Required texts, available at Goering's Books and Bagels, are Amy Einsohn, The Copyeditor's Handbook (referred to in the timetable as "Einsohn"), and The New York Public Library Writer's Guide to Style and Usage ("NYPL" in the timetable).

My office is Turlington 4332; office hours are Wednesdays fifth and sixth period; I am also
willing to see you at any other time provided you make and keep an appointment.
 

GRADES:

15% Edited review
10% Edited proposal
25% Edited article
15% Quizzes
25% Class Portfolios
10% Attendance

Edited review
    Each student will choose a book related to the subject of the course, read it, and write a review of it (500-700 words). Each student will edit the drafts of the reviews written by all the members of his or her work group. Using the help the editors have provided, the student will then turn in a final edited version of the review.

Edited proposal
    Each student will write a description of an article he or she will later write. This proposal should be designed to persuade a publisher that the proposed article should be written and that you are capable of writing it.  The students should research a periodical in which he or she might want to publish someday, and consider what would interest the readers of that periodical.  The proposal should be no longer than about 350 words. Each student will edit the drafts of the proposals written by all the members of his or her work group. Using the help the editors have provided, the student will then turn in a final edited version of the proposal.

Edited article
    Each student will write an article on a topic and for an audience of his or her choice. This article should be no longer than about 4,000 words. Your research on the  periodical in which you would like to publish will help you decide on the actual length of your article. Unless an article is heavily illustrated, one page of type contains about 400 words. You may plan illustrations, tables, graphs, etc., for your article, but if so, you are responsible for finding out how to edit such materials (see NYPL). Each student will edit the text of the drafts of the articles written by all the members of his or her work group. Using the help the editors have provided, the student will then turn in a final edited version of the article.

Quizzes
Times and topics are listed in the Timetable.

Portfolios
    Your portfolios must contain all the editing exercises you do, including the editing of your fellow students' work and your responses to your fellow students' editing of your work. Portfolios will also include style sheets, exercises from Einsohn, and copies of the earlier drafts of your review, proposal, and article. In short, keep a copy of all written assignments in your portfolio. When you have to turn in two copies, you will need to make three copies-one for the portfolio. When you receive edited copies back, keep them in your portfolio as well. We will want to be able to discuss the whole history of your documents-how they started out, what other people suggested, what suggestions you accepted and discarded, your own editing of your work, and the final product.

Attendance 
    Everyone starts with 56 points for attendance. If you are present, prepared, and participating, you receive an additional point. Since there are 44 class meetings, obviously you can achieve a grade of 100% in this aspect of the course if you attend every class. Excused absences count neither for you nor against you, but if you are absent without an excuse, a point will be subtracted from your attendance total. If you demonstrate that you are present in body but not in mind (for example, by arriving very late without a reason, by not being prepared, by wasting your work group's time), you will lose that day's attendance point.
 

TIMETABLE

Week One (August 25-29) Role of the Copyeditor

Read: Einsohn 1-28, NYPL 589-90, 750-52, 757-62

Basic procedures, editing symbols: Einsohn 29-39, NYPL 753-56

Begin portfolios; bring in material to edit  Extra copy of Editing Exercise 1 available here

Choose a book to read and review: Choose from Einsohn 62-65, NYPL 796-804. These annotated bibliographies will give you an idea of whether the book is something to read or something to look things up in (a dictionary, encyclopedia, or manual). Don't choose a "look things up" book unless you are very, very interested in the material in it. 
 

Week Two (September 3-5) Other Editorial Tasks 

Read: Einsohn 39-53, 377-84; NYPL 579-88.

Monday: Labor Day, No Class

Wednesday: turn in brief description of the book you have selected for review; you should be at least half-way through it. 

Friday portfolio work: practice with editing symbols, begin discovering what you already know, and what you have to learn I will supply other materials for you to edit for your portfolios, in addition to the work of the other members of your work group. The safest assumption is that there will be some form of portfolio work every day, except the days on which there are announced quizzes. People may make up portfolio work missed because of absence only if the absence is excused. TURN IN copyedited version of this syllabus.

    Download Editing Exercise 2
 

Week Three (Sept. 8-12) Identifying and punctuating independent sentences. 

