Editing Test

Today we took our final test in Journalism 4200. The test consisted of 5 stories to be edited and then a headline should be written for it. Throughout the semester I felt my editing skills improved dramatically, but I didn't notice this fully until today when taking the test. I saw myself finding mistakes I wouldn't have prior to the course. However I feel the most important task I have learned is writing headlines. Headlines can make or break a story, and writing them is not easy. Meeting the correct amount of words used is not an easy task, but I feel when mastering the concept it improves the story.

Editing Movie Maker

For a project for a different class, I had to make a movie and help edit it for a presentation. This time I didn't use the program we used to edit movies, but Windows Movie Maker. Let me tell you something, there is a significant difference between the two. I never realized Windows Movie Maker would be as different and poor quality as it was. I mean I feel adobe is just quite the program but still Windows needs to step up a bit in order to compete. Also it takes way to long for a movie to make, please Windows step up your game a bit.

Numbers

Today in class we went over how to edit numbers. Let me tell you this first and foremost, I hate math. I can't stand how boring math is and I feel a calculator can suffice for any math problem. I didn't think about the editing process of math and editing statistics. Literally each word matters when choosing how to write in numbers. It was funny listening to people arguing about statistics and how to right it in. Yes we look like fools saying it's a 6 percent increase rather than 4 (even thought it's 4 percentage points increase) but let all those say we are wrong, then you make them look like an ass. That's why I will be careful with the numbers I use, I don't want to make myself look like an ass as well as my readers.

LaRoque Books

So last class we had a test for Professor Byer's class (I mean really he gave us a test?) And we had to look at the LaRoque books for the test, to be honest this was the first time I read the books. I was kind of surprised when reading them of how much I actually knew about editing and the actual purpose of editing. Normally when reading a book to study from I am looking at it for the first time I am learning new things but this was one of the first times I actually understood without reading. I question as to if this is because of what I have learned already from prior classes but what I did get out of my reading was the importance of editing. We as writers are stubborn and can make mistakes often but editors are there for us to correct these mistakes, the whole importance is for the ease of the reader and we must realize this.

Editing; Advertisements

We have been focusing on editing in this class (well it is an editing class so it makes sense why) but we have focused on magazines or newspapers but what about for advertisements. Are there editors for advertisements, such as a final person who overlooks at ads and then finalizes it, what if the ads are controversial? One ad I am talking about is the new Dr