The 2018 Editors’ Association of Canada conference was held in Saskatoon, Canada, from 25 to 27 May. The theme of the conference was Bridging Communities: Bringing Together Communication-Related Professions. A synopsis of some of the areas covered follows.

The conference emphasised three main issues: use of plain language, user testing and editing – a human skill. With respect to plain language: there was heavy focus on communicating in plain language to make information, especially scientific information, accessible to as wide an audience as possible. User testing: User testing involves granting the intended audience access to a document before it is finalized, allowing for the feedback provided to be used to improve the document. This process has elements which are quite similar to the pretesting and syllabus creation/revision processes conducted by CXC. Editing – a human skill: In the words of Mignon Fogarty, “Grammar is complex. Bearing Fogarty’s words in mind, conference attendees were exposed to software such as PerfectIt and Antidote 9, which are useful tools in the editing arsenal. The philosophy of PerfectIt aptly delineates the nature of the relationship between humans and artificial intelligence in the world of editing.