EDYCJA TEKSTU NAUKOWEGO EDITING OF ACADEMIC TEXTS

OFFICE HOURS: WED – 1300 TUE. – BY APPOINTMENT ROOM

In this course you will  learn about the basic concepts of typography, graphic arts, publishing, editing, typesetting and word-processing,  learn about the basic rules of editing and typesetting, including word division, proper punctuation, line, paragraph and page organization, etc.  learn about best practices of word processing and edition and other guidelines for mastering a successful editing workflow,  master basic and advanced word-processing techniques and tricks including:  editing complex documents,  mail merge functions,  basic work efficiency techniques and work automation techniques,  learn about the shape of your future M.A. thesis and learn to edit your work to meet the expected stylesheet, editing standard and format.  ALSO: Hopefully – time permitting – you will learn  to use basic spreadhseet functions useful in quantitative humanistic research  to use bibliography managers

Expectations and requirements  Students’ attendance is obligatory. Two absences are allowed.  Students put in their own work. Any forms of academic dishonesty will be prosecuted. This rule also applies to group projects – be sure to document your input to all group assignments.  To be given credit for this course students must complete all mid-term and final projects. These will include, but will not be limited to:  editing and publishing related research assignments,  editing exercises,  mail-merge exercices,  properly edited M.A. theses samples.  The grade obtained for this course will reflect my assessment of students’ participation in class discussions and activities, as well as my evaluation of the quality of the completed projects and assignments.

You will need  a working computer with word-processing software installed, preferably MS Word 2007 or later,  to pay attention to details to maintain coherence in your projects and assignments,  to keep an open mind even when the material covered in class seems too basic or too complex. REMEMBER, all of you have varied IT skills, so please respect these differences.

Assignment for the next week  Download the document assignment1.pdf and TRANSLATE it into English. This is possibly the best way to learn about the basic terms used in publishing, editing and typography. You may begin by copying and pasting the contents of the PDF document into a blank MS Word document. Alas, the formatting will be almost completely lost, but this will be a good template for your translation. You may work in pairs or groups on the translation.  PAY ATTENTION to the format of the document. Your task is to MIRROR the structure of the document as closely as possible. Do not forget about the header area – it needs to be placed in your document, as well. Have a look at the structure of numbered lists and do your best to make your document mimic this, too. The original document is not fancy nor is it particularly elegant, it just incorporates some formatting that I want to see duplicated in your projects. YOU NEED TO WORK ALONE ON THE FORMATTING of your document.  Hints and challanges:  not a single unnecessary line-break (ENTER) was used to organize paragraphs or elements of the lists. Do not use ENTER to organize elements vertically (all the white spaces between lines, etc. do not require additional line-breaks).  not a single SPACE or TAB space was used to format the indents or to organize the elements within lines (e.g. in the header area). Using SPACE or TAB to organize the line to make it look as it does in the header area is a major editing mistake.  Save your document as assignment1.doc (MS Word format).  SEND THE TRANSLATED DOCUMENT to by next Monday 11:59PM.