Read: Einsohn 71-78, 111-13, 114; NYPL 233-42, 258-66

On Wednesday, TURN IN your review, draft 1; include copies for everyone in your work group and for me, and keep a clean copy for your portfolio

    On Friday, TURN IN Editing Exercise 2.
 

Week Four (Sept. 15-19) Joining Clauses. 

Read: Einsohn 78-86, 104-06; NYPL 251-55. 

On Monday, TURN IN your edited versions of your work group's reviews, including your own. Turn in 2 copies of each edited review (one for the author, one for me).

For portfolio: do Exercise A in Einsohn. Note: All exercises in Einsohn have answer keys in the back, so they are not opportunities to score points for a grade. They are like physical exercises, opportunities to learn. Suggestion: make three copies of each exercise. Do the exercise once without looking at the key. Then check your work against the key. Circle any difference between your work and the key that surprises you. Look up the same points in NYPL; compare the information there with the information in Einsohn. Make an entry in the notes you will keep for yourself about your own problems with correctness-everyone has a personal set. Wait a while. Then try the same exercise again. Compare your new effort with the key and with your first effort. If you still have something to learn, come back to copy three. At least one completed copy must be in your portfolio.
 

Week Five (Sept. 22-26) Setting Off Phrases. 

Read: Einsohn 86-92, 95-104; NYPL 242-58, 276-79. Do exercise B

TURN IN draft two of your review (copies for all as before) and replies to each editor, other than yourself, about their editing of your review-two copies of each, one for me, one for the editor.
 

Week Six(Sept 29-Oct 3): Indicating omissions and creating compounds 

Read: Einsohn 92-95, 106-111; NYPL 266-76,279-80, 308-09, 417-22 .

TURN IN edited versions of draft 2 of work group members' reviews, two copies. 

FRIDAY: Quiz 1, Editing Punctuation
 

Week Seven (October 6-10) Spelling and Capitalization

Read: Einsohn 121-70; NYPL 385-404, 199-232. Do exercises C, D, E, and F.

In portfolio: annotate each edited version of draft 2 of your review, commenting on editor's suggestions, omissions (if you notice any), and editorial style and tact

TURN IN draft 1 of your article proposal-copies for all.
 

Week Eight (October 13-17) Quotations and References

Read: Einsohn 196-215, 274-296; NYPL 303-12, 491-507. Do exercises I and M. 

TURN IN edited versions of article proposals-two copies of each
 

Week Nine (Oct. 20-24)

MONDAY Quiz 2, Editing spelling, capitalization, quotations

Wednesday and Friday Other Technicalities. No quiz on these, but there will be class work and discussion on them. TURN IN comments on proposal editing, as before.

Read: Einsohn 216-41, NYPL 287-300, 425-488. Skim the lists, to see what kind of material they contain. If you are illiterate in mathematics, don't worry; you won't have to edit mathematical texts. But somebody has to do it, and "somebody" might be taking this class.

TURN IN draft 2, article proposal
 

Week Ten (Oct. 27-31) Grammar: Content words; placement of modifiers 

Read: Einsohn 335-60; NYPL 111-120, 145-83

TURN IN edited versions of group's proposals
 

Week Eleven (November 3-5) Function words; connections and consistency 

Read: Einsohn 361-76; NYPL 121-41, 187-96
 
 
 

Friday no class, Homecoming

Week Twelve (Nov. 10-14)

MONDAY Quiz 3 - Editing grammar

W TURN IN draft 1, Article
F Beyond grammar:
Read: Einsohn 384-420, nypl 14-22, 557-75 

Week Thirteen (Nov. 17-21)Usage

Read: NYPL 1-13, 23-108. Note: most of this is a list of easily confused or misused words; browse through the list looking for surprises, and in your personal notebook, list not only things these authors teach you that you need to know, but also tricky words you come across that they omit. One omission is "disapprove of/disagree with." 

TURN IN edited articles
 

Week Fourteen (Nov. 24-26)Working with an Author

Discuss edited articles with workgroup members; share issues with class in general

Wednesday: TURN in draft 2 of articles

Friday No class, Thanksgiving
 

Week Fifteen (Dec. 1-5) Putting It All together

In class: exchange articles, edit draft 2 of article. 
 

Week Sixteen (Dec. 8-10)

M. Final versions of reviews, proposals. Portfolio work in class.

W. Final versions of articles. In-class editing exercise. Turn in portfolios.