Learn to Be Your Own Editor

Outcomes NOTE: This is a self-directed course. Students will receive feedback on the final week`s assignment. Exercises completed before that week will be used to tailor the course to the student`s needs but will not receive individual feedback. Assessment takes place in the form of final analysis and critiquing of a piece of text in the final week. Facilitator offers feedback on this final assignment. Assessment Students learn basic editing language and mark-ups. Students learn how to recognize sentence and word structure problems. Students work on editing their own work. Students also explore the critiquing process. Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Students learn basic editing techiques, mark-up, and text. Students continue with focus on basic editing techniques. Students work at learning how to identify and correct sentence and paragraph structural difficulties and errors. Students utilize above techniques to edit their own work. Some exploration will also be made of markets for editing jobs for students wishing to become employed in the editing or proofreading fields. Students work with other students utilizing provided critique methods and appropriate editing techniques. Students submit, for critique, a final project. This project consists of an original piece of text, the marked version, and the corrected version. If students are looking to be employed in the editing of proofreading field, they can utilize a second option of taking a standard editing test. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SAMPLE LESSON WEEK 1 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As we write, our goal in fiction or non-fiction is to produce a final draft free from not only spelling or grammatical errors but that is also pleasing to the reader, contains appropriate and relevant content, and follows generally accepted writing practices. As we write more, this process can become more stream-lined and easier to work with. In that same vein, as writers become more professional and used to writing "clean" copy, we sometimes become lazy and allow small errors to creep into our writing. In either type of writing (business or fiction), one error (glaring or small) can sometimes trip the reader up and make the rest of the document appear to be unreliable or faulty. If the reader doesn't trust the writer or the content of the document, he might make the concious decision to stop reading or doubt the content of the entire document. Good editing requires the writer to be attentive to not only editing practices but to also recognize his or her own basic writing pitfalls. Each writer has their own set of writing issues that they repeat when they write everything from correspondence to manuals. To help you in editing, it is good to take a look at what problems you find within your own writing on a repeated basis. For example, do you find yourself utilizing passive verbs or adverbs too frequently? Do spelling errors on certain words creep into your writing? Do you shift tenses within the same paragraph or page? Do your subjects and verbs agree? Listed below are three links that include common proofreader and editor's symbols. While you can utilize these symbols if they work for you, I also suggest that you find your own balance of tools. For example, in my own writing, I use a mixture of the tools below--the paragraph marker, underline, capitalization, bold, delete--to name a few. I also insert my own personal marking tools that are recognizable to my eye and brain. These tools include the use of different colored ink to mark geometric figures on the page. This technique can be helpful in recognizing overuse of words or phrases like adverbs or "weak" verbs. I might designate red circles for adverbs and green squares for the weak verbs. After I have marked the document with those two options, I can look back over the page and check for repetition and over-use. If you are working on a computer as you write, Word and WordPerfect offer some great tools to start with as well. You can utilize the built-in grammar and spell-check functions as a beginning option. As you already know, these tools are not fool-proof or always reliable. After an initial check with them, I also run a search for the above-mentioned things like adverb usage or "weak" verbs. One example is that Word will note how many passive verbs are utilized which also gives you a starting point for making your writing stronger. You can also turn on the function within these programs that allow a notation of changes made within the text. This feature helps you to notice not only what changes have been made but also the frequency of these changes. It also gives you a visual representation of document and your changes. http://www.colorado.edu/Publications/styleguide/symbols.html http://webster.commnet.edu/writing/symbols.htm Your assignment for this week is to try utilizing the above three techniques for editing your own writing: 1. Utilize geometric figures (square, circle, triangle, hexagon, etc.) in different colors of ink to note three of the following items: passive verbs, adverbs, unnecessary words, misspellings, simple grammatical errors, or redundant word usage. 2. Try using the common proofreader's symbols at the above links to mark-up a short document that you are currently working on. You may also use of the symbols without realizing it. 3. Utilize the electronic tools available to edit your own work. Explore what Word or WordPerfect offer to help you in your editing. Next week, we will work on learning what mixture of these three techniques works best for you. So, for this week, don't feel as though you have to perfect any of these techniques or choose one as the only one you utilize. Throughout the course, we will work on finding the best and most comfortable balance for you. As you work on this week's assignment, you might even make sidenotes on what things work the best for you, what methods you are already using, and what feels awkward or forced to you. Contact Hours: 24