to return to this list.Fall 2008
Wednesday, 7:30 to 8:30 pm, online chat; 8:30 to 9:00 pm, small group work
| Instructor: | Roland Nord | |
| Office: | 229E AH | |
| Office Hours: | TWR, 2:00 to 5:00 pm; W, 6:00 to 6:30 pm and 9:00 to 9:30 pm; or by appointment | |
| Phone: | 389-5402 | |
| Fax: | 389-5362 | |
| Email: | roland.nord@mnsu.edu |
This
syllabus contains the following sections. Click to return to this list.
Required materialsThe following texts are required:
Chicago manual of style. 2003. 15th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [CMS]
Chicago manual of style FAQ. 2005. Univeristy of Chicago Press <http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/cmosfaq.html> 14 September 2005.
Rude, Carolyn. 2006. Technical editing. 4th ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. [TE]
Rude, Carolyn. 2008. Companion website for Technical Editing, 4th ed. ABLongman <http://wps.ablongman.com/long_rude_te_4>28 July 2008.
The following materials are recommended:
A point gauge or a graphic arts leading ruler.
In addition, students are encouraged to purchase and use a style manual appropriate to their field of study; examples include
American Medical Association Staff. 1997. Manual of style: A guide for authors & editors. 9th ed. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins.
American Psychological Association. 2002. Publication manual of the American Psychological Association. 5th ed. Washington, DC:
Associated Press. 1996. Associated Press stylebook and libel manual. 6th ed. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Council of Biology Editors. 1995. Scientific style and format: The CBE manual for authors, editors, and publishers. Rev. 6th ed. Northbrook: Council of Biology Editors, Inc.
Day, Robert. 1998. How to write & publish a scientific paper. 5th ed. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press.
Michaelson, Herbert. 1990. How to write & publish engineering papers and reports. 3rd ed. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press.
Microsoft Corporation. 1998. The Microsoft manual of style for technical publications. 3rd ed. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press.
New York Public Library writer's guide to style and usage. 1994. New York: HarperCollins.
Sabin, William. 2005. The Gregg reference manual. 10th ed. Boston: McGraw Hill.
Swanson, Ellen. 1999. Mathematics into type. Rev. ed. Providence: American Mathematical Society.
U.S. Government Printing Office. 1993. A manual of style. New York: Random House Value Publishing, Inc.
If you do not know what constitutes an appropriate style guide for your profession or discipline, please consult with me or with one of the instructors in your major.
Students are encouraged to subscribe to the Copyediting (COPYEDITING-L) discussion list and to subscribe to other discussion lists or newsgroups as appropriate for their majors, minors, or interests.
Course description and learning outcomesThis course serves as an introduction to substantive editing and to copyediting. Students will concentrate on the following activities:
Class will follow a (modified) workshop format.
Students completing the course will successfully demonstrate their ability
Every attempt will be made to accommodate qualified students with disabilities. If you are a student with a documented disability, please notify me as early in the semester as possible to discuss the necessary accommodations, and/or contact the Disability Services Office at (507) 389-2825 (V) or (800) 627-3529 (MRS/TTY).
EvaluationYour grade will be based upon your performance on your written assignments, group work, in-class exercises, and final exam. Point totals for each assignment are given in the assignment specifications.
I expect you to use your texts and any appropriate reference materials on all exams, quizzes, and assignments. You may work collaboratively on specified assignments and quizzes. When working collaboratively, submit a single document for the entire group; however, be sure each collaborator signs and receives a copy of the document.
I will evaluate your performance on most of the major editing assignments, exercises, quizzes, and on the final exam. Point totals for assignments will be provided in the assignment specifications. Please note that I will not evaluate or comment on all of the work that you submit. Also, note that the copyediting, proofreading, and comprehensive editing assignments for the second half of the course are weighted more heavily than the assignments for the first half of the course.
Students' work will be assigned grades based upon the following scale:
= Grade 90–99 = A = work of definitely superior quality 80–89 = B = a level of performance that is above average 70–79 = C = a below-average level of performance 60–69 = D = unacceptable performance = F = unacceptable performance
Definitions of grades are taken from the MSU 2007-2009 Graduate Studies Bulletin (5).
