Voluntary work

In October and November 2020, the Invite a Copy Editor campaign took place for the third time. This time 16 copy editors took part, each helping a company or organisation that had not yet experienced with copy editing service. I edited five pages of text and provided  language advice to the non-profit organisation Peace Action Community Estonia. It was a nice hybrid meeting in covid-19 unconventional conditions.

From March to July 2020, I was engaged to the crisis communication page kkk.kriis.ee coordinated by the State Chancellery of Estonia. The environment is based on people's questions and the answers of medical staff and government officials.

The goal of the dozen volunteer copy editors was to edit the answers not only linguistically but also in substance, with particular care for the principles of plain language. This means that a very diverse readership had to be taken into account – the often complex language of government officials and doctors had to be made equally understandable to both 10- and 100-year-old readers.

Such a task is a kind of challenge, but certainly worth the effort, because in this way the state has the opportunity to learn to communicate with its people in a simpler manner and hopefully the bureaucratic style will be about to gradually decrease.

In the spring-summer of 2019, I did voluntary copy editing work for YU magazine, which is aimed at the younger generation. Just for gaining some variety to my everyday work and for a new kind of experience.

February 2019, I participated in the campaign Invite a Copy Editor, organized by the Estonian Copy Editors´ Association. The aim of the campaign is to introduce companies to the profession of copy editor and the principles of plain language. During the campaign, almost 20 volunteer copy editors delivered up to five pages text free of charge to almost 50 companies and provided the company with language advice for one hour.

I managed to help three companies, one of which I also visited for advice. Although, what I saw at the Autism Center was both sad and harsh, my visit was extremely exciting and eye-opening for me.