In about 500 words, think through the following:
*the process for the editing project
*think through the process(es) for each project--poster, newsletter, remediation, editing--and examine them side by side
*what connections do you see between these process(es)
Remember reflections should be thought-out and specific--use details, refer back to past assignments and/or readings, etc.
This is due by Tuesday, November 9, 2010.
In my opinion, the process I had for this editing project was the easiest and fastest out of all the other projects that we’ve had so far. Some of this is probably partly due to the fact that there was no need to do any outside research for any of the key words. The only references that I ever looked up while working on the projects were the Style Guides so that I could be sure to use the correct symbol and if I wasn’t sure about a particular grammatical or punctuation error, I could easily look it up.
ReplyDeleteIt might sound a little corny, but I really got into the “editing zone” with this project. Editing is something that I’ve done since middle school. Friends would constantly ask me to help them with their papers and, as they would put it, “make it sound better”. I really never had any problem with this because I would usually use this as leverage to get someone to help me with my math homework. Today I’m a tutor at the writing center and I don’t go through and edit student’s papers for them, but I do work with them on areas that they might be having trouble with. It’s more like team editing but it still requires an understanding of what to look for when fixing up a paper.
It was a very natural and very quick process for me: a couple initial read-through’s, making notes for some of the bigger changes and then looking more closely for the nitty-gritty types of changes. It took maybe a couple of hours from start to finish. Considering the amount of time I dedicated to the past projects took anywhere from three days to a few weeks total, it felt like I went from start to finish in no time at all. Writing the letter honestly didn’t take much time either. I had fun using a more authoritative voice for this letter, as opposed to the Poster project letter where we were writing to the Editor. I guess this means I like to be in charge? Probably a quality that I should keep in mind for the future: try to be in charge. I used the examples that were shown in class as a way to format the letter. In the examples we saw that the editor’s comments started out with the bigger suggestions/changes and then they got smaller and more detailed down the list. This is how I set up my letter, starting with the change of audience and ending it with some minor layout changes that I thought were important to point out.
I actually think that this project will be especially helpful to us as we now go into focusing on our Digital Portfolio’s. We’ve learned with this project that we can find necessary changes to be made in any kind of written work. I know that the newsletter I edited was really quite good, but I still found plenty of things to revise/edit. It was a good example for us to see that while we may have done well on our projects originally, it will still be possible to do the amount of revisions required to turn it into a part of our final project.
The editing project has been my favorite project yet. My process was simple: I read the newsletter I was assigned a few times, then wrote down a few things that I right away knew needed to be changed, the way I made lists for my tasks doing the other projects. Keeping my ideas organized is an important part of my process and composition theory. The requirements for this project were straightforward, so it was easy to follow instructions. Using the style guide was the only tricky part, because a lot of the things that I wanted to change weren’t just punctuation. When I realized that, I was relieved that we had the letter. I liked writing the letter because I got to state some of the larger changes I thought the newsletter needed as well as explain why I felt that way. I liked the project because I felt powerful and confident doing it-I knew exactly what I thought the new version of the newsletter should look and read like and how to get the old version there.
ReplyDeleteFor all the other projects, I spent a lot of time staring at the computer, Google-ing and re-Google-ing key terms and looking for inspiration. For example, for the poster project I checked out the promotion posters of some books that I like. After looking at a few, I started to figure out what a real, professional book promo poster should look like. Like Alissa said, part of the simplicity of the editing project was that we didn’t need to look up any new information except for the style guides.
Even though I had fun doing the remediation project (crafting and gluing is always fun), the editing just came a lot more naturally for me. My head is about to explode from thinking about what I want to do after graduation, and this project reminded me that something in editing would make me happy. Writing the letter from the editor, I could really see myself doing that for a real publication in the future. Writing that letter was easier and more fun than writing the letter to the company for the book poster project, probably because I was more sure about what I was writing and I didn’t feel like I had to try as hard to make myself seem credible.
Crafting the letter was similar to crafting the newsletter. For the letter, I had to think about the most effective way of saying things to the author, just like targeting that freshman audience in the newsletter. I also had to strategize how I wanted to write and organize my letter, something else I had to consider for the newsletter.
I thought back on the “Before You Begin” reading while I did this project, especially the tips about reading the piece a few times first, addressing the right audience and the section called “when is it due?” Because of what the article said about having time to edit and troubleshoot problems, I started the project a few days earlier than I might have if I hadn’t done this reading.
I’m excited to showcase this project in my digital portfolio, and I’m anxious to see what suggestions you will give me on how to make it better. I’m thinking of this project as both practice and learning.
I really enjoyed this last project. I found the process for the editing to be pretty simple and straightforward. Like Alex, I began by reading the newsletter a few times to get a feel for what was trying to be said. After I had jotted down some notes and mark some minor adjustments that were rather apparent, I pulled up the style guides, familiarizing myself with the markings, and then went to town. I feel this type of editing is where my strength lies, and I felt very confident in my ability to making the necessary adjustments and corrections. I found the letter aspect to be easier to handle than I had expected. It gave us a chance to not only explain our edits, but to offer suggestions and constructive criticism as well.
