We’ve all heard it before: “Words are the building blocks of language.” Writers understand this better than anyone, as they are all too aware – someti...

As a human being, language is one of the most influential tools that you have. As with everything in life, language evolves and you need to ensure tha...

Chances are, if you produce written documents on a daily basis—whether professional reports, personal projects, school-related work (such as dissertat...

TEC has had a number of dissertations cross our desks over the past few months, and working on these important documents is always a process that requ...

There’s never a bad time to refresh your writing skills, and now is as good a time as ever (especially if you’re finding yourself with some extra ...

Well, 2021 is coming to an end (where did the year go, exactly?), and as 2022 approaches, it’s hard not to look back on the past year and think about ...

Pretty much everyone uses punctuation marks in their day-to-day life, whether it’s in texts, emails, professional communications, business writing, le...

The ways that linguistic conventions change over time are sometimes obvious. New dialects and turns of phrase crop up, and many of them gradually chan...

Why Do We Fact-Check?   As The Chicago Manual of Style points out, in publishing, the author is ultimately responsible for the accuracy of a work. A...

The process of working on any manuscript presents a range of concerns specific to the manuscript’s intended genre, so don’t get caught with your space...

The first step in preparing a document for publication is the copyediting of the work. The majority of copyediting tasks today are carried out on-scre...

Here at TEC, it’s our job to provide our clients with the best guidance and advice in the editing and flow of their documents. Recently, we had a clie...

Editorial work entails a variety of different jobs. These include substantive editing, line editing, and proofreading. Because the process of editoria...

Ryerson University’s Publishing Program is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year!    Founded in 1990, the Certificate in Publishing is the larg...

Although there are some who would advocate for a world free of passive-voice constructions, an all-out ban on this wrongfully maligned verbal form wou...

Like any profession, editorial work involves keeping up with how professional standards and tools of the trade change over time. Unlike aviation stand...

Punctuation marks are the signposts of prose. They indicate what’s important and where to pause. They add rhythm to your sentences. They help your rea...

Emphatic writing allows writers the opportunity to drive home the importance of letters, words, phrases, sentences, and ideas. Aside from mechanical c...

In this week's blog, we decided to share some of the most basic editing rules that editors must remember to follow, regardless of what type of text th...

We thought we would repost former TEC Editor Melissa’s blog this week to help us review four of the most common punctuation-related errors or inconsis...

Your business documents are vital to getting your message across, differentiating your organization from others, and reflecting your brand. Never befo...

We use different tenses all the time: I am listening to music. I went to the store on Saturday. I will make broccoli tonight. I am waiting for the tel...

November has rolled around again, which can only mean one thing (for students, anyway): midterms and papers are coming up and will be due before the w...

As anyone who edits (or writes) non-fiction knows, few things are as frustratingly difficult to keep straight as acronyms and initialisms. Two weeks a...

It has been considered a usual style to shorten words in order to save time or space for some time now. Some of us will remember acronyms and initiali...

Although you’re unlikely to find many writers or editors willing to give up the hard copies of their dictionaries or style and usage guides, working a...

As an icebreaker activity in one of my publishing courses, a teacher asked us to give our names, what we liked to read for fun, and what our favourite...

The most common mistakes with grammar often involve seemingly simple things. In English, possession is indicated using an apostrophe and, usually, an ...

In 2009, “unfriend” was the Oxford American Dictionary’s Word of the Year, leading to teeth-gnashing of grammar purists across the world. How could th...

January is the time of year when we begin hearing from students who need help with their dissertations, theses, and papers. To help them out, we're re...

Although you’re unlikely to find many writers or editors willing to give up the hard copies of their dictionaries or style and usage guides, working a...

      The postgraduate student researching the rise of postmodernism in the postwar period found herself with post-traumatic stress ...

This week, we wanted to re-post one of our most consistently popular blogs: Barbara's 2015 blog on hyphenation! Even two years later, it's always at t...

Last week was a very exciting event for editors in Canada (and around the world)--the 2015 EAC International Conference, "Editing Goes Global,&qu...

They say that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. So when I recently came upon a text riddled with hyphens popped in willy-nilly where th...

In my life outside of TEC, I also work as a sessional English instructor, meaning I am hired on a sessional (or semester by semester) basis to teach...

As an editor who works primarily for the Canadian market, I am amazed at all the subtle differences that separate Canadian and American English, and...

During my third year at university, the professor of one of my copy-editing courses began her first seminar by listing the names of several useful s...