The ultimate guide to all things copyediting: from style guides, usage guides, and editorial associations to podcasts and fact-checking resources. You can download the PDF file here. You can also get it as a poster here. This post is part of a series featuring Dragonfly field guides, tips, and tricks. You can download the PDF file here. You can also …
Lessons learned and friendships formed: One Dragonfly’s professional journey
James Fraleigh is a copyeditor’s copyeditor. After a day of working on documents as a contractor, he’s happy to spend time reading books about editing, talking to other editors about the nuances and best practices of the job, and actively participating in online and real-world editorial meet-ups. And you thought you were dedicated to your career. The owner of a …
Editing adventures in the public domain
January 1, 2019, was more than just New Year’s Day this year. To researchers, educators, and artists everywhere, it was also “Public Domain Day”—the day on which every work published in the United States in 1923 entered the public domain. Novels, poems, music, paintings, and more from that year will now be publicly available in online archives such as HathiTrust and …
Myths of editing: never use a comma in the second part of a compound predicate
Being an editor is fun. If you’re like me, you love catching and fixing mistakes. But sometimes, we fix things that don’t need fixing, following rules that aren’t really rules. And sometimes, we want absolute certainty in our rules … when we actually have a little room to use our judgment. Here’s one of those cases. The myth If …
12 tips for crafting readable writing
Wouldn’t it be nice if readers dutifully read every scrap of our copy? Don’t kid yourself. They need information, and they need it fast. Your best bet? Create content that can be quickly scanned and that conveys your message unmistakably. You can download the PDF file here. 1: START WITH THE MOST IMPORTANT CONTENT Assume your reader will …
Editor Kelly Rickard brings a world of experience to Dragonfly
Dragonfly editor Kelly Rickard has an affinity for foreign languages, whether it’s the Chinese she studied in college or the technical content she’s often asked to edit. The resident of Edina, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis, finds working with words to be a natural fit, as language has always been her thing. Kelly studied French in high school and had …
The art of client care
As an operations assistant at Dragonfly, one of my jobs is to help make sure our clients are happy with the work we’re doing and see that their needs are met. Over the past year, the Dragonfly team has been refining that process. So I thought I’d share some tips and tricks for all of the writers and editors out …
It gets better: 11 tips for people who hate video conferences
Sometimes, you have to meet with someone face-to-face to be effective. For those of us who work virtually, that usually means dialing in to video conference calls. Yuck. But don’t fret. Like most things, video calls gets easier and better with practice. And it’s awesome to work with folks from all over the world—without leaving your home (or hometown coffee …
Great Scottie! Medical writer and editor finds Dragonfly is just her type
Dragonfly staff and clients know Scottie Kersta-Wilson for her talents as a medical writer and editor. But there’s a whole other side to Scottie. Actually, there are several. Make that many. Scottie grew up an Army brat. She spent most of her formative years in Houston, but she also has fond memories of the American school she attended in Germany …
Pecha Kucha: Breathing creative life into the Dayton community year after year
For years now, the city of Dayton has played host to a uniquely named and unconventionally creative event: Pecha Kucha. The event, owing its odd name to the Japanese words for “chit chat,” was founded in Tokyo in 2003, and has since spread to over 1,000 cities worldwide. Locally, it promotes creative thought and conversation within the Dayton area by …