September 2025: Vol 7 Issue 8
Tell Your Story Newsletter (TYSN):
Teaching English as a Second Language to economic immigrants
and non-native English-speaking academics
Let us help you tell your story!
IN THIS ISSUE:
ARTICLE ONE: On international literacy month:
Re-launching a suite of English language services
STORYTELLERS’ CORNER:
Fun with oxymorons at the “museum” (by John Atkinson)
SHOP NEWS
ABOUT US
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Welcome mid-September, 2025!
Although last week, weekend (and yesterday) included some trying days of 30 degree heat and humidity, we have also had days with cool autumnal air that have helped many (me included) to begin another academic and program year. I hope September has begun well for you, good readers, as I enjoy reading your updates on Facebook and Linkedin.
This month, I am publishing a simple article about my services that reflects a recent “deep dive” into entrepreneurial strategy, through which I am relaunching my teaching and editing as a “suite of English language services.” This “suite” appeals to one new sector of clients for my ESL classes (English-as-a Second Language); and also returns to include more editing for training academics (doctoral and postdoctoral candidates) in the Humanities, Social Sciences and in Education.
Details follow in this month’s “Article One,” below.
And “Storytellers’ Corner” returns in this issue with some fun “museum”-based oxymorons from John Atkinson, the witty literary cartoonist of “Wrong Hands” fame.
I recall that local writer and long-time woman leader (of “Women in Leadership for Life”), Linda McCann, has blogged on the “promise” that comes with the month of September, each year:
“It’s a time to reflect on the desires of our hearts and the longings of our souls, as we consider the months ahead . . . .
September has always held a special promise, even in the most challenging times.
It brings the anticipation of a harvest, the start of a new school year, reconnections with friends and fresh opportunities for learning.
It’s also a time to walk in nature, savouring the changing colours, scents and
sounds of this abundant season.”
Good readers, whether you’re criss-crossing the globe on business or personal ventures (hello, Debra Marshall, in Tuscany!) . . . or whether you’re at home, already deeply engaged in both the “challenges” and “opportunities” of the new program year, I wish that each of you will feel the blessing of the “abundance” of this month.
Happy September, 2025.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth
Principal,
Storytelling Communications
www.elizabethshih.com
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Article One: On international literacy month: Re-launching a suite of English language services at “Storytelling Communications”
A valued, UK-based curriculum supplier that I use, “One Stop English,” reminded me recently that September is “International Literacy Month.”
This designation is apropos, as I continue to teach economic immigrants who want classes in English as a Second Language (ESL) to improve their literacy in English. And we all know that literacy is key to securing better jobs, promotions, or–if students are entrepreneurs–larger contracts.
As I share below, I’m effectively re-launching my English language services this month by, on one hand, deepening my ESL offerings; while on the other, bringing back a former service of academic editing:
- In the ESL arena, I continue to teach adults who are non-native speakers of English, but with increasingly customized classes on pronunciation, accent modification, oral presentation skills and idiomatic expression. These learners may be economic immigrants, internationally educated academics or students, or other career holders.
- After teaching immigrant newcomers ESL for nearly five years (since my certification in 2021), I have recently returned to editing academic documents in the Humanities, Social Sciences and Education. Both non native- and native-English speaking academics (graduate and post-doctoral candidates) write publications that almost always improve by being closely edited from a second pair of eyes!
Why am I returning to edit written English, given the recent incursion of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the fields of writing and editing?
- The need for human engagement on matters like ethical thinking and ethical research, as well as on nuances like consistent voice and precision, require more urgent engagement now than ever.
- This work involves teaching students how to write separately from their applications of AI, so that human brains (and ultimately, the degree-granting institutions that train them) will still have value and relevance in our culture.
- Most of us don’t want to be overthrown by non-sentient automatons, and I believe we must fight against that approach to AI directly. (On this, I am less optimistic than Ethan Mollick was in his 2023 study, Co-Intelligence: Living
and Working with AI.)
- The urgent need for human thinkers, writers and editors is evident in the challenges of using AI well: consider Amanda Guinzburg’s recent exposé on the lies and smoke-blowing that repeatedly occurred when she prompted ChatGPT to analyze and summarize her own writing:
https://amandaguinzburg.substack.com/p/diabolus-ex-machina
- Another reason I return to editing in the Humanities, Social Sciences and Education (last offered in 2021) is that I wrote and edited extensively as a graduate student before the ascension of AI. Over two-and-a-half degrees, I submitted more than 70 essays, four of which were published in peer-reviewed journals, long before we’d heard of “ChatGPT.” I have since kept an “oar in those waters” by reading others’ scholarship.
