Proposed Accreditation Scheme Motion
Proposed Accreditation Scheme Motion to be voted on by all societies of editors
That the national accreditation scheme will have two levels: Accreditation, achieved by examination, and Advanced Accreditation, achieved by portfolio.
Background
It is proposed to modify the accreditation scheme in which applicants submit a portfolio for assessment by adding a copyediting examination. The examination does not replace the portfolio; rather, it provides a first level of accreditation. This model will enable the accreditation scheme to be administered efficiently while avoiding the high costs associated with the portfolio-only assessment. It has the additional advantage of enabling IPEd to roll out the accreditation scheme in 2007.
It is expected that an editor with two to three years' professional experience will pass the examination. Those who wish to demonstrate advanced skills may submit a portfolio at a later date.
The open-book examination, lasting three hours, will be held simultaneously in all capital cities and other approved locations on a needs basis. It will be held annually (six-monthly in the first year). The examination will test copyediting and other essential skills, such as project definition and the ability to identify defamation, permission and copyright issues, in accordance with the requirements set out in Australian Standards for Editing Practice (ASEP).
The examination content will reflect the variety of work that editors do, with examples from various kinds of publishing (educational, academic, reference, general non-fiction, fiction, government, corporate) and choices to allow for candidates' specialisations. The examination will comprise:
- copyediting questions
- a short manuscript for editing
- short-answer questions.
Marking of the examination will be weighted to reflect ASEP and will recognise that there may be more than one correct solution to an editorial problem and more than one way to mark up a manuscript. The examination will be marked ‘pass' or ‘fail'. Candidates who fail will receive a report on their performance and may re-sit the examination as often as they like. Provisions are made for appeals and grievances.
Sample questions and answers and an explanation of the marking system will be available on the IPEd website <www.iped-editors.org> well in advance of the first examination; some sample questions are given below.
SAMPLE QUESTIONS
Part 1 Copyediting questions (worth 25%)
Mark your corrections clearly on the page. If you wish to use conventional copyediting marks to correct errors, follow Appendix C in the Style Manual (6th edn). You are not expected to check errors of fact in this exercise.
- While thinking about this catastrophe, the sun sank from view.
- The average lifetime for a female in Sweden is 75, but there is evidence that in a few years time it will reduce to 74.
- Social policy today is reminiscant of Swifts A Modest Proposal.
Possible additional type of question:
- Write a sentence or sentences demonstrating the difference between these pairs of words: principle/principal; affect/effect; alternative/alternate.
Part 2 Manuscript for editing (worth 50%)
[This section is designed to test editorial judgement and management. The manuscript, of about 2500-3000 words, includes inconsistencies of style, heading systems, referencing and ways of presenting information, as well as a realistic number of literals and grammatical infelicities.]
This manuscript is a short special-offer publication to be handed to racegoers as a special promotion at a major racecourse. It requires a light edit with particular emphasis on consistency, accuracy and ease of reading. Mark all corrections and any queries for the author clearly. You will also need to grade the headings, indicate where illustrations should be placed and create a reference list for the footnotes.
The Melbourne Cup turns this on its head. The race is a handicap - where the handicapper gives each horse a different weight according to his assessment of its ability. A different type of level playing field to the classics. A Darwin schoolteacher, like Wendy Green, owner and breeder of Rogan Josh, the 1999 winner- stands as good a chance of winning the race as the wealthiest of Arab princes and indeed one of the wolrd's wealthiest men, Sheik (get name from Internet), through his Godolphin Stable has tried and failed to win the Cup on many occasions - spending thousands of dollars on traveling horses and staff from Europe to Australia. Good horses don't necessarily win the Cup, but champion horses do. Tables 2 and 3 provide interesting comparisons on the strike rates of favourites and breeding costs of recent Cup winners. From a gambler's point of view, landing the winner of our handicap is a much more attractive option than ticking the boxes to come up with a classic winner. ...
Part 3 Short-answer questions (worth 25%)
[This section offers a choice of questions to accommodate candidates' differing specialties and areas of work.]
Choose FIVE of these TEN questions - each answer is worth 5%:
Question 1
You have received a freelance commission for a light copyedit on a new book by a successful fiction writer. As you work through the book you come upon passages that are familiar and you realise they are taken word-for-word from a foreign-language translation you read as a reference for your Masters thesis. You know this book is unavailable in Australia because you had to have it imported specially. Draft a letter to the author explaining your discovery and what you plan to do about it.
Question 2
The Banjo Paterson poem ‘The Man from Snowy River' is being reprinted in a special edition and you have been asked to obtain six illustrations to accompany the text. How would you go about choosing, obtaining and getting permission for these illustrations if you had an unlimited budget? How would you go about it if you had a strictly limited budget? Answer both questions.
This is an open-book test and you are welcome to bring hard-copy reference materials.
