when I'm editing or proofreading. I enjoy the variety of the work and getting to flex my design skills again. And, of course, there's a great deal of satisfaction in seeing a publishing project through from the editing stage (sometimes even earlier) to the finished product. But the best reward of all is hearing from an excited author when they see their book for sale on Amazon or when they get to hold a copy in their hands at last.
Averill Buchanan is a recovering graphic designer and fiction editor. She is an Advanced Professional Member of CIEP, a Full Member of AFEPI Ireland and a Partner Member of the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi). She also runs her own publishing imprint, Herself Press, which aims to (re)publish the work of neglected women writers from the North of Ireland.
Over 170 Professional and Advanced Professional CIEP members offer 'book production' as a service.
Proofread by Alice McBrearty, Entry-Level Member.
This entry was posted in Editorial Excellence, Specialisms, Working practices and tagged book production, design, Editorial Excellence, graphic design, publishing consultancy, scope creep, self-publishing, typesetting on 3 August 2020 by Abi Saffrey.


The Giving Dynamics Report is an especially powerful tool for reporting that allows us to track changes in giving between two date ranges. We can use this report to track the number of new, lapsed, and upgraded/downgraded donors in the time periods.
Select the Type of fields you'd like to use to calculate the totals; for more information, please see What is the difference between Gifted, Raised, and Received Fields in Queries and Reports?
If you would like to include in-kind gifts, mark the checkbox that says "Include In Kind Gifts"
For more information about the definitions in the report, please see What do the definitions in the Giving Dynamics Report mean?


The White Oak High School Band program resides in the military town of Jacksonville, North Carolina, where it is under the guidance of director, Perry Ditch, and associate director Joshua Singlton. Our program consists of a diverse population of students who participate in a wide variety of musical activities throughout the year. The goal of our program is to provide students with a well-rounded music education, which fosters the development of professional musicianship through individual and group performance, in combination with educational opportunities that offer students the ability to travel, develop leadership skills, collaborate mutually, provide constructive feedback, experiment with technology, and communicate globally.
The White Oak High School Band program is particularly proud of its service to the school, local, and state communities. Throughout each year, the program presents numerous concert and marching band performances. Within the community, the Marching Vikings are visible at all home and a majority of away football games, as well as many parades that include the Jacksonville Veterans Day Parade and the Jacksonville, Maysville, and Richlands Christmas Parades. Outside of the community, the Marching Vikings can be seen at several marching band competitions that occur across our state as well. As for our concert ensembles, these groups frequently offer concert performances for the school and community that consist of a diverse repertoire of music. These ensembles are also annual participants in the North Carolina Bandmasters Association Eastern District High School Music Performance Adjudication.
When it comes to community involvement, our program's service is not only found in the form of music. Each year our program's members recognize that some are less fortunate than others by Adopting-A-Family for Christmas and providing them with food and gifts to make their holiday more joyful and memorable.
Since its establishment in 1970, our program has distinguished itself as one of the finest programs in eastern North Carolina. Annually, as a result of our hard work and dedication, our program and its members are recognized with several awards and honors. These include superior ratings on our performances, participation in national events such as the National Independence Day Parade in Washington, DC, performances at Disney World, and the placement of students in the Eastern All-District Band, Eastern Region Jazz Band, North Carolina All-State Band, and North Carolina Governor's School. Our program attributes much of our achievement and growth to our motto below, which is something that we try to instill in all our members and staff, in order to allow them to resonate it in others.


My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech. Of course, this issue affects not only the HCPC's but other registrants, such as nurses, who have to register with the National Midwifery Council. Does he agree that, along with other things, such as car parking charges, low pay and no automatic incremental progression in a lot of health-related occupations—particularly for nurses—these kind of registration fee increases are just another tax on healthcare workers' wages?