ReplyDeleteFor the other projects, I usually began by racking my brain for any ideas that happened to be lurking in the corners. I usually came up with a few ideas, but none of them seemed to go any further than the “Oh-this-might-be-a-cool-idea” point in the process. After some more thought on the ideas I liked the most, it went much more smoothly and a finalized idea emerged from the mess of thoughts. For the previous projects there was a broader range of options, more room for us to be creative and show our out-of-the-box sides. Like Alex and Alissa, I enjoyed the set restriction and constraints which this project offered. There was no need to be all that creative, except when it came to re-working the text for the audience switch.
While I enjoyed doing the other projects, I found the concrete-ness of this one to be much more my style. The other projects did open my eyes to my creative side, though, and I was pleasantly surprised to see what I was capable of putting forth.
While I was editing and re-editing, I kept in mind the Sommers reading on “Responding to and Evaluating Student Work,” which I really responded to personally. I wanted to make sure the author of the newsletter I was editing wasn’t confused by any notes or edits I had made, so the opportunity to write the letter was ideal. It was also much easier than writing the letter about the book poster, since we actually had something tangible off of which we could base our comments, not just some imaginary book for which we had only come up with a basic concept.
I’m glad we had the opportunity to show off our editing skills, as well as the chance to refine and practice our techniques. I know most of us came in to this class expecting to do a lot more editing in this aspect, but my eyes have been opened to plenty more types of editing, including remediation, repurposing, revising, and so on.
Looking back on all the projects we have created, I’ve come to the conclusion that audience needs way more recognition than it ever receives. Whenever someone sets out to put a presentation, poster, report, etc. together, they rarely take the time to consider the way their tone will affect the outcome. In fact, I survived high school without ever thinking about how my argument would change based on my audience. With these past projects, the processes have been very different. The first one required an abundance of creativity as well as a grasp on professionalism and audience awareness, the newsletter added in genre and (God forbid) the ability to explain rhetorical key terms on a basic level, the next project gave us the chance to show off our understanding of remediation, and finally, this fourth project (the gem of them all) has given us the opportunity to take a red pen to a piece of paper and unleash month’s of frustrations on one unsuspecting, innocent individual.
ReplyDeleteI won’t lie – I love editing. There is something about it that makes me feel (powerful?) in control. I can change and maneuver things until they’re perfect, and the perfectionist in me just bounces with glee when that happens. Like Alissa, I have been editing since I was (probably) in first grade, so I considered myself a pro at it.
Again, this class has taught me that I don’t know everything there is to know. Who would have guessed that there’s a whole code behind editing a paper. With the amount of symbols and various ways to write in notes, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was an editor for editors (if that makes sense).
The process of editing this newsletter did not go as smoothly as I had imagined it. When I heard “Editing Project,” I thought “Awesome, I’ll have this done in no time.” I was wrong. After reading the newsletter over several times, I listed out points that I presumed the author was making, then went back over and read the newsletter again, comparing what the author wanted to say versus what was actually in the newsletter. After that, I did a little research of my own. While I understood the basics of the key term and I had a fairly stable grip on the genre of the newsletter, I wanted to make sure my facts were up to par, so I re-researched the genre and took a (browsing) stroll over to JSTOR where I was able to find some sources that I thought would benefit the newsletter’s content.
When I began this process, I thought the letter to the writer was going to take me the longest, and the actual editing portion would be a breeze, but it ended up completely opposite. Once I finished most of the editing, I began writing the letter in order to correspond with my notes and it was much simpler explaining myself in words than it was with symbols and side notes. Looking back on the project, I’ve realized that editing is so much more than simply crossing through some words and writing it what it should sound like. It’s a complete re-visioning of the original concept. Like Michael, I immensely enjoyed the Sommers reading and felt that it solidified the idea that editing is not merely correcting grammar and then making some notes, but that it involves an entire process that enables the writer to perfect their work.
My process for the editing project was both easier and harder than the other projects. Initially I read over the letter a few times to make sure I got a grasp of what the newsletter was presenting. Right away I began to make notes about conceptual changes and some layout changes that I thought would make the newsletter more appealing to the new audience. What I had the most difficulty with was using the style guides to correct punctuation mistakes since I don’t have a good eye for finding them. It was easy for me to think of the new audience and come up with suggestions for the author to fix concepts and diction, but picking out grammatical errors has never been my strong point.
ReplyDeleteI read over the “Before You Begin” reading a few times during and after my editing so that I could know to what depth I should take my suggestions and did a quick Google search of “discourse communities”. I found a short piece that helped me get a clearer picture of the key word and I think that it also helped me to give better, more scholarly suggestions. From the reading and our assignments I knew that editing was not only finding and fixing grammatical errors, but also making creative changes. Reading the “Before You Begin” piece again helped me to get organized, and to know how/what I should be looking to correct in the newsletter.
Once I had the editing finished I wrote my letter to the author. I thought that this would be the most difficult aspect of the project, but I actually enjoyed writing the letter in the voice of an editor. It was something that I haven’t done and having to take up that position of authority really makes you embrace the changes that you want the author to make. It was definitely a lot different from writing the letter to the publisher for the poster project, I didn’t have to give reasons or try to justify why my proposal should be accepted. It was empowering to just be able to sit down and tell someone what I thought should be done.