Although undergraduate and graduate students complete many of the same assignments, graduate students will complete fewer exercises than undergraduates, substituting at least two research assignments—a selectively annotated bibliography and a research presentation.
Any work that you submit late must be accompanied by a cover memo explaining why the work is submitted late and why I should comment on and evaluate the work. I will not accept work that is submitted late because of unexcused absences. Any requests for deadline extensions or incompletes must be made in writing and must be submitted before the assignment is due or, in the case of incompletes, before the final exam. The university policy on incompletes is provided in the MSU 2007-2009 Graduate Studies Bulletin (5).
All email correspondence about the course must include either Eng 575 on the subject line. Please do not append files to email correspondence unless directed to do so in the assignment specs.
Tentative reading and writing assignmentsComplete the readings and the assignments by the date indicated. Typically, each week I will send you an email message reminding you of your reading, writing, and editing assignments for our next class meeting.
The instructor reserves the right to modify this syllabus.
TE, Chapter 1, "Editing: The Big Picture," 3-18
TE, Chapter 2, "Readers, Users, Browsers, Problem Solvers...," 19-34
CMS, Chapter 1, "The Parts of a Published Work," 1-56
Research
Amare, N. 2004. Act well thy part: Performing technical writer and engineer. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication 47 (3): 211-215.
Weber, Jean Hollis. n.d. Working with a technical editor. Technical Editors' Eyrie <http://www.jeanweber.com/about/workwith.htm> 23 August 2007.
Exploration of websites:
editingNOW
Geoff-Hart.com
KOK Edit: Katharine O'Moore-Klopf
The Editor's Mark: Jill Hughes
The Technical Editors' Eyrie
Assignments due
TE, Chapter 3, "Collaborating with Writers," 35-45
TE, Chapter 23, "Type and Production," 398-406
CMS, Appendix A: "Design and Production--Basic Procedures and Key Terms," 803-814, 841-856
Counterspace. n.d. <http://www.counterspace.us/typography/> 27 August 2008.
Identifont. n.d. <http://www.identifont.com/> 27 August 2008.
Format and style guidelines. n.d. College of Graduate Studies and Research <http://grad.mnsu.edu/capstone/guidelines.html> 3 September 2008.
Research
Mackiewicz, Jo. 2007. Audience perceptions of fonts in projected PowerPoint text slides. Technical Communication 54 (3): 295- 307.
Perlin, Neil. 2007. Writing becomes industrial. Intercom 54 (1): 17-19.
Schultz, Laura D., and Jan H. Spyridakis. 2004. The effect of heading frequency on comprehension of online information: A study of two populations. Technical Communication 51 (4): 504-516.
Williams, Thomas, and Jan Spyradakis. 1992. Visual discriminability of headings in text. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication 35 (2): 64-70.
In-class work
Notes
Implementing the MSU Diversity Commission Plan: A Diversity Commission Report. 28 July 2005. MSU. <http://www.mnsu.edu/diversity/commission/documents/diversity-commission-report.pdf> 3 September 2008.
Assignments due
Sentence combining: Coordination; see also TE, 177-78 (10 points) collaborative exercise
Book elements (10 points) collaborative exercise
Signals (10 points)
Methods and tools
TE, Chapter 4, "Marking Paper Copy," 49-65
CMS, Chapter 2, "Manuscript Preparation and Manuscript Editing," 57-90
Research
Bartell, Alexandra, Laura Schultz, and Jan Spyridakis. 2006. The effect of heading frequency on comprehension of print versus online information. Technical Communication 53 (4): 416-423.
Corbin, Michelle, Pat Moell, and Mike Boyd. 2002. Technical editing as quality assurance: Adding value to content. Technical Communication 49 (3): 286-300.
In-class work
Notes
Copyediting exercise: TE 52
Assignments due
Sentence combining: Series (5 points) collaborative exercise
Sentence combining: Correlatives (5 points) collaborative exercise
Castoff exercise 1 (5 points) individual exercise
TE, Chapter 3, exercise 4 (5 points)
TE, Chapter 4, copyediting exercises 1 and 2 (10 points) individual exercise
Methods and tools
TE, Chapter 5, "Marking Digital Copy," 66-82
TE, Chapter 6, "Electronic Editing," 83-103
Research
Albers, Michael. 2000. The technical editor and document databases: What the future may hold. Technical Communication Quarterly 9 (2): 191-206.
