Tag: writing

Becoming intelligent about artificial intelligence

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This past week I began a seven-week introductory course on artificial intelligence (AI) for editors.

The course is taught by the naturally intelligent Erin Servais, who is also a dynamic speaker.

The week before the course began, I downloaded ChatGPT and played with it a little. I had never used it before, nor Copilot, Gemini, Claude, or any other popular AI platform. ChatGPT astounded me. I told it to write a poem about Garfield the cat, and in about two seconds it brought forth a rhyming anthem about the fat cat that read like a Shel Silverstein verse.

We have only had one session so far, but I have already completed our first assignment, and the results were hilarious. (I do not feel comfortable sharing my assignment here, since it is part of the course.) I got to read the results of some of the other students as well, and they were equally humorous and outrageous. Sometimes I wonder if ChatGPT ever laughs at itself.

It frightens me that some people use AI to write research papers for them or even to write novels. Would I read a novel that was generated by AI? Only if I were fooled into believing that it was written by a human. Of course, any human who uses AI to write a novel obviously does not like to write and is doing so only to make ill-gotten money. Shame on them.

I am definitely looking forward to learning how to use AI tools to copyedit more efficiently, fact-check, and write my own macros. However, I am also anticipating the class session in which the ethical implications of AI are discussed. I have heard from numerous editors on LinkedIn that there are AI detectors that can supposedly tell whether a work was written by a human or by AI. Unfortunately, many of these editors have run works that they wrote themselves through an AI detector and seen the detector tell them that 80 percent of the work was AI-generated.

Sigh! Can we win?

With the proper skills, yes.

Bump on a blog

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If you are a freelance editor and you have a website (which you should), your website should contain a blog.

Your potential clients will want to see how you write and how you edit your writing. Therefore, the grammar, spelling, and punctuation on your blog must be impeccable. I have had the pleasure of finding a glaring typo on my blog after I have published a post and having to go back into the web hosting site to fix it.

What should you write about? You should write about things that are professional, for the most part. For example, I am writing about blogs and blog maintenance right now. I’ve also written about my foray into writing, what an editor should do when they cannot concentrate, and the software I have learned, to name just a few topics. I believe it is also fine to occasionally write semi-cute posts about my workplace, such as descriptions of my bulletin board or the stuffed animals on the bookshelf to my right.

Some other blog housekeeping issues:

Make a new post at least every month or so. Nothing looks less professional than a blog with a timestamp that is, say, two years old.

Decide on how frequently you want to post and stick to that frequency. I post once a week, usually on Sundays. However, as I said before, you can post just once a month if you like. Just make sure you are consistent about it.

Once in a while, brainstorm blog topics so that you have a nice list of topics you can choose from when it is time to write. Keep them in a Word doc (or Excel spreadsheet, or whatever best meets your needs).

Decide on the approximate length of your posts. I usually keep mine from 300 to 400 words, but some bloggers prefer longer posts. Again, consistency is key.

If you have a blog on your website, what are some guidelines that you follow?

Have you written a research manuscript you want to publish?

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Have a professional editor go over it.

Manuscripts that have been scrutinized by an outside professional editor have a better chance of being accepted for publication. Let’s look at why.

A research author will spend countless hours writing their manuscript, and this can make anyone’s brain numb. After a while, the author, having gone over the same words and paragraphs over and over again, might become oblivious to things like errors in spelling and grammar. A professional editor will examine the manuscript with a fresh pair of eyes and see issues that may have slipped past the author.

Editors are also very sensitive to accessibility in a manuscript. For example, a graph of data may have a beautiful palette of colors, but these colors may be difficult to discern for a reader who has color blindness. An editor can suggest to the author that using crosshatching and dark and light shading instead is the way to go.

Authors who are writing in English when they are not accustomed to it definitely need an editor. There are languages which do not use articles, for example. An editor can fill in the “a,” “an,” and “the” where they are omitted in English by an author whose native language does not use them. (This should preferably be done with the Word macro ArticleChanger, which was programmed by Paul Beverley and saves editors countless amounts of time.) Also, the sentence structure of several non-English languages differs significantly from that of English, so whole sentences often need to be rewritten to make them flow more smoothly in English.

Let us not forget the author’s references. A professional editor will always make sure that each reference on the reference list is cited in the text (whether in Harvard, Vancouver, AMA, or any other prescribed style). Without the help of an editor, it is possible that the author may miss citing one or more of the references—which is a big problem. An editor will also make sure that the reference list is in the format required by the target journal.

What other reasons why a researcher should employ a professional editor for their manuscripts can you think of?

Freebies? Sure…in moderation.

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How did I get my first editing experience? By volunteering.

I began by editing for the church my husband and I belong to. I had been doing some menial tasks there, such as cleaning, when the church staff discovered that I was extremely good at writing and copyediting. I don’t exactly recall how this happened, but I was soon put in charge of copyediting the church’s weekly programs—a task I really enjoyed. BibleGateway.com soon became my best friend.

Soon afterwards, I began copyediting larger documents for the church. I edited booklets describing the small groups available for each season, the staff handbook, the safety manual for child care workers, and other material. I loved doing all of them. The church eventually became my first client and remained so for years, until I resumed working for them pro bono due to their need to save money.

Around the same time that I began editing for the church, I approached our local chapter of Habitat for Humanity and asked about writing for them on a volunteer basis. I eventually began editing their website, going over it every month and compiling a list of changes to be sent to the webmaster. For several years I did this until my paid work began to take off and my time became more limited. Then I connected with another editor, who was looking for pro bono experience as I had been, and handed her the reins. (It was important to find someone else to replace me so that Habitat for Humanity would not be left high and dry.)