Overall I think that this project was, like Michael said, more structured and straightforward and I think that is why it was more difficult for me. Having to take what someone else has composed and edit and revise it requires creativity but it was definitely harder for me to try and think outside the box with a work that wasn’t my own. I loved the creative freedom of the remediation project and also the poster project. Being able to take my newsletter and turn it into a painting was difficult but in a completely different way than editing the newsletter. I love the challenge of creating for an audience and I think that each of our projects has touched upon that in a different way. Sure, using a lot of the digital media for our projects hasn’t been easy for me but it was the creative aspect that made them more enjoyable. These projects are definitely helping me to better realize where my strengths lie in the realm of editing and composing.
When it boils down to basic interpretation, Sarah and I share many of the same principle interpretations on the structure and sensations that arise when reflecting on the editing project in particular. I experienced the same vigor from the power and control, but I also underestimated the project at its inception. I believed that it would be as simple as making odd marks on a page (like an ax for ‘remove permanently from your lexicon’ or a pair of scissors for ‘please cut the crap’) and jotting a few notes down in the margins. I could not have been more wrong.
ReplyDeleteEditing the newsletter was a step above the other projects, but within the all of the projects the consideration of audience was the most vital point. So I did what I usually do for inspiration on these projects: I listened to music appropriate to the targeted audience. For the first project I gathered together music I knew my mother preferred and worked on the poster with Jimmy Buffet and assorted hits from the 80’s and followed that with some similar music for the presentation and letter, as I figured the board of CEOs and my boss figure would be around the same age group. The newsletter was easier as the target was closer to my own age group. While I do not much like it, I listened to things you may typically find in a club overflowing with curious freshman. The remediation was more a classical motif. This project, however, posed an issue. What music does FSU listen to as a whole? I went to the union for inspiration and realized that after a few songs that FSU had horrible taste and would the project with my own music.
Music dilemma aside, I thought I would have the project done in a flash. Finally getting down to work on the project, however, I realized that to read the newsletter over multiple times and edit and suggest revisions for not only simple errors that occur within the text and formatting but also for diction and audience focus, as all of our audiences shifted, was a task to be taken seriously not only in effort, but also in time. I probably read the newsletter four times before I even put a single mark on the pages despite my brain telling me to note things. I’m a stickler for formatting and visuals and even the tiniest discrepancy sets off my consciousness into a spiral of despair until I can either avoid the visual completely or fix it to my satisfaction. Yet, this project required serious concentration and marking anything without reading through the project to understand it first would be heresy as well.
Like both Michael and Sarah, I found the Sommer’s piece the most perceptive to the focus of student writers and editors. I particularly appreciate the comment about comments not being limited as written comments but rather as “a means for helping students” (155). However, the style guides were critical too and the project would have been impossible without the guiding light of varying shapes and lines.
Throughout the entire process that has lead up to this assignment, I have worn many caps. The cap of a composer seemed to fit best, specifically with how well it matched my composing process I had already established. However, this task asked me to take off my composer hat and try on the hat of an editor, one that looked to big and didn't seem to go with what my composing process was wearing. I was proven wrong by how well I took to this new look and the person I now saw in the mirror. I was an editor and for once I had the chance to conduct and enhance rather than be instructed on what to enhance. During the two previous assignments, I worked under the stress of attempting to meet the requirements of an editor or evaluator, however this assignment completely turned the tables. I was in control of what needed to be changed and how it should be changed.
ReplyDeleteWhen first being assigned my newsletter, I felt that there lied a difficult task ahead. There wasn’t much to work with and while I originally thought this was a bad thing, I came to realize that the less there was the more I was allowed to change and build upon. I had more space to suggest changes and take further ideas the author had already presented. One challenge that came to mind when reading through the newsletter was how I was going to shift the target of audience. But I realized that the audience wasn’t specifically shifted towards another, it was only broadened, a factor that wouldn’t require the author’s work to be completely shifted, but it too to only be broadened. This is where, as DJ points out, that diction must be addressed in a manner to suit the audience focus. I set this as my main task while revising the newsletter and, besides the occasional grammatical and sentence structure errors that I used the style guides to refer to; I knew I had a tough task ahead of me. I found it difficult to decide whether I approached this broader audience with a broader use of diction or maintain a focused level of intellect and assume the common knowledge of the new audience.
Throughout the letter process, I found the editing cap fitting even better. I enjoyed the ability it provides you with to hold a conversation with your peers or in the case of an editor, your employees or clients, in a formal fashion. The ability to highlight my revisions and the reasons why I changed what excited me, but more specifically I found myself communicating with the work in the manner suggested throughout Before You Begin. Like Michael mentions, Sommers’ Responding to and Evaluating Student Work also provided me with guidance on how to ensure that I was not only concentrating on the work, but also how the author would respond to the suggested changes and revisions. What I did realize from this process was how the revision process opens up this ability to communicate and make suggestions both between the editor and the text itself, as well as the author.