text:
William E. Smith III - Our People - Purdue Engineering
1998 DEA
William E. Smith III
For his outstanding record of accomplishment as a manufacturing engineer and corporate engineering leader, the Schools of Engineering are proud to present the Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award to William E. Smith III.
On choosing Purdue and chemical engineering
Settling on Purdue was easier than many other choices in my life. My father was a Purdue grad (BSME '40), and my sister was already at Purdue when I was looking at universities. Purdue's engineering reputation was, of course, number one, and although I visit ed Penn State, Ohio State, and some other engineering schools, choosing Purdue was simple, given my family\071s familiarity with the university. I was trained right! I knew in high school that I wanted to work in engineering. I was the typical kid who took apart the lawn mower and couldn't put it back together. Moreover, I liked chemistry and math. Additionally, my dad took me to factories since his business involved him in the chemical industry. We would pass a refinery or chemical plant, and I was interested in how the plants operated and how the components were connected. This ultimately led to my chemical engineering decision.
On academics and campus life
I wasn't exactly a nose-to-the-grindstone kind of student! I was middle of the pack. This was during the Vietnam years, and, of course, the war was on my mind: lottery numbers, student deferments, and so on. Since I had fraternity brothers who were drafted, the rest of us often talked about the war and what our fate would be. But mainly I thought about passing P Chem (physical chemistry). Receiving a 12 on an exam is not a good sign, is it?
There was also a physics course that engineering students had to take. We called it "science fiction physics." The course content was theory of relativity and quantum mechanics, a very rough course. I was in Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and for three years drove their go-kart in the Grand Prix. One year I finished third place. I was also in the Catalyst Club, where students and faculty met to socialize and get to know each other better.
On a professor's influence
Professor Rushton, a chemical engineering professor, was quite a character and a very interesting man. I had several courses with him. During my sophomore year, I went through a period of questioning whether I really wanted to be in chemical engineering. My grades were less than I had expected, and the workload was becoming tougher. Professor Rushton talked to me about the value of being a chemical engineer and encouraged me. Of course I am very happy with the way things turned out.
On his career path
As a chemical engineering student, I didn't think of a career in pharmaceuticals' never planned on it. I thought that pharmaceutical companies just put pills in bottles. I began my career with Ceilcoate Corporation in Cleveland, a manufacturer of pollution and corrosion control equipment. I had worked there for three summers during college. After two years, I decided I wanted to change jobs. That was during the time of the great NASA layoffs. I sent resumes everywhere. I knew Eli Lilly & Company from its plant in Lafayette. Lilly came up as luck of the draw, and I realized that with its emphasis on bulk pharmaceutical manufacturing, it was a chemical engineering dreamland. I saw that Lilly would be an interesting place to apply as broad an engineering background as possible and to be involved at the leading edge of technology. Lilly's biotech work in general is a highlight for me. It is the leading-edge technology in the pharmaceutical business. I earned an MBA from Butler University, and, typically, with an MBA one has to become a selling/marketing/financial person or stay on the engineering side. At Lilly I've had the great opportunity to keep both a technical emphasis and additionally to be involved in business operations. The opportunities for chemical engineers in the pharmaceutical industry are endless.
On the New Directions advisory group
Being invited to participate in this advisory group for the Purdue School of Chemical Engineering was a great opportunity. It is so different from my day-to-day work; university life and issues are different. One of the big issues for industry to stay competitive is the quality of the people who come to work for it. I hope that New Directions' work is helping to prepare the graduates. The group is a great conduit for communication of our concerns, and the commitment of the group's members to Purdue is overwhelming. There's been a healthy debate about the proper mix of theory and practical education, but Purdue is still the best.
Named Outstanding Chemical Engineer by the Purdue School of Chemical Engineering.
1994- :
Executive Director, Global Manufacturing Services, Eli Lilly & Co., Indianapolis. Oversees technical support of Lilly's worldwide manufacturing facilities, oversees operations and maintenance of world headquarters and technical centers at Indianapolis, and heads corporate engineering, supply chain operations, and manufacturing purchasing.
Executive Director, Corporate Engineering, Eli Lilly. Responsible for worldwide planning, design, and construction of capital projects.
General Manager, Capsule Operations, Eli Lilly. Contributed to the operations' turn-around to profitability by focusing on product quality and customer needs.
Technical Director, Capsule Manufacturing. Led technical support efforts for Lilly's empty gelatin capsule manufacturing facilities.
Manager, Facilities Planning, Production Operations, Eli Lilly. Headed long- and short-term planning for new manufacturing facilities.
Manager, Biochemical Technical Services. Responsible for engineering and technical support for manufacture of basic active ingredients in Lilly's product lines.
Projects Manager, Process Control and Measurements Technology, Eli Lilly. Responsible for design and engineering of process instrumentation in Lilly's manufacturing operations.
Operations Coordinator, Antibiotic Fermentation Pilot Plant, Eli Lilly.
Operations Coordinator, Antibiotic Purification Development Pilot Plant, Eli Lilly.
Process Engineer, Fermentation Operations, Eli Lilly.
BSChE '69, Purdue; MBA '76, Butler U.
Distinguished Engineering Alumni
1998 Distinguished Engineering Alumni
Roy D. Bridges
Christopher B. Burke
W. Michael Clevy
Michael L. Eskew
Charles R. Kline
Suwat Liptapanlop
Michael J. McCulley
Michael T. Riordan
Thomas J. Sheehan Jr.
Stephen J. Zelencik
Distinguished Engineering Alumni Awards by Year