- From that history, I’ve become familiar with the editing conventions of the Modern Language Association (MLA), the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) and, more recently, with the American Psychological Association (APA). Furthermore, four years of marking piles of undergraduate essays from MA- and PhD-level Teaching Assistantships have left a strong impression.
- (As a footnote, outside of Academia, I also edit English documents for entrepreneurs. Since 2011, I have written and edited my own blog postings and this newsletter, soon entering its 15th year. So I can edit documents for non-academic writers, like entrepreneurs.)
I have met several university-based, doctoral and post-doctoral candidates who have expressed an interest in working with an editor, in the Humanities, Social Sciences and Education.
Do you know others? Please connect them with me! Besides that editing work, I’d love to meet more economic immigrants and internationally educated, non-native English speakers who want to improve their English (ESL) and for whom (along with me) every month will become an “International literacy month.”
For more detail, please visit my “services” page and my Linkedin profile at www.linkedin.com/in/shihelizabeth .
Sometimes “deep-dives” into entrepreneurial strategy can sound murky. So here’s my elevator pitch for this “suite of English language services”:
“I am a versatile and well-trained teacher of English as a Second Language (ESL) who teaches non-Native English speakers (including economic immigrants and academics) to improve their speaking through grammar, pronunciation, accent modification, idiomatic expression and conversation skills.
I can also support doctoral and post-doctoral candidates in the Humanities, Social Sciences and in Education by editing their work for formal publication or submission (e.g. articles, theses, books and career applications). Through my editing, these clients will better publish their knowledge that will make every month a human ‘literacy month’ in our community and beyond.”
. . . .
And this September . . .
As I edit this issue of “Tell Your Story Newsletter,” the afternoon sun is setting; and prairie wind has begun to blow outside my window. The bustle of commuters in the street below grows hushed; and the noise of cars dissipates, leaving stillness and quiet.
Good readers, as our daylight hours shorten and we prepare to return indoors full time, I hope you’ll pause from September’s hectic pace to feel the freshness of autumn’s breath; and to store the vivid colours of her landscape in your minds.
And now it’s your turn: Have you changed or relaunched the services (or products) you sell, this season? Please share your developments with me for another issue of “Tell Your Story Newsletter!”
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STORYTELLER’s CORNER . . . .
STORYTELLER’S CORNER: Words, stories, riddles and jokes on Writing and Editing . . .
This month: fun with oxymorons at the museum (by John Atkinson)
The English cartoonist and humourist, John Atkinson, has shared his knowledge of literary history and authors through his website, wronghands1.com.
Some years ago, my book-loving aunt, who lives in British Columbia, sent me over Facebook a cartoon featuring Atkinson’s love for wordplay that appeared in The Globe & Mail.
Under the title “Oxymoron Museum,” Atkinson’s cartoon shares his knowledge of the thoroughly self-contradictory terms that often populate museum exhibits. (An oxymoron, for anyone who wonders, is “a figure of speech that combines two usually contradictory terms in a compressed paradox” [Oxford Concise Dictionary of Literary Terms]).
Oxymorons can tickle our funny bones because their very self-contradictory meanings are so illogical as to be absurd.
In his cartoon (that regrettably, I can’t repost here, due to copyright), Atkinson has found the following cases of oxymorons in museum exhibits, like Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and many others. Do these ring a bell?
recent past
lost discoveries
new artifacts
civil war
neoclassic
virtual reality
individual collection
permanent loans
private exhibits
current history
extinct life
restored ruins
authentic models
primitive advancements
silent alarm
wireless outlets
Atkinson has collected some similarly irreverent summaries of “100 well-known works of literature, from Anna Karenina to Wuthering Heights” in his book, Abridged Classics: Brief Summaries of Books You Were Supposed to Read but Probably Didn’t (Harper Collins, 2018).
For instance, Atkinson describes the plot of Shakespeare’s Macbeth as “Old ladies convince a guy to ruin Scotland!”
Having requested Abridged Classics from our local library, I hope to share more of Atkinson’s bookish wit in future issues!
Do you have a story, riddle or joke on any aspect of English language or communications? Please share it with me; I’d be delighted to use it in an upcoming issue.
