Learn invaluable magazine copy editing and polishing skills

Come and see me on Thursday 25th for the Chang School Open House. It's an opportunity to talk face-to-face about the courses that are available to you during the fall term (and in other terms). It's in the George Vari Engineering and Computing Centre, 245 Church Street, Toronto, ON.

A couple of the complementary courses you may want to enquire about are

• CDJN 122 — Advanced Magazine Editing  (7 weeks) It used to be called Substantive Editing and it is all about the effective editing of individual magazine articles in digital or print formats. It is designed to help writers grab readers' attention at the start and keep them reading to the end. The instructor is Donna Paris. Areas covered include assigning or acquiring manuscripts; tailoring content for specific readerships; coaching writers according to their individual strengths and weaknesses; editing for completeness and clarity; effective cutting and silken transitions; and use of imagery, anecdote, and a variety of voices and rhythms to make an article sing. A must for anyone planning to edit longer manuscripts - and a very useful course for anyone planning to write them. The course starts Thursday, 15 September. 

• CDJN 119 — Magazine Copy Editing (13 weeks) Bernadette Kuncevicius is one of the most experienced and knowledgeable editors in the business; she has earned her reputation for teaching people how to buff up someone else's prose (and, for that matter, your own) in print or web-based magazine editorial copy to ensure a high degree of clarity, consistency, and accuracy, as well as precise and appropriate use of language. After a magazine article has been substantively edited (see above), the copy editor attends to the finer details - checking grammar, punctuation, spelling, consistency of style, logic, and usage - and shepherds the article through the proofreading and production process. These "polishing" skills will be covered in this course, along with commonly used reference works, Canadian spelling, proofreader's marks, copy editing on computers, copy fitting, line editing, bias-free language, working with designed pages, and writing display copy. One lesson will be devoted to fact-checking.  The course starts Wednesday, 14 September.

Enrol now; don't delay.

For a complete list of the courses in the Magazine and Web Publishing program go to ryerson.ca/ce/magazine.