To me, this editing project has been one of my favorites thus far. The actual process was much easier than the other projects we’ve done because there really wasn’t any prior research we had to do. Like Alissa, as a basis for the editing I did, I used the style guides that were on the course library, and that was the most outside sources I needed to use for the editing portion. This project was also fun for me because I usually edit papers for my friends, and since we did read the editing article reminding us to edit by thinking of the audience reading it, it was a much easier project.
ReplyDeleteI actually read the newsletter a couple of times before putting any marks on it. Before going in and changing the newsletter around I looked for any grammatical errors, and then proceeded with the changes. With the style guides to my side, I began to change words or phrases (even examples) that I thought did not fit in with the audience that would be reading it. After making all the changes, I also made comments on the pictures or organization of the newsletter.
The last step was actually writing the letter, which I went ahead and researched a bit before writing. I used a template on Word in order to make sure I had an address and that it looked professional like a letter an editor would really write to their client. I thought it was important to keep in mind to organize the positive comments at the top and then to detail what changes you made towards the middle/end.
Overall, I really enjoyed working within this genre, and I think this project will be easy to adapt into the digital portfolio’s (even though I had not originally planned on doing so) because it can show what I am capable of doing, with both the letter and the actual editing.
Like many of my peers are saying, I enjoyed the editing project the most because I felt that it was most applicable to where I see myself in a future career. I would definitely have to agree with Alissa that my process for the editing project was easier and much faster than with my other projects. I suppose that this ease could have been because I was missing something, but I don’t think that’s it. I think that the process was faster for several reasons: #1 because I was entering into Janice’s already begun process of writing at the editing stage and #2 because while I did make some changes, my primary role was to instruct and not to construct.
ReplyDeleteThere was definitely a process with several steps to my project, though, which I honestly wasn’t expecting going into the project (I had no idea just how much work and preparation goes into editing!). The first step, just as in all of my other projects, was research. Research might not seem necessary in editing, but I was not familiar with any of the proper editing techniques and even needed to brush up on grammar rules in order to be effective. Besides the Style Guides, Fleckenstein’s “Before You Begin” was a helpful resource in understanding exactly what my role was as an editor. I also needed to find an article on synthesis to aid Janice and I needed to do some research on it myself in order to better assist her in understanding how to do it better in her newsletter.
I agree with Alex that it is extremely important to keep ideas organized in my writing process, especially for this assignment. Once I began reading through the newsletter and noticing things that needed to be changed I realized that I needed to come up with a system. First, I read through the entire newsletter without touching my pen to paper. Then I printed out an extra copy and as I read it through again I began to jot notes and tweak small changes. After I had done this I decided I should organize my ideas as a whole and wrote a rough draft of my letter. Finally I printed the newsletter again and used correct markings and added my comments and created the final draft of my letter. I think this process allowed me to get a good feel for what Janice was trying to say in her newsletter, but it also allowed me to remember the ideas to make it better as I went along.
In all of my other reflections over projects procrastination has been a large part of my process. However, for this project I was actually very on top of things (yay!). I think the brainstorming stage of the writing process is the hardest for me, so since the only brainstorming I had to do was coming up with creative ideas to make already communicated ideas clearer, I had a much easier time getting things accomplished.
I’m feeling great after this project. I think it’s been my best one yet and I am actually excited about digging into the Digital Portfolio… Bring it on! :-)
I hadn’t noticed how significant the term audience was until I did this project. Each project that we’ve done has been created based on who the audience was for it. The poster project was aimed towards the “40 somethings” and I had to brainstorm to “remix” a subject that was popular for teenagers today. I have to admit that project was my favorite one. I loved the topic I chose and I was able to utilize my creativity to it’s fullest potential. I love creating graphic designs as well so I used that to my advantage. This project was all about the audience, from the poster itself to the cover letter, those “40 somethings” were in the back of my mind the whole time and influenced all of my decisions. For the newsletter, the freshman population was the audience. This fact influenced the language I used, images I incorporated, and even the layout of my newsletter. Now looking back at it, if the audience would have been different my whole project would have been different. The remediation project was aimed for scholars in the field, so it was definitely a much different approach than the newsletter. For me in particular, I had to think about what songs to include and what message I wanted to portray through the audio clip I created. As far as the editing project goes, again the audience was switched so therefore the vision was switched again. That’s something else I noticed, we did the same project three times, they just seemed completely different because of the audience switches. Because of this, now I see how vital audience is to works. Without audience there is no goal and no direction. It’s like driving aimlessly forever without a final destination.
ReplyDeleteThis project in particular was the main one that pointed out the importance of audience because of the fact that as an editor, it was my job to point someone else in the direction of the new audience. At first I wasn’t really sure where to go with it because the key term was “Freshman Composition” and everyone knows what that is except of course incoming freshman. But, I just thought of the bigger picture, although many people have taken the course do they really know what it means and what they took from it? Some people take courses and never really think back and appreciate how much they grew from it. I personally never took Freshman Composition because I was excused through my AP score, but I took a course very similar to it in high school and that was where I developed my love for writing and composition. With that being said, I kept that vision in the back of my mind while I read, re-read, and read Sammi’s newsletter over and over.
