Final Project
About an hour ago, I submitted my final project for my Copy-editing course. In addition to editing the text, we had to create a style sheet, a letter to the author, and an invoice. While the new additions would seemingly be the harder parts of the assignment, this was not the case. With the exception of the style sheet, which I am not a hundred percent certain I did correctly, I found these other tasks relatively easy in comparison to editing the paper.
In my previous post, I complained about there not being obvious errors with a paper. Well this paper had too many obvious errors. There were many places where I wanted to simply rewrite the whole thing because I was unsure how to edit this without actually rewriting. So many sentences or even paragraphs were in illogical places! So many quotations were not properly integrated! How is the reader supposed to know who wrote the quote or why it is important if it is just thrown into the article? Though I am not incredibly adept at The Chicago Manuel of Style, even I saw the blatant errors that were neither cohesive for a paper nor corresponding with the style. A part of me was absolutely aghast at the fact that someone could write something so terrible. It was not scholarly. Even a majority of undergraduates (hopefully) know better than to do what was done in this. Yes, I know this was an assignment, but still what a mess.
Would someone really submit something this outrageous to an academic journal or to a publishing company? Yes, this was meant to be from one person to a copyeditor before sending it to an academic journal, but do people really send something like this out? Do they believe that the editors at whatever journal or publisher will do the work for them? If this went to a freelance copyeditor before it went to a journal or a publisher, would the copyeditor be forced to make the major changes that I itched to make? These questions grew in me as I read that article.
I also realized as I created the other documents for my assignment that a style sheet, an invoice, and a letter are all things that one needs practice with in order to make perfect. Many of the places I look for guidance had templates but also claimed that people tended to make their own or edit the templates to be their own. This is what I ended up doing. I hope they came out okay.
After submitting this final assignment, I only have two more things to do before the class is over. I hope that I remember much of what I learned. Maybe within a year or so I will be working as a copyeditor or in some similar capacity, even if only as an assistant at some publishing company.
Sincerely,
Almost Finished and Almost There
In my previous post, I complained about there not being obvious errors with a paper. Well this paper had too many obvious errors. There were many places where I wanted to simply rewrite the whole thing because I was unsure how to edit this without actually rewriting. So many sentences or even paragraphs were in illogical places! So many quotations were not properly integrated! How is the reader supposed to know who wrote the quote or why it is important if it is just thrown into the article? Though I am not incredibly adept at The Chicago Manuel of Style, even I saw the blatant errors that were neither cohesive for a paper nor corresponding with the style. A part of me was absolutely aghast at the fact that someone could write something so terrible. It was not scholarly. Even a majority of undergraduates (hopefully) know better than to do what was done in this. Yes, I know this was an assignment, but still what a mess.
Would someone really submit something this outrageous to an academic journal or to a publishing company? Yes, this was meant to be from one person to a copyeditor before sending it to an academic journal, but do people really send something like this out? Do they believe that the editors at whatever journal or publisher will do the work for them? If this went to a freelance copyeditor before it went to a journal or a publisher, would the copyeditor be forced to make the major changes that I itched to make? These questions grew in me as I read that article.
I also realized as I created the other documents for my assignment that a style sheet, an invoice, and a letter are all things that one needs practice with in order to make perfect. Many of the places I look for guidance had templates but also claimed that people tended to make their own or edit the templates to be their own. This is what I ended up doing. I hope they came out okay.
After submitting this final assignment, I only have two more things to do before the class is over. I hope that I remember much of what I learned. Maybe within a year or so I will be working as a copyeditor or in some similar capacity, even if only as an assistant at some publishing company.
Sincerely,
Almost Finished and Almost There
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