Connect Series: Meet our Wiki Reboot Team Members!
Gaynell, Jamie, Jenni and Miki
At Reportex, one of our most prized resources is our ‘Wiki‘. It’s exactly as it sounds… a master repository for anything and everything our team needs to succeed. The Wiki is akin to a Reportex manifesto containing detailed information to support each department and staff member in their role and is edited on a regular basis. Updates can be an enormous undertaking and we’ve recently recruited a team to tackle some of the more intricate details of our latest sweep of updates – The Wiki Reboot Team.
For the past several weeks, our Reportex Legal Wiki has been undergoing a review by our Wiki Reboot Team members – Gaynell, Jamie, Jenni and Miki.
We recently caught up with these team members to ask them a few questions as part of our ‘Connect Series.’ Here is what they had to say:
Gaynell Noel
What do you like most about what you do?
What I like most about proofreading is the variety of topics that I get to read. I have learned a lot about so many things that I would never have been exposed to before.
What is your favourite read?
Because my job is reading, I hardly read for pleasure anymore. I read news articles online if the headline grabs my attention.
Top grammar tip:
Watch out for homophones! There are many words that sound alike but are spelled differently. “Its”/“it’s”, “there”/“their”/“they’re” and “your”/“you’re” are common ones that are frequently used incorrectly. Just remember a contraction is made up of two words. If you break them up, it helps to figure out the correct word to use. “It’s” becomes “it is,” and “they’re” becomes “they are.”
What do you enjoy doing when you’re not at work?
To compensate for not reading as much as I used to, I listen to audiobooks and podcasts. I love putting one of these on when I’m in the kitchen, walking or driving. Some of my favourite podcasts are This American Life, Radiolab, The Moth and Crime Junkie. And I use the Libby app to borrow audiobooks from the library. Check them out when you get a chance.
Jamie Kurzdorfer
What do you like most about what you do?
Doing research and learning new things.
What is your favourite read?
My favourite book is To Kill a Mockingbird. I can read it every year, and it never gets old.
Top grammar tip:
Use a semicolon or a period to separate two complete sentences.
What do you enjoy doing when you’re not at work?
Reading and teaching my puppy tricks.
Jenni Reed
What do you like most about what you do?
As I work exclusively with spoken (not carefully thought out and arranged) words which cannot be corrected, it gives me such pleasure to face what seems to be a tangle of words, and by using the art of punctuation turn it into something that makes perfectly good sense and flows nicely.
What is your favourite read?
I’m currently rereading an old favourite of mine: The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco — monks, murder, herbals, libraries, labyrinths, oh my!
Top grammar tip:
Speak in complete sentences!!!
What do you enjoy doing when you’re not at work?
I enjoy getting out graph paper and plant catalogues and losing myself planning/imagining the flower and landscape garden that I don’t yet have…or going for a hike with my hubby or playing games (card games or Carcassonne) or trying new recipes! And a bit of yoga makes a great break in the middle of a workday.
Miki Patel
What do you like most about what you do?
What I like most about proofreading is that it can be applied to any industry. Where there are words, there’s a need for proofreaders to ensure that the quality of what is written is met. I also like the fact that proofreading is a skill that can’t be completely automated, so there will always be a need for proofreaders no matter how far we get into automation. Working from home on my bed is also a perk. I can work anytime, anywhere.
What is your favourite read?
It’s been a while since I’ve read for leisure, so I’m going to have to go back to my teenage years. My favourite book would be Night World. I really did enjoy reading fiction back then. I’m sure I would still enjoy it if I had the time to sit down and read.
Top grammar tip:
Memorize homophones (words that sound alike but have different spellings, meanings or origins) and learn how/when to use them. There’s no way around this, and it drives us proofreaders crazy when we see people using words like “effect” and “affect” incorrectly.
What do you enjoy doing when you’re not at work?
I enjoy learning new skills. I consider myself to be a lifelong learner. I didn’t want to just stop at learning how to proofread court transcripts. I’m currently enrolled in Internet Scoping School so that I can also potentially scope in the future. I want to learn transcribing, bookkeeping and graphic design in the near future. I always like to say that no skill is a wasted skill. All these skills that I build might all come in handy one day in my professional life.
