Editors Canada releases DEI handbook for editors

Editing is more than grammar and style. A new Editors Canada handbook encourages editors to consider identity, lived experience, and systemic oppression.

Most readers never see the editor behind a news article, they only read the finished product. A newly released handbook from Editors Canada offers a look at how the sausage is made.

The organization’s first “Editing with Respect: Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Handbook” calls itself a “living document” that will be updated as “EDI best practices” evolve.

Instead of focusing only on grammar, punctuation, and style, the guide asks editors to apply concepts like intersectionality, lived experience, systemic oppression, and representation into their review of written material.

“Just like editors benefit by learning about grammar, formatting and accessibility,” the handbook states, “editors will be able to do better work by improving their understanding of how language can be used to improve and promote, or deny and suppress, equity, diversity and inclusion.”