Dayton, David. 2004. Electronic editing in technical communication: The compelling logics of local contexts. Technical Communication 51 (1): 86-101.
Lanier, Clinton. 2004. Electronic editing and the author. Technical Communication 51 (4): 526-536.
W3Schools online web tutorials. 2007. Refnes Data <http://www.w3schools.com/> 7 February 2007.
Styles and templates
R. Nord's Explanation of styles
C. Rude's Tutorials and Presentations—Microsoft Word: Introduction to Styles
C. Kenyon's Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word: Understanding Styles
Microsoft's Format your document with styles
ACM Word template for articles
SAE Word template for articles
In-class work
Notes
Assignments due
Sentence combining: Subordination (10 points) collaborative
Signals exercise 2 (10 points) individual
Track changes (10 points) individual
Copyediting exercise: TE, 4.1 "Nitrogen Dioxide" (15 points) individual
Copyediting
TE, Chapter 7, "Basic Copyediting: An Introduction," 107-123
TE, Chapter 8, "Copyediting for Consistency," 124-138
Graphic Standards Guide. 11 July 2006. MSU <http://www.mnsu.edu/standards/> 13 February 2008.
Research
Keyes, Elizabeth. 1993. Typography, color, and information structure. Technical Communication 40 (4): 638-654. [Deeba R]
van der Waarde, Karel. 1999. Typographic dimensions and conventional wisdom: A discrepancy? Technical Communication 46 (1): 67-74.
In-class work
Instructor's notes
Style sheet and Editorial review form
Quiz: Copyediting
Style sheet for MSU MavPages: MavDisk, MavMail, MavNet, MavPrint, and MavAccount? (15 points) collaborative
Assignments due
Sentence combining: Relative clauses (10 points) collaborative
Sentence combining: Coordination revisited (15 points) collaborative
Copyediting exercise: TE, Chapter 7, exercise 6, page 123 (10 points) individual
TE, Chapter 8, exercises 3-4, page 138 (10 points)
Copyediting
TE, Chapter 9, "Spelling, Capitalization, and Abbreviations," 139-151
TE, Chapter 10: "Grammar and Usage," 142-172
CMS, Chapter 5, "Grammar and Usage," 145-237
CMS, Chapter 7, "Spelling. Distinctive Treatment of Words, and Compounds," 277-308
CMS, Chapter 8, "Names and Terms," 309-378
CMS, Chapter 10, "Foreign Languages," 399-441
Research
Isakson, Carol, and Jan Spyridakis. 1999. The influence of semantics and syntax on what readers remember. Technical Communication 46 (3): 366-381. [Christine C]
Manning, Alan. 2002. The grammar instinct. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication 45 (2): 133-137.
Mantila, Tim. 8 July 2008.Publication guidelines are more useful than a style guidePublication guidelines are more useful than a style guide. Communication & Creativity Blog <http://timmantyla.wordpress.com/2008/07/08/publication-guidelines-are-more-useful-than-a-style-guide/> 1 October 2008. [Jeana M]
In-class work
Instructor's notes
Lunsford_TopTwenty. n.d. Bedford St. Martins <http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/lunsford/Lunsford_TopTwenty.aspx> 4 October 2007.
The top 10 business writing errors. 2007. Whitesmoke <http://www.whitesmoke.com/the-top-ten-business-writing-errors.html> 4 October 2007.
Quiz: Spelling and grammar (15 points)
Assignments due
Sentence combining: Appositives (10 points) collaborative
TE, Chapter 10, Exercises 6, 7, 8, 9 (15 points)
Copyediting: Parking permits (10 points) individual
Copyediting
TE, Chapter 11, "Punctuation," 173-196
CMS, Chapter 15, "Abbreviations," 557-592
CMS, Chapter 6, "Punctuation," 239-275
Research
Bright, Mark. 2005. Creating, implementing, and maintaining corporate style guides in an age of technology. Technical Communication 52 (1): 42-51. [Kris C]
Connatser, Bradford. 2004. Reconsidering some prescriptive rules of grammar and composition. Technical Communication 51 (2): 264-275.
