University Writing

Honors 301R -- Peer Handbook: Editing and Designing the Honors 150 Text

 

Coordinator: Susan Jorgensen

185 HGB, 422-6848

 

Course Description:

 

Have you ever thought to yourself when struggling with a difficult (or boring) textbook, "Boy, if I had written this I could make it both more interesting and more helpful!" This class offers just such an opportunity. Every three years this course provides a select group of former Honors 150 students the challenge of publishing a book about Honors 150. Over the last several years, five different books have been produced and then used as a support text in Honors 150 classes. The most recent is Why Write: A Guide to BYU Honors University Writing. These textbooks are generally very well liked by Honors 150 students because they "pass down secrets" about how to succeed in the course by writing well. These student-authored texts include specific helps for the papers required in Honors 150. Beside the value of offering Honors 150 students a writing text written by their older peers, the class offers students who create the book strong experience in publication.

The next course will be taught Winter 2009.

 

Recommended Majors Served

 

Any. This course will be cross-listed with English Language 421R: Studies in Editing, so it is particularly relevant for computers in Humanities, editing majors and minors, and desktop publishing. Students who have taken this Honors 301 class have had a unique hands-on experience in publishing—a rare opportunity for undergraduate students.

 

Skills Taught in Support of Academic Training and Vocation

 

1.   Desktop publishing principles of layout and design

2.   Publication process, including how to prepare a text for publication

3.   Audience awareness for purpose, content, and tone.

4.   Expertise in using the writing and design process

5.   Editing and proofreading skills as students focus on organization, style, and format, appropriate to audience and writing context

6.   Collaborative work. Publishing the text is a class project. Together we decide how to arrange and format the materials.

7.   Conferencing with teachers on how to improve editing and design

8.   Oral presentations and reports, including electronic presentations

9.   Editing for grammar, usage, and punctuation

10.  Appreciation for and experience with writing across the disciplines

 

Vocations Prepared for

 

The teaching of English, editing, writing, communications, publishing, design, journalism, humanities, art history. Any vocation where, to succeed, one must target a specific audience. 

Major Assignments

•   Written report and presentation on “Issues in Editing, Design, and Publication”

•   Oral Presentation on their design concept with sample cover and layout

•   Layout one section in document design template

•   Five short editing tests

•   Copy edit and source check one section of the text

•   Enter corrections

•   Proofread entire text as a class

•   Proofread bluelines for the final

 

Sample Textbooks

 

The Cambridge Handbook for Editors, Copy-editors, and Proofreaders  by Judith Butcher, Caroline Drake and Maureen Leach

Dynamics in Document Design:  Creating Text for Readers by Karen A. Schriver