Although this project wasn’t my favorite I appreciate it nonetheless. Editing is what I want to do in the future so practicing it will never get old to me. I enjoyed the editing portion; it was just the actual content that I wasn’t so fond of. Nonetheless I see the importance of each and every project and the interweaving string that connects them: audience.
The editing project was an interesting one. It took me back to the days I was copy and layout editor for my school yearbook. (Which was a long time ago.) It’s always fun to get back into the mode of editing for a purpose. I liked being able to see what I remembered about layout design when I went into editing Jenna’s newsletter. Editing someone else’s work is always different from editing my own. I look at someone’s piece as a whole, whereas I look at mine in parts. I piece my work together like a puzzle and look at the overall effect last. With the newsletter, I looked at the overall effect first, wrote a short list about what immediately struck me, and then went into editing the parts.
ReplyDeleteThe thing about working as an editing is that the whole always has to be considered no matter what you decide to tinker with first. Editing someone else’s piece is always more fluid than editing my own work because I know exactly what I’d like the other person’s piece to look like. The less creative involvement I have with a piece, the easier it is to edit. I edited papers when I tutored at TCC and copy for the yearbook. It was always easier to spot those mistakes and fix errors in style or tone.
It was very easy for me to look at Jenna’s newsletter and picture it in a different setting. It’s like editing the draft just before sending it to become a proof. I focused mainly on editing her layout, rather than the content of the copy. I liked her tone overall and I felt like it would be a good fit for those all over campus. Her newsletter was fun and I didn’t want to lose any of that tone. I wanted to create a different layout, clean it up a little. Her eyeline needed the most work throughout. Newsletters are different than other layout templates, but they should still flow easily from one space to the next, so that’s what I concentrated on fixing.
This project was a lot easier than some of the others. As I said before, the less involvement I have in creating something, the easier it is for me to edit. I tend to overcritique my work when I’m creating a piece from thin air. The poster went through several versions before I settled on the cover image I chose. The remediation was another project I went through a lot of second guessing with. I went through a list of ideas before finally settling on one that was manageable with the time given and the time I actually had to dedicate to working on it. This project was must easier and faster because it was a job I’d done a million times before on yearbook staff and working at TCC. Both of those jobs required me to think about the guidelines first and whether or not a piece fit those guidelines. I work best with those: guidelines, deadlines, and structure. Given free reign, I have trouble doing just that. I can rarely reign in my ideas in a meaningful amount of time if I have no direction creatively. Even though the other projects had guidelines of a sort, they were creatively open enough that I had trouble settling on ideas. Call me a commitment phobe for creativity.
I really have only good feelings about this project. I felt strong in working on it and I think I had the right idea. I can only hope my gut feeling is right and I didn’t edit with the wrong intentions.
My thought process during the keyword newsletter editing project was significantly different than that of the book cover, the original keyword newsletters, and the remediations. While editing does require some sympathetic level of creativity, it is not the same for the the person who did the creating. The process consisted of a more conscious effort to get inside someone else’s head. No longer your own as with beginning any of the other projects. Once I had read the newsletter a couple of times, I began to think as if I were the person who wrote it, what they trying to say, and most importantly, the best possible way to say it.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with Sara that this process is seemingly centered around the audience. Everything involved in this process is about the audience, how it sounds, how it looks. I imagine that it is the same with any editing project. Also in this sense, the editing project process was very much similar to the other projects and their processes. I believe that these experiences in the classroom will prepare us in so many ways for the real world of editing. Professors, most likely, feel the same. The purpose of Fleckenstein’s strategy is to move students from a contemplation of themselves as readers to the practical work as peer editors.
Besides stepping outside of myself and into someone else, there was a consciousness about what looked good and what didn’t, what was needed and what wasn’t, what needed to be revised and what needed more documental support. There was a phrase that came to mind that I believe was said by Ms. Kara herself, “a pair of fresh eyes.’ I understand this better than I did even before starting the project. Somehow, it really is more helpful, I know from experience, to have someone else look at your work and catch something that you did not, simply because you have seen your work in much the same way over and over again until eventually it has become ingrained in your mind from fatigue. The best possible solution, is then to have someone edit and make suggestions about your work, to help you come up with the best possible finished project.
Although DJ makes a good point concerning interpretation with editing, I find that this is why editing has a purpose, to suggest more appeals to the audience because up until the editing process, the creator of the work has been the only pair of eyes to see and the only hands to make changes to it. Therefore editing exists so that hopefully there is less to be left to interpretation than if left in the hands of the writer/artist/composer alone. An editor’s job then is to bring into being more conciseness and make the work more palatable to the audience. Although as was mentioned, a work can never be completely ‘finished.’ There is always room for improvement.
The process for the editing project was a sort of step by step process. The first thing to do was get the project from the author in an email format. After doing so I found out that her project was about revision. I did a quick google search to get a basic idea of what revision is. Then I looked at the project sheet to make sure that I knew exactly what I was supposed to do for the project. After that I printed the document out and read it a few times. After the second time I got out a pen and paper and started marking, and then I found that I was running out of room and that my revisions looked messy. So, I printed it out again and started writing everything neater. I checked every once in a while to make sure that I was following the editing style guides. When I was all done I reviewed it real quick to make sure that I hadn’t forgotten anything and then set about the task of writing the cover letter. When it was finished I printed it out and stapled it to the paper and newsletter. That is the process I used for the editing project.