In-class work
Instructor's notes
Copyediting for punctuation (10 points)
Quiz on punctuation and abbreviations (20 points) collaborative
Assignments due
Sentence combining: Absolutes and participial phrases (10 points) collaborative
TE, Chapter 11, Exercises 2, 3d, 4c, 5b, 6f, 8b, 9b, 9e (15 points)
Copyediting exercise: TE, 9.1 "Stem Cell Research" (20 points) individual
Manuscript preparation
Author resources: How to prepare and present an SAE paper. n.d. Society of Automotive Engineers <http://volunteers.sae.org/authors/present.htm> 19 October 2005.
Under "Formatting Your Paper," click paper template to save or to open a Word document template.
Submitting articles to ACM journals. n.d. Association for Computing Machinery <http://www.acm.org/pubs/submissions/submission.htm> 19 October 2005.
Examine the instructions and template for submitting documents using MS Word. Note the use of styles.
APA journals: Preparing your accepted manuscript for publication. 2005. American Psychological Association <http://www.apa.org/journals/authors/preparing_efiles.html> 19 October 2005.
JAMA: Instructions for table creation. 2005. Journal of the American Medical Association <http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/293/14/1788/DC5> 19 October 2005.
Copyediting
TE, Chapter 12, "Quantitative and Technical Material," 197-213
CMS, Chapter 9, "Numbers," 379-398
CMS, Chapter 13, "Tables," 495-522
CMS, Chapter 14, "Mathematics in Type," 523-556
Research
Hanna, Jim. 1993. Writer worksheets: Design for Staff (Part I). Technical Communication 40 (1): 135-145.
In-class work
Instructor's notes
Copyediting task: Tables (in-class exercise)
Copyediting task: Referendum FAQ (in-class exercise)
Copyediting task: Table (in-class exercise)
Assignments due
Sentence combining: Prepositions (10 points) collaborative
TE, Chapter 12, Exercises 1, 2, 3, 6 (15 points) individual
Copyediting for consistency and punctuation (25 points) individual
Proofreading
TE, Chapter 13, "Proofreading," 214-228
CMS, Chapter 3, "Proofs," 91-104
Research
Mackiewicz Jo, and Kathryn Riley. 2003. The technical editor as diplomat: Linguistic strategies for balancing clarity and politeness. Technical Communication 50 (1): 83-94. [Julie S]
Schneider, Barbara. 2002. Clarity in context: Rethinking misunderstanding. Technical Communication 49 (2): 210-218.
In-class work
Instructor's notes
Presentation of research article
Copyediting exercise [doc]: Student-Athlete Drug and Alcohol Testing and Education Policy [pdf]
Assignments due
Sentence combining: Proforms (10 points) collaborative
TE, Chapter 13, Exercises 5-7 (20 points) individual
Copyediting task: African Coffee Farmer (20 points) individual
Comprehensive editing
TE, Chapter 14, "Comprehensive Editing: Definition and Process," 231-249
TE, Chapter 15, "Style: Definition and Sentence Structures," 250-265
Writing user-friendly documents. n.d. Plain Language.gov <http://www.plainlanguage.gov/howto/guidelines/Reader-Friendly.doc> 27 August 2005. [Marina K]
Research
Hanna, Jim. 1992. Writer worksheets: Rewrite creatively (Part I). Technical Communication 39 (2): 271-282.
Hanna, Jim. 1992. Writer worksheets: Rewrite creatively (Part II). Technical Communication 39 (3): 428-436.
In-class work
Instructor's notes
Presentation of research article(s)
Assignments due
Comprehensive editing: TE, Chapter 14, Exercise 1 (10 points) individual
TE, Chapter 15, Exercises 1-2 (10 points) collaborative
Copyediting exercise [doc]: Student-Athlete Drug and Alcohol Testing and Education Policy [pdf] (10 points) individual
Proofreading: BSE (20 points) individual
Comprehensive editing
TE, Chapter 16, "Style: Verbs and Other Words," 266-283
TE, Chapter 17, "Organization: The Architecture of Information," 284-303
Research
Campbell, Charles. 1992. Engineering style: Striving for efficiency. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication 33 (1): 38-45.
Fonseca, David. 2006. How simple is simplified technical English. Intercom 53 (2): 20-22.
