Jill E Duffy

What is journalism? The Leaders’ Debates Commission in a report to Parliament says it will not define “journalism.” The agency twice cited by the Federal Court for attempting to enforce arbitrary definitions concluded it had no business trying to “legally define what constitutes journalism.” “It is neither the Commission’s role nor its responsibility to attempt to legally define what constitutes journalism,” said the report Debates: Democratic Exercises Serving The Voting Public. “This is a wider societal issue and the leaders’ debates are not the forum in which to litigate this.” The report follows a long-running feud between Commission lawyers and Rebel News Network. Rebel twice successfully challenged its blacklisting in 2019 and 2021. Federal Court judges ruled its exclusion from debate events was “unreasonable,” “procedurally unfair” and “troubling.” READ MORE (paywall) https://lnkd.in/eB6G7u-c

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Writers love to hate editors until they realize…editors are the difference between "meh" and "OMG!" A good editor does more than fix typos. They untangle messy structure, sharpen your voice, and turn a decent draft into something unforgettable. They’ll save you from embarrassment, rejection, and those late-night breakdowns over clunky sentences. Because editors aren’t critics, they’re co-pilots. So, respect the red pen. Without it, your book’s just a rough draft with delusions of grandeur.

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Countries that use subtitling rather than dubbing for foreign TV content demonstrate significantly higher English proficiency, is the takeaway from the latest piece of research from the National Bureau of Economic Research that I had the pleasure of abstracting. https://lnkd.in/ghRaFQRG

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I filled out the survey. One of the questions asked what effect AI would have on the writing and editing profession. I asked Grok, which said: AI tools will significantly reshape the writing profession over the long term, with both opportunities and challenges...In summary, AI tools will disrupt low-skill writing jobs but create opportunities for writers who adapt, specializing in creative, strategic, or AI-augmented roles. The profession will evolve toward a hybrid model, blending human ingenuity with AI efficiency, with success hinging on adaptability and a focus on uniquely human contributions.

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Our amazing design manager Dragonfly Editorial, Casey Crary, built this gorgeous graphic for my editing tips! Go take a look and drop us a note letting us know what your favorite grammar or editing shortcuts are. #grammar #wordnerd #editing #copyediting #amediting #editingtips

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By request, here’s a follow-up to my previous post on dashes and hyphens. That post covered how to create them; here’s how to use them. — Em Dash — When writing in U.S. English, use an em dash to indicate a break in thought — like this. You can use one or two em dashes in a single sentence, but more than two is overkill. Notice my em dash has a space before and a space after. That’s Associated Press style. Most other style guides—The Chicago Manual of Style and The American Psychological Association Publication Manual, for example—tell you NOT to include those spaces. – En Dash – When writing in British English, use a spaced en dash to indicate a break in thought – like this. When an en dash is used this way, it always gets spaces. Again, you can use one or two – but please not three – per sentence. In the U.S., some style guides, such as Chicago and APA, tell you to use an en dash in ranges and sports scores: The art fair took place August 3–5. Paula will order 10–12 cheesecakes for the party. The Biloxi Shuckers beat the Montgomery Biscuits, 2–0. In these cases, as you can see, there are no spaces around the en dash. Then there’s my favorite use of the en dash🤓 When you have an open compound (e.g., Los Angeles, ice cream, high school), use an en dash to connect it to another word or a prefix: Los Angeles–based office, ice cream–themed decorations, post–high school education. - Hyphen - AP style calls for hyphens where Chicago and APA call for en dashes, as AP doesn’t use en dashes. Also, use a hyphen to join simpler compound modifiers (Sheboygan-based, dog-themed) to connect some prefixes (co-worker, anti-cat, post-workout), and when writing about Spider-Man. Does this cover all possible uses? Of course not. But most people have stopped reading by now.

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Substack vs. Traditional Email Platforms: What Writers Need to Know Before Making the Switch via The Write Conversation #amwriting #writetip #nanowrimo #pubtip https://lnkd.in/e-rrQkMV

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Think editing is a waste of time? Think again “Copy editors are the safety net that gives writers confidence. They are the traffic lights that alert everyone: Stop or Caution or Full Speed Ahead.”  (The article quotes the admirable John McIntyre, among others.) https://lnkd.in/d3Mc-yQd

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A few years ago, I was checking the links on my writing samples page (a good practice for writers to do periodically) and found that all of the blog posts I’d written for a former client were gone.   Dozens of articles I was proud of—that were the main clips I had demonstrating expertise in a particular industry—just disappeared, overnight. I couldn’t even find them on the Wayback Machine.   I signed up for Authory soon after that.   One of the great things about having a freelance writing business is that it’s relatively easy to keep overhead low. A lot of freelance expenses and tools you see people talk about aren’t *really* necessary. If you want to keep your business lean, it’s pretty easy.   But Authory is the paid tool I find myself recommending to other writers the most.   There are a couple of main benefits I get from it that make the cost worth it: 1.    The most straightforward: it saves all those writing samples.   Over the years, current and former clients will do content audits and updates that involve removing your work from the web (or updating it with someone else's name). It’s inevitable. It happens to all of us, no matter how good your work is. If you don’t have them saved somewhere, you risk losing all evidence of your hard work. 2.    It keeps them looking professional.   Even if you have your work saved in old Word or Google Docs, it just doesn’t look as impressive or professional to share them with prospects in that format. Authory maintains whatever images the piece was originally published with, and keeps the look slick and official. Sharing an Authory link looks a lot better than sending over the same article as a Word attachment.   3.    It makes it easy to search all your old work.   Putting together a list of relevant samples for prospects used to take me *much* longer. I’d have to try and remember what I wrote, or go searching through old folders on my desktop or in Google Drive. With all my work saved in Authory, I can search keywords there and bring up all the articles that touch on a topic. It makes the process of putting together a list of relevant samples much faster and easier.   I’m not being paid by Authory or anything (although I’ll drop my referral link in the comments for anyone considering it), I just genuinely find it to be valuable. I still see writers sometimes bemoaning clips they’ve lost. I know that feeling too well, and want to help others avoid it.  

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How to Become a Better Writer – Essential Habits for Nonfiction Authors Recently, I’ve been researching recommended tactics to become a better writer. Even if you’ve been writing for decades like I have, there is always room for improvement. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gigi3ZBV

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Scary Good Tips for Genre Writers: ·      Create a proprietary word list. Every time you finish a chapter, scour it for names, technology, and places made up for your story. Especially if you’re pantsing, this cheat sheet will save you time (and money in editing) because you won’t have to dig through your manuscript looking for a reference when an element comes back around. ·      Read your work out loud, especially the first three chapters. This is not a novel idea, but it’s a good one. Reading aloud gives you a sense of complexity and cadence at the line level. It also helps you spot where you’ve added in too much backstory and exposition. ·      Give your villain reasons. If the reader can’t comprehend why the bad guy is doing bad things, they aren’t going to care. It needs to be on the page and obvious to the reader.

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