Currently, I am on the Board of Directors for our homeowners’ association. Last fall, the Board began making a periodic newsletter, which is sent to each homeowner in our condo community. Guess who writes it? A homeowner who sees how well the newsletter is written and edited is likely to refer me to a potential client they know. Win-win.

Have you done any volunteer editing? What was it like for you?

NOTE: Next Sunday is a holiday that holds deep spiritual significance for me and which I will be celebrating with my husband and family. I will be back on the blog in two weeks. Until then, please keep well.

Background sounds, anyone?

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Different people (not only editors) listen to different kinds of background sounds while they work.

As for me, I prefer silence.

I do not like sounds in my vicinity while I am editing. I do not want the dishwasher, clothes washer, or dryer running while I work. I do not like hearing the grim sound of leaf blowers or lawnmowers outside my office space window.

And I especially do not like the white noise emitted by the heating/air conditioning vent that occupies a space on the wall directly above my work desk.

The world, however, does not revolve around me, and others have different preferences.

I had a roommate in college who liked to listen to music while she studied. Vocal music distracts me from working; however, because my roommate was such a sweetheart, I let her indulge herself with—gulp—country music. Not my preference by any means, but I tolerated it for a semester.

There were others in college whose tastes in background sound were even more offensive. They loved to blast hard rock or alternative rock music while they worked. Unfortunately, their music would inevitably be shared with me, since the dorm room walls were thin. That was when I would grumble and head to the library.

I have to say that at the moment I am typing this post, I feel rather hypocritical because I am not writing it in silence. I have classical music coming from the desktop computer behind me, courtesy of YouTube. I heard it said decades ago that instrumental classical music is the only music that actually enhances a person’s work or studying. I believe it. I love instrumental classical music (as long as the piece isn’t too loud) and right now it is relaxing me and fueling my brain as I write.

What do you like to listen to while you work, if anything?

A website is what you make of it

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If you are a freelance editor (or freelancer of any kind), chances are you have a website for your business. If you don’t have one, you really should—at least in my opinion. But this week’s blog post is not about why you should have a website. It’s about the essential things to have on it.

There is always, of course, the Home page. This needs to pique the interest of potential clients. There should be visual elements, such as pictures, to break up the paragraphs. (Having a photo of yourself is optional.) Just make sure you have permission to use the pictures! The Home page should also explain why your services are necessary to the client. For example: “Why should you have your writing copyedited?”

The Services page is also one of the most important. It explains exactly what you do. Be specific here; do you copyedit, line edit, or do developmental editing or ghostwriting? Some freelancers list their fees on the service page, while others choose not to.

The About page is where you list your credentials and show the client why you are good at what you do. You can also slip in a sentence about, for example, your hobbies (“When not reading or writing, I enjoy traveling.”) This paints you more as human rather than an editing machine.

The Testimonials page shows all the praise clients have given you. My advice is to ask for a short testimonial from every client who is happy with the work you have done for them. Do this right after the job is done, so that the client remembers you and your work clearly.

A blog is optional for a website, but having one and updating it regularly shows that you are diligent. You must be disciplined about blogging and do it once a week (or however often you have decided) and not just whenever you feel like it.

If you are a freelancer, what have you found is essential to put on your website?

Friends in client places

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When some freelance editors launch a new business, their first clients are their friends because they need work and their friends know this. This was the case with me five years ago when I first hung out my shingle as an editor. My first client was the spouse of one of my friends, and the project went very well—in fact, this person has had me edit other things for them since.

Following this, the friend whose spouse employed my editing services began using me for editing a short time later. Years have passed, and I have done a lot of work as a contractor for the company for whom my friend works. It has been highly enjoyable and has paid me well, as has the scientific work I have done for clients whom I do not know personally.

Some editors would not dare have friends (or family) as clients. I have read discussion list posts in one of my professional editing organizations in which a poster literally says, “No friends!” when speaking of their client base. Although I respectfully disagree in principle, I can understand why an editor would have this policy.

Would you want to have one of your good friends as your boss? Although a freelancer’s boss is not the client (a freelancer is their own boss), they want to make the client happy, and will do whatever it takes to do so. If the friend/client is unsatisfied with the final product, this undoubtedly puts a strain on the friendship. If the friendship is strong, the subpar result can be forgotten, at least eventually. But if the friendship is not strong enough…you get the idea. Personally, I am choosy about which of my friends I would take on as clients. I must ask myself, “How would this person act if they were a traditional boss?” The friend I mentioned earlier in this post has been a wonderful “boss,” so to speak, but other friends I have, while being great people, I would not want as clients.

If you are a freelance editor, do you have any of your friends as clients?

The great American novel

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Would you believe that about eight years ago, I wrote a novel? I felt my creative juices flowing like a whitewater river and let them go.

I will not give details in this post on what the novel is about, because I do not want to have someone steal my ideas. I will say that the story is dramatic, set in the summer of 2003, and told from the point of view of a 25-year-old woman.

In the novel’s current state, it is not very good.

It is good in terms of grammar, sentence structure, capitalization, punctuation, and the like. After all, I am an editor and reread the novel more than once to check those things. But in terms of the setup, the story’s progression, and the resolution of the main character’s conflict…I’m sorry to say that the writing is subpar.

This is all very embarrassing, because while I was writing the novel, I told several of my friends that I was writing one. (Big mistake!) Now, years later, they are asking me how it is coming. And I never really know what to say anymore.

I refuse to let this novel die.

When I have more funds, I plan to hire a book coach or developmental editor to help me flesh out the story. Following that, I want to hire an editor or copyeditor to catch mistakes that I might have missed. Then I need to enlist the services of a formatter and a cover designer.

After all of that has been accomplished, I plan to self-publish.

The process, as you can guess, takes a lot of money, so I must keep saving. But this novel will see the light of day before I pass away.

Have you ever written a novel and if so, did you publish it?