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


IN ADDITION... TEMPERATURES WILL PLUMMET TONIGHT TO 10 TO 15 BELOW ZERO OVER NORTHERN ILLINOIS... AND 5 TO 10 BELOW ACROSS NORTHWEST INDIANA. THIS... COMBINED WITH A BITING NORTHWEST WIND WILL CREATE DANGEROUS WIND CHILLS OF 30 TO 40 BELOW ZERO TONIGHT. THURSDAY NIGHT WILL BE EVEN COLDER WITH LOWS APPROACHING 20 BELOW IN OUTLYING AREAS... THOUGH WIND SPEEDS WILL BE DIMINISHING.
Ugh. Anyone live in a warm climate and have a room available with internet access? LOL.
If it makes you feel in better i'll be in the Caribbean starting Saturday.
Wait, that probably doesn't help you.
I tried to feel bad for you m7, but then I realized I live in Utah so I don't feel bad.
I'm in buffalo, it's the same type of stuff right now. I'm just hoping that my classes will be canceled tomorrow because of the cold!
I love having a landlord who cranks the heat all the time. So even though it is 8 degrees out right now, I'm nice and toasty.
Now, living in from Chicago, I could normally relate. However, I am in Wisconsin this week (and the next, and the next...) and it's 10-20 degrees colder right now.
This afternoon around 4pm when I called the wife to say hi, windchill in my Chicago suburb was 12 degrees. Here in Waukesha Wisconsin though it was 19 below already, with minus 39 or worse expected overnight.
Must be all that global warming...I mean...climate change...I mean...Whatever the heck they are calling it now.
The apartment complex put out deep freeze warnings here today. The next two days aren't supposed to get out of the teens and there is supposed to be snow this weekend which is fairly rare around here.
We're supposed to hit -20 with the wind chill tonight.
I feel for you guys living in the colder areas. It's 72 deg. here in AZ during the day.
Of course when you guys are enjoying your mild summers, we're here sizzling like bacon. ... I know I know, but it's a dry heat. But 115 deg. in the shade is still freakin crazy no matter how you slice it!
Brakkish wrote: I feel for you guys living in the colder areas. It's 72 deg. here in AZ during the day.
On the plus side I haven't seen a rat in my alley when throwing out the trash in quite some time. Not that I think they are dead, you can't get rid of Chicago rats. But at least they are hiding.
Evadrepus wrote: Now, living in from Chicago, I could normally relate. However, I am in Wisconsin this week (and the next, and the next...) and it's 10-20 degrees colder right now.
Where abouts in the burbs are you? I am originally from the north west burbs myself. When you get back from Wisconsin it won't be much better. It's cooooooold.
1 to 2 feet expected in Buffalo tonight.
Not that I'm surprised. The reason we wanted an apartment on the 2nd floor was so that we could just walk out our window onto some packed snow if need be.
Yeah ..its supposed to get in the teens the next few nights ...but listening to the rest of ya'lls weather report all i can say is......NEENER NEENER Im kidding!!!
At least that would be interesting!
I hear you, Brakk, and have shared your pain. (Lived in Mesa and Tempe for 6 years.) East TN is normally pretty mild, but every now and again we get a piece of the Arctic Express. Last night, and tonight, are one of those times. My backyard wx station says we 1 degree over night and they are calling for more of the same tonight.
I can testify, and the folks living in the colder climes can corroborate, like the heat, once you get past a certain point the numbers do not mean a thing. It is just fricking HOT/COLD!