Preparing copyeditors: Students gain technology skills required of professionals
Carol Parikh
Part Time Faculty
Writing, Literature & Publishing
In her Copyediting courses, Carol Parikh mixes technologies to teach not only fundamental copyediting practices but also critical technical skills.
Students learn how to edit and prepare text for publication in different publishing environments, from books and magazines to Web sites.
In the first half of the semester, Parikh teaches copyediting practices and techniques through traditional editing-by-hand on hard copy. She uses an overhead projector and a laptop to project text on a whiteboard, which makes it possible for students to edit text together using different color pens and standard copyediting marks.
After the students reach a basic level of understanding, Parikh collects examples of poorly written Web sites and articles, emails them to herself, and places them in Emerson's 8-Day Public Folder, a folder accessible through all Emerson computers.
Students then work individually, downloading the texts, opening them in Word, and editing them on the laptops using the Track Changes feature. Students e-mail their edited drafts directly to Parikh or place them back in the 8-Day Public Folder from which they can be projected onto the whiteboard and edited by the class.
Parikh explains that the laptops and Word's Track Changes feature are "more than helpful, they are essential to teaching copyediting, to teach the students how to use Track Changes and edit online."
Students are eager and excited to learn this skill. One student went on Craigslist.org for copyediting work and found that all the jobs required proficiency with track changes.
To further help students master this feature, Parikh has created a Track Changes tip sheet, explaining how to format, choose colors, and styles of cross-out. She also explains several ways of leaving comments to the author.
She finds that once the students "get into the Track Changes, it's more natural to them than hard copy. It's easier to do a quick factcheck or spellcheck when you're editing online. Another helpful feature of Track Changes is that you can choose to view the manuscript in a clean copy that incorporates your editing changes. This helps you to edit your edit."
For more information on using Track Changes for teaching, please contact the Instructional Technology Group at 617.824.8961.