ReplyDeleteThe processes for each project were really different, they had hardly any similarities between them. They all started with an idea of what to do but they all evolved differently from there. For this project I had to work with something that had already been created and just suggest changes that needed to be made. With the other projects the processes consisted of me creating something. The first and third project had similar processes because both had parts that consisted of me using my artistic ability in a drawing. For the first project, the part of the process that sets it apart from the others was the knowledge part. Before I began actually making the project I had to figure out what my project would be on. Everything that would be a part of it. For the second project the part of the process that sticks out compared to the others was the finding of a format that would fit the appropriate audience and then setting that information in a almost completely written form. That project was not multiple portions that needed to be completed before you could move to the next step, it was one whole step on its own. The third project, the part of the process that stood out the most from the others was the redoing of it. I drew the idea out twice and after the first draft I drew out a new one that I had made slight alterations to. The fourth project the process was different from the other because I wasn’t compiling information to present in a form I was merely revising what was there. Those are the differences and similarities between the processes of the four projects.
As for connections between the processes, there were a couple but not a lot. For all of the processes I had to research what I was working on. Since the last three projects were essentially concerning the same thing certain steps of the process were connected to the other. There was information that you gained in doing the second project that was needed for the third and that also goes for the fourth project. However, you also had to learn how to do a cover letter for the first project and this knowledge was needed to complete the fourth project.
The process for the editing was much different than any other project we have had to do this semester. We had to take a work that was already completed and edit a classmates work. We had to make critiques to one of our equals. This was hard for me at first because my partner had such a great newsletter. Editing it was tough, but luckily the change of the genre helped me have more content than I would have had if I was editing the project as it was, as I would hardly have anything to complain about.
ReplyDeleteThis was different because we didn’t have to actually construct a project. In all of the other projects we had to go through the process of invention, in this one the invent\ion was already there, although I did use invention when offering suggestions, it was on a much smaller scale that had been done before. Changing the genre, like the keyword newsletter and offering advice and critique on changing the audience were completely different. The genres first of all were completely un-alike. Secondly, our positions were un-alike, we had to act as editors for the editing project, most of us have never been put in that position. The processes were very different as well. All of the projects for that matter were in different genres with different audiences. It is hard to map them all out side by side but Ill try my best by describing what the process was for each.
The poster project did not involve many words in the actual project, but only in the letter. I had to think of a way to use strong images to support my title within a 40 and up age group that appeals to 20’s.
For the newsletter I had to think of creative and interesting ways to present information about one certain word for college freshman. I also had to think of a design concept that would appeal to all of them.
For the newsletter remediated I could work within whatever medium I wanted. I had to aim it towards scholarly equals.
Editing was different that all of them. I was given a partner and I had to write them a letter on what to do differently with their project and it had to be aimed towards all college students.
The processes for each of these were unique. Each one of them had different specifications. A poster will never have the same process as a newsletter. Some began with just a genre and audience, and some were finished projects that just needed to be edited or remediated.
The parallels I see are that we always had an audience in my process, and almost always had a genre to work within. These helped the rest of my process by giving me a jump start on deciding what to do for my project since who my audience was, was already decided and the manner in which it would be organized was already decided.
Like Alex I found that my composition process for this project was much easier. For the poster and the newsletter projects we had to research before we could even begin composing. Although I did include some references and suggested sites in my letter, this project didn’t require any initial research. In addition, the entire composing process was significantly less time consuming than the remediation project which took me a full week to plan and execute. Although it took a long time the remediation project is still my favorite because of its freedom and creativity.
ReplyDeleteI found the editing project to be the least time consuming of all of our projects so far, however, for me it was a challenge. Although I have read over and helped my friend’s proof their papers in the past, I’ve never had to edit a classmate’s work as an assignment before. Normally when I proof read a friend’s paper I can just tell them what I think and the changes I recommend. This direct conversation wasn’t possible in the editing project so I had to find other efficient ways to communicate. The challenge of this assignment was using the style guide editing symbols and brief notes to convey my edits. Thankfully we were able to also include a letter, this allowed me to tie together my revisions and edits and explain why they‘re important.
I often have trouble editing my own work, but it was surprisingly easy to catch errors and deliver edits on something I wasn’t involved in creating. I took some time to read through the newsletter a couple times in order to see where the author was trying to take it, then I went through and made edits and revisions. Next time I think I would make my revisions first and then go back for technical edits, because there were a couple instances where I made edits and then decided the paragraph or sentence would be better moved or even deleted.
This project should help me with the final portfolio because it has given me an incentive to have a third party edit my content before I submit it. As my coworker the copy writer at work always says, “everyone needs an editor.”
I have to agree with what most of those before me have said about the editing project being one of the easiest. I feel like this might have something to do with the fact that we had already done two projects on the same subject with the newsletter and remediation. Granted, editing is completely different from the other two, but our brains were already in keyword mode so to speak. I think creating our own keyword newsletter and analyzing our keyword in order to appropriately remediate it made the editing process almost a natural progression.
