Third Quarter – Done!
Well done, I say! It’s fun to think that we’ve managed to keep TGIF on the Boulevard going for three quarters of a year. Who could have predicted this? It began as an experiment last December, and now it’s looking pretty good. Not to mention how much I, personally, have learned.
Looking at the blog posts over the last 9 months, they’ve covered quite a few topics:
- Grand Boulevard today, during COVID-19 and some of its history,
- North Shore items, including Grouse Mountain’s grizzlies, our forests, trees and rock balancing,
- Home improvements, gardening, lifestyle, family and foods,
- Book reviews:
- Atomic Habits by James Clear
- Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens
- Anxious People by Fredrik Backman and
- The Day the World Stops Shopping by J.B.MacKinnon,
- and a few odd topics, such as Bamboo (one of the Drawdown solutions), MetroVan Repair Cafés, Income Tax, Homelink.ca, Brain games, Plain Language and my experiences with technology.
I want to invite any Grand Boulevard neighbours to take a swing at writing an article for this blog. You never know what it feels like until you try it. Remember, this is an experiment and it can be shaped by you, the residents of Grand Boulevard—past or present—who have feelings or fond memories about our beautiful surroundings, our schools or our neighbours. We are so lucky, and I bless the day my husband and I bought this house—with help from our parents, of course. What luck!
In February, 2021, I began to take online courses at SFU, to learn about editing. There are at least four different kinds of editing jobs and many different kinds of writing that need to be edited before going to print. There’s also a language that editors need to know and use, in order to work as part of a team of editors, in an office or company. Then there are independent, freelance editors, who choose to specialize in one kind of editing, e.g., legal, medical, technical or for the web. It’s absolutely wonderful and challenging to learn about. Who knew that many companies have in-house editors, who follow the company’s established style guide, so that all of the company publications look the same. That doesn’t mean that they say things in the same way; rather, that they have a similar appearance and deal with any grammar, punctuation, capitalization or design issues by following a predetermined style of writing. My Editing Certificate will take 2 years to complete, online. I’m about halfway through now.
SFU has quite a few certificate programs which are part of their Continuing Education department. Students don’t receive credits, as for an undergraduate degree, but the programs are well-received among post-secondary institutions, and often lead to a rewarding career. In addition, people who are already working as editors for their employer, decide to earn a certificate to become an accredited editor—to fill gaps in their knowledge. We all share our knowledge of language and writing online.
Fiona