Gerritsen, Marinel, Hubert Korzilius, Frank Van Meurs, and Marjolein Oorsprong. 2007. Plain English for a Dutch audience: Comprehension and preference. Technical Communication 54 (3): 319-332.
Hirst, Russell. 2007. Virtues and vices of omission. Technical Communication 54 (3): 308-318. [Brian W]
Lester, Larry. 2006. Simplified technical English: STC should take the lead. Intercom 53 (7): 22-23.
Thomas, Margaret, Gloria Jaffe, J. Peter Kindaid, and Yvette Stees. 1992. Learning to use simplified English: A preliminary study. Technical Communication 39 (1): 69-73. [Jennifer S-G]
Thrush, Emily. 2001. Plain English? A study of plain English vocabulary and international audiences. Technical Communication 48 (3): 289-296. [Melanie C]
In-class work
Instructor's notes
Presentation of research article(s)
Assignments due
Sentence analysis: TE Chapter 16 Exercises 1, 2, and 10 (10 points)
Copyediting task: Aviation security (20 points) individual
Visual design
TE, Chapter 18, "Visual Design," 304-322
TE, Chapter 19, "Editing Illustrations," 323-346
TE, Chapter 23, "Type and Production," 406-407
CMS, Chapter 12, "Illustrations and Captions" 473-493
Internationalization, localization, & the web
TE, Chapter 20, "Editing for Global Contexts," 347-366
TE, Chapter 21, "Editing Websites," 367-380
Research
Gregory, Judy. 2004. Writing for the Web versus writing for print: Are they really so different. Technical Communication 51 (2): 276-285. [Ollie J]
Hoffman, Keith. 2007. Writing and Web 2.0. Intercom 54 (1): 4-7. [Andrew L.]
Nielson, Jacob. 1 October 1997. How users read on the Web. Useit.com <http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html> 27 August 2005. [Paula N]
In-class work
Instructor's notes
Presentation of research article(s)
Assignments due
Comprehensive editing task: TE Chapter 18 Exercise 6 (10 points)
Proofreading task: Field codes (20 points) individual
Indexing
CMS, Chapter 18, "Indexes," 755-80
In-class work
Instructor's notes
Illustrations exercise
Presentation of research article(s)
Assignments due
Indexing exercise (30 points) individual
Copyediting (online) exercise: SUV (20 points) individual
Class does not meet because of Thanksgiving holiday.
Assignments due
Proofreading exercise: Indexing: dead copy and typeset copy (25 points) -- individual
Documentation
CMS, Chapter 11, "Quotations and Dialogue," 443-471
CMS, Chapter 16, "Documentation I: Basic Patterns," 593-640
CMS, Chapter 17, "Documentation II: Specific Content," 641-754
Copyright, fair use, and legal issues
TE, Chapter 22, "Legal and Ethical Issues in Editing," 383-397
CMS, Chapter 4, "Rights and Permissions," 105-144
Research
Diaz, Charlsye. 2007. The technical writer's role in preserving intellectual property rights outside the United States. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication 50 (2): 121-129. [Michael B]
McCord, Elizabeth. 1992. Multiple drafts and legal liability: A hazard for professional writers. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication 35 (3): 138-142. [Dana L]
Wilde, Elizabeth, Michelle Corbin, Jana Jenkins, and Shannon Rouiller. 2006. Defining a quality system: Nine characteristics of quality and the editing for quality process. Technical Communication 53 (4): 439-445. [Jessica L]
In-class work
Assignments due
Management and production
TE, Chapter 23, "Type and Production," 408-418
TE, Chapter 24, "Project Management," 419-437
TE, Chapter 25, "Client Projects," 438-451
CMS, Appendix A: "Design and Production--Basic Procedures and Key Terms," 814-823, 841-846
CMS, Appendix B: "The Publishing Process for Books and Journals," 857-861
Research
Albers, Michael. 2000. The technical editor and document databases: What the future may hold. Technical Communication Quarterly 9 (2): 191-206.
Hart, Geoffrey. April 2003. Editing tests for writers. Intercom 50 (4): 12-15. [Carrie G]
Lorig, Jody. n.d. Estimating worksheet. TECHWR-L <http://www.techwr-l.com/articles/estimatingworksheet> 23 August 2007.
In-class work
Assignments due
Course evaluation
Last revised 19 November 2008
Roland Nord