Vulture portfolio assignment

ENG 483, Spring 2008, Bradley Dilger

Summary: With your classmates, build a pool of 18 documents which need editing. Select six pieces to edit. Edit the documents and collect the edited work in a portfolio.

Milestones & schedule

All of the following are required assignments.

Found pieces

Find and submit three documents. One should be either a syllabus or a one-page text produced by a campus organization. For the other two, anything is fair game—signage, church bulletins, take-out menus—whatever you come across in your daily life (though you may notuse documents we edit in class). Strive for a variety of texts, cultivating a wide range of styles and content.

In class, we will narrow down the pool of submitted documents to 18 which will be placed on library and/or online reserve. You will select six of these documents for your portfolio. Plan for two of each of the kinds of edit Amy Einsohn describes: light, medium, and heavy. Obviously, this will influence your decision about which documents you should edit.

Batch one

Edit and submit two short documents. Work from a copy and/or edit using a pencil so you can revisit your editing if needed. Attach a list of questions for me if you like. You need not submit style sheets or editorial queries—I suggest you focus on selecting and maintaining a level of edit, accuracy in editing, and neat, standard copyeditors’ marks.

Paper-clip edit-pieces with multiple pages. If you edit an article published in a larger piece, please cut it out. In other words, do whatever is necessary to achieve a professional presentation.

Batch two

Edit and submit two more documents. At least one document should be a longer piece with an accompanying editorial style sheet. Ideally, you’ll submit all four documents not included in batch one—so you’ll have all your editing drafted with three weeks to go.

Final

Submit all six documents. Place your collected, edited documents in a folder. But don’t bind your work in a manner which makes it difficult to annotate (no plastic sleeves).

The first page of your portfolio should be an annotated table of contents which names your edit-pieces and the level of edit applied, followed by one or two paragraphs describing the issues you focused on, and your reasons for selecting the relevant level of edit.

Quality editing

• Before you begin to edit, read each piece carefully, and consider its strengths and weaknesses. Which levels of edit seem reasonable? What problems or weaknesses seem most pressing?

• Make photocopies early and often. Use a pencil when editing.

• When editing, use standard editors’ marks, and follow the editorial practices we discuss in class—be neat, polite, systematic, and methodical.

• Refer questions about editorial style to The Copyeditor’s Handbook. If your editing raises questions which cannot be answered by TCH, visit the library or my office hours to consult another reference (such as the Chicago Manual of Style or Garner’s Dictionary of American Usage).

• As you edit, especially when writing editorial queries, do your best to conceptualize the writer fairly. If you want some guidance, I can help.

• If you select documents which are difficult to mark up legibly, use techniques which ensure your edits can be easily read—transcribe the copy, use a breakout or bubble technique, enlarge the document using a photocopier, or all of the above. See our course texts and your notes for other suggestions.

• Style sheets should be included for, at the least, your heavy edits and longer documents—use them to ensure consistent editing and decision-making.

Assessment

Drafts will be assessed on completeness and evidence of effort—are you following the assignment requirements? Is it clear you are working carefully and thoughtfully?

The final portfolio will be assessed on the following criteria:

Bradley Dilger, Associate Professor of English, Western Illinois U
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