Spotlight on Coralyn K. McGregor

By Adrienne Tange

Name: Coralyn K. McGregor

Job: Sole proprietor of Publication Consultant, since 1988. Primarily edits scientific reports and books, but also writes book reports and travel articles for a senior newsletter.

Hours: Although Coralyn retired from being an employee in 1990, she still works about one-third of the time in her own small business.

Years as STC Member: She has been an STC member since March 1964. Coralyn served as chapter president (the title then was Chair of the Pacifica Chapter) and also as Employment Manager. She has also presented sessions on science writing and editing at several STC conferences and has been a judge at a regional STC Awards Competition.

Other Memberships: Coralyn participates in activities sponsored by the International Council for Technical Communication (INTECOM), which is an organization made up of representatives from technical communications organizations from all over the world (STC was a founding member). For more information on INTECOM, go to www.intecom.org and www.tc-forum.org.

Now that English has become the generally accepted lingua franca, technical communicators whose native language is not English (and even many native English speakers!) have difficulty deciding whether they should use British-English or American-English standards for spelling, punctuation, and meaning when they are writing or editing for an international audience. Currently, Coralyn and other technical communicators from numerous countries are involved in an INTECOM-sponsored language study that has the goal of suggesting standards for technical documents being written in or translated into English.

How I Became a Science Editor/Writer: In college, Coralyn majored in meteorology but took English courses as well. She worked in operational meteorology (also known as weather forecasting) and as a research meteorologist. However, Coralyn discovered that she enjoyed documenting the results of her research and helping others edit their reports. In 1959, she started work as a technical editor/writer for Sandia National Laboratory, Livermore, and then at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory until she retired in 1990.

When Coralyn started her own business in 1988, she decided to identify herself as a science editor/writer. Currently, Coralyn edits reports and books for her clients. Many of her clients are non-native speakers. For example, she edited a four-volume hard cover set on the anthropology of the Palauan Islands for a Japanese organization.

I Love My Job: For two reasons. First, I enjoy organizing things. Closets get messy but a clean report stays that way. Second, I enjoy working with non-native speakers and helping them reach their target audience.

I Dislike My Job Because: I don’t dislike anything about my job.

My Top Work Challenge: Working with non-native speakers of English.

Coralyn’s clients come from all over the world. She has had clients from China, Germany, and Sri Lanka. Because of this, words in the materials she edits may have been translated many times—from English, to another language, and then back to English. As an editor, this presents a challenge. Coralyn must not only edit for grammar, spelling, and punctuation but also must ensure that words retain their meanings during the repeated translations. She does this by carefully reading for context.

When I Grew Up I Wanted to Be: A meteorologist.

Coralyn always loved science. In high school, she was introduced to meteorology when she decided this was the science she wanted to pursue.

At Home I’m Most Proud: Of raising a daughter and son who are both strong and independent people.

At Work I’m Most Proud: That everything I have submitted to the STC Awards Competition has received some type of award, especially because these projects have always been subject to tight time and budgetary constraints.

If I Could Change One Thing: I would combine operational meteorology with writing and editing. This would be the best of both worlds.

I Enjoy Reading: The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, and The Sciences (published until last year by The New York Academy of Sciences) because they are all carefully written and edited magazines.

The Devil Mountain Views -- Mar/Apr 2002
(ebstc.org/newsletter/front.html)
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