ReplyDeleteWith the original keyword newsletter there was a lot of research and invention involved. For the remediation there was some more, lower key research. The only research involved in the editing project was to ensure that you knew the style guides to use for the editing. Your partner’s newsletter should have been done to an extent that you need not research the word to understand it.
I tend to think of the poster project completely separate from these last three projects. There was a lot of room for creative interpretation whereas the newsletter and editing projects have been a little more rigid. The remediation project gave room for creativity but it still followed a formula and structure of sorts. Personally the poster project was my absolute favorite. I got to take a concept that was completely my own and see it through from start to finish.
For me the hardest part of the editing project was maintaining the author’s style and voice while attempting to improve upon their work. It was so tempting to insert my personal style, but that would have detracted from the newsletter as a whole. Something that helped me at this point was the previous homework assignment we did in editing a celebrity obituary. I was also able to put the readings to good use. It was extremely helpful to read over it a few times before trying to make changes, that is something I used to kind of skip over. I might read it once, but once isn’t really enough.
My process for this editing process threw me off a little because rather than making the small grammatical corrections first, I jumped into making a list of issues that jumped off the page as I read through. Sometimes an extra read through would help me make sense of the situation and cross it off the “fix list.” I found it extremely useful to take notes as I went, I’ve since been considering alternatives for how to use the same technique on other assignments and subjects.
At first I thought this assignment was going to be easy. I figured “hey I’ll just read over his newsletter a few times and correct what needs to be fixed”. Well after I started working on this project, I realized it wasn’t that easy. As I began reading DJ’s newsletter, I found that nothing really struck me as completely wrong. I really seemed to enjoy what I was reading, and I could relate a significant amount to what was written. After a few times reading through, I figured I had my handle on his newsletter. I re read the assignment description a few more times to see if there was anything that could point me a direction. I was sort of lost at first, and I wasn’t sure how to get the ball rolling. I needed some sort of spark to begin to edit this piece, and there was: the audience switch.
ReplyDeleteAlthough DJ’s newsletter was amazingly suited for the original audience, the new audience was entirely different, and that’s where I decided to put my main focus. I tried to be critical but not overly critical, and give both positive and negative feedback. I made sure to give suggestions within my remarks, stating suggestions such as scholars to use, and different example sources to include.
For this project, I used a few tools. First, I utilized the style guide given to us. I made sure I incorporated what needed to be within the guidelines of the style guide. Next, I used some of the advice given to me at an internship I had with a magazine. Although I did not learn how to write the letter to the author at that internship, I learned about editing and what is important to fix within a product. I made sure that before I made any conclusions or decisions on what to edit, I had read the piece thoroughly and knew exactly what I needed to say. Finally, I actually did a couple rough drafts of the editing process. The final product was destined to take place on a computer, but I wanted to make sure that I could first visually see what changes I wanted to be made. I reprinted DJ’s newsletter multiple times, rethinking my pathway of editing each time. I wanted to make sure the editions were clear and concise, yet visual enough for him to understand.
Then came the fun part for me: writing the letter. I enjoy writing professional letters for our “fake bosses” or our “fake writers”. I enjoyed learning how to both constructively criticize DJ, yet point out what an amazing job he did. I was excited to explain my remarks and editing to him. I tried to sound very professional, yet not intimidating (as we saw in Kara’s emails from her editing pursuits)
Overall, I really enjoyed this project. It reminded me that while this is a stressful field, this is in fact what I’d like to do with my life. Although it may be tedious at times, both criticizing and commending the author’s work was exciting to me, and I was really stimulated the entire time working through this project.
The word “process” is haunting my dreams. I’ve been forced to reflect upon its meaning and application all semester – and it has helped my composition process tremendously. I don’t just mean writing, either. I’ve got a whole new way of going about doing all of my projects now (I especially noticed when I was doing my ‘Steven Johnson’ drawing thing). Since I’ve been looking at composition as a non-linear process, my world has completely changed. I don’t worry so much about doing things in the “correct” order. That always felt so forced to me, and I would struggle with completing things because I lost motivation or forgot what bright idea I’d had. I’m glad it was my keyword.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, the editing project. Right off the bat, it was different from any editing assignment I’d ever had. I had new weapons. Thanks to the style guides we were given, I felt more confident about the changes and marks I was making. I feel like the greatest focus we had for this, was to be sure it was appropriate for the new target-audience. Certain aspects of the newsletters were meant especially for freshman, and those had to be completely altered to cater to all other (not so ditsy) students. MY biggest challenge was making the newsletter “better” without impressing too much of myself on it. There were several instances where I wanted to rearrange a sentence, just because I thought it sounded better another way. Not that it was grammatically incorrect, but because it wasn’t the way I would say it. Correcting the material to meet my standards while still maintaining the author’s own voice and style is definitely something I’d have to work on. I’m so pushy.
This editing project was different from our other projects from the beginning because we weren’t responsible for the same kind of “composition.” With the other projects, we were given a concept, some instructions, and a blank slate. In this case, we were given an existing work to manipulate. We had to respond to someone else’s creation, and essentially make something out of that. If you think about it, we were technically reflecting on our partner’s newsletter, revising and refining it. By comparing the way their newsletter met criteria, I could simultaneously assess how mine held up as well. I remember wondering if I had been so careless with grammatical errors, or if I had successfully reached my targeted audience.