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SHOP NEWS:
Thanks go this month to both long-term and recent mentors with whom I’ve discussed entrepreneurial strategy (Monica Kreuger and Adele Kulyk), as well as to colleagues and friends who have returned from holiday or summer pursuits to gather again over a BBQ and conversation (Beth and Joanne Brimner, Heather De Sandoli, Martha Fergusson, Sharon Wiseman).
When the bells of many churches in our community stopped ringing years ago, and when many in our society question the relevance of any form of religious observance, I am glad to celebrate the 100th anniversary of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian (Saskatoon), where folks of all ages or generations, ethnicities, languages, socio-economic positions and vocations now gather to celebrate.
The very thoughtful and dedicated Rev. Roberto De Sandoli leads members and dedicated leaders including Al Ireland and Patti Polowick, Laura Van Loon, Martha and Dean Fergusson, Christel Jordaan -Schlebusch and Dewald Schlebusch, Kirk Ready and Heather Shouse, Beth Brimner, Anne and Terry Drover, Doug and Vickie Drover, Sharon Wiseman, Charles and Laura Roy, Heather DeSandoli with the IT support staff, organist Paul Suchan and Director of Music, Naomi Piggott-Suchan, alongside numerous others, who gather weekly to serve each other and our community.
That community includes the grassroots Indigenous mission of Native Circle Ministry, on 20th St. W.; and the Micah Mission of Saskatoon’s corrections-related ministry, to whom we were first connected by our Emeritus minister, Rev. Jim McKay.
This year, I’m pleased to help with St. Andrew’s communications, alongside the discerning administrator, Vickie Drover; to assist in leading the children’s time with the ever-talented and energetic Martha Fergusson; to discuss cultural, vocational, family and many other considerations with the brilliant and spirited Beth Brimner.
Organized religion is never perfect and can challenge–and sometimes hurt–us deeply. But I do feel that St. Andrew’s strives to be relevant to our surrounding community, which is essential to its meaning and future, as a century-old program (not place) of worship.
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In other news, I appreciate the kind messages and calls that have followed the memorial service for my late mother, Bernice, on August 23rd.
Special thanks again for the service to Rev. Roberto De Sandoli, eulogists Laura Van Loon and Adriana Van Duyvendyk, friend and supporter, Dani Van Driel, musician and soloist, Naomi Piggott-Suchan, The IT team, Heather De Sandoli and Adam (for live-streaming and recording the service), MaryAnn Lyle (for support with catering), Luella Moore (at reception) and to the staff of the Saskatoon Funeral Home for assistance with the delivery of my late mother’s urn and subsequent interment.
While I was so moved to see every attendee on August 23rd, notably long-time friends Erin Watson and Nadeem Jamali, Mrs. Yen Fung and Angela Fung Jamieson, I want especially thank Rev. Jim and Mrs. Lillian McKay, their daughter Emily, and many-year mentor, Monica Kreuger, for their deep kindness and support.
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A thank you also goes out this month to Sharon Wiseman and to Dr. Leslie Widdifield-Konkin, who referred a literacy student to me, with whom I worked between late June and last month. The work was timely and meaningful and involved the expertise of both women, which I greatly appreciate.
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I continue to appreciate the legal counsel of Ben Nussbaum and legal assistant, Ingrid Atkinson, for their work on letters probate for my late mother’s estate.
Friends have sometimes described the year that follows the passing of an elderly parent as drudgery. But I’m grateful for the referral to Ben and Ingrid by a decade long mentor, wonderful friend and extraordinary community leader, herself, Monica Kreuger.
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There are always new people, programs and businesses to promote in “Shop News.” Please write me to share your stories.
But for now, this is a wrap for mid-September!
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ABOUT US:
Between 2011 and December 2018, Elizabeth Shih Communications chronicled the stories of B2B marketing and communications on the Prairies and across the country.
Effective January 1, 2019, I rebranded as “Storytelling Communications,” and further pivoted services this month:
“I am a versatile and well-trained teacher of English as a Second Language (ESL) who teaches economic immigrants and non-Native English speakers to improve their speaking through grammar, pronunciation, accent modification, idiomatic expression and conversation skills.
I can also support doctoral and post-doctoral candidates in the Humanities, Social Sciences and in Education by editing their work for formal publication or submission (e.g. articles, theses, books and career applications). Through my editing, these clients will better publish their knowledge that will serve our local community and beyond.”
Interested in learning more? Please contact me through my CASL-compliant website (www.elizabethshih.com).
After I receive your message, I’ll be pleased to discuss projects with you! Please visit my website for more information: (www.storytellingcommunications.ca).