All of my projects began with the intended audience in mind. All I thought about was what appealed to my audience? How can I use that to convey this message? For the editing project though, I had to think about these things, and then assess their use and effectiveness in my partner’s newsletter. With the first few projects, we had a lot more creative freedom, lots of room for self expression and identity. The editing project wasn’t like that. You had to maintain the identity of the writer, and I almost found that boring. Kindof sounds like I’m a little self-obsessed, but I swear I’m not… It’s just easier to do things to fit myself, or adapt myself to them, than it is to tell someone else how to do it correctly. I’m not sure I’m cut out to be an editor… I much more prefer the role of contributor. I think.
Before beginning to edit my classmate’s paper, or any ones for that matter, I read over the newsletter multiple times. I found that it was necessary to do this so that I could get the gist of what the author was trying to get across in their newsletter. I didn’t want to begin butchering her paper and adding suggestions before fully understanding her intentions. Again before completely marking up the paper, I collected my thoughts so I would understand my own intentions for the revisions. I kept mind when editing the audience switch from incoming freshmen to the entire student body. I knew that it would be important to maintain fluidity throughout the newsletter while still adding some new suggestions. There were some obvious changes that were geared towards incoming freshmen that were easy edits. On another note there were a few things that I could see that were intended on attracting freshmen, but with a few tweaks here and there could easily be shaped towards the whole student body. I wanted to make my edits and add my suggestions, while still maintaining the personality of the author. I found this process enjoyable and rewarding to give constructive criticism that would benefit the overall outcome of some ones hard work.
ReplyDeleteI found many similarities between the processes of all the projects given throughout the semester. They all required an intensive thought process before even beginning to take on the project. Before beginning, I read over the instructions for each of the projects multiple times in order to make sure I understood the requirements. Then just as I did in the editing project, I gathered my thoughts and came up with a few solid ideas. After examining these ideas, asking classmates, friends and running it by you, I was able to narrow it done to the final one. I believe feedback is an important part of the process in order for it to be a complete success. Without the opinions of others, it would be hard to tell if you have targeted the correct audience. This is also a good way to test whether or not your idea is coming off the way you had intended it to. For example, I took the idea for my poster and made a few different examples of how the outcome could come out, and then asked others for their opinion on what they interpreted from them. This way I could narrow done what would work best. After creating my final product, I still knew I wasn’t quite done. Although the project may have appeared to me to be perfect, it is still important to ask others to revise it. I did this with most of my projects, but wish I had been more effective with my newsletter, I think lacking in this step of the process really put a damper on the outcome of the final product. I guess that’s how you learn from your mistakes. Once I felt confident with the final product I went through one last editing round myself to help clear up and minor mistakes such as spelling or grammar errors. This is where the editing project comes into play. Although it is important to edit our own papers in such a manner, I suppose handing it off to one last person would help see any mistakes you are over-looking. Each project was different, but had many similarities within their processes, which results in a successful outcome.
Looking back on the semester, we’ve accomplished a lot. When I signed up for this class I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but I think it’s been a great introduction to the major. Our latest task was to edit a classmate’s newsletter. I’ll be forward when I say that this didn’t excite me in the slightest. Editing has never been my strong suit in my own work, and there I was responsible for trying to edit the work of a peer. First off, I felt in no way qualified to perform the task. Jocelyn did a great job with her newsletter, so I didn’t have much to edit. I read it through the first time and thought: “great, where do I come in?” And so I read it again. And again. By the third read-through, I’d already found a few things that could be tweaked to fulfill the needs of the new audience. To be perfectly honest, I thought we were changing the audience to the general public. For some reason, that was what I’d got from the countless discussions on the assignment. You can imagine my dismay when I finish, take a smoke break and come back to discover that I was wrong. Thus, creating more work and jeopardizing my grade on the assignment. All-in-all, I’m glad that I got my hands dirty. Writing the letter to Jocelyn on what and why I’d edited in her piece, it came together for me. It suddenly made sense, what I was doing. While she didn’t need my help, I think the assignment was a solid, low-risk introduction to the editing process as a whole. After completing it I realized that I’m better suited to perform any other job professionally.
ReplyDeleteStacked up against everything we’ve done this semester, I’d say that this assignment was the bow on a gift-wrapped box. Or the ribbon for it, at least. With the poster, newsletter, and remediation we had been editing all-along. The assignment that best exemplifies or encompasses our hard work this semester was the remediation project. With that, we were told take an idea that we’ve created and re-create it. It taught us to work in new mediums, digital or not. All of the assignments required creativity. The hardest of each wasn’t the hours of labor, but the hours of consideration put into producing something original and exciting. When you look at what we’ve done, it’s a little bit of everything. Each thing is relevant to the other; the newsletter that defined terms we’d been using in practical application, the poster to develop a composing identity, the remediation to re-imagine it and last but certainly not least, the finishing touches. Alone, each has a distinguished purpose and lesson to be learned. Together, they’re the essence of what we’ll be endlessly striving for perfection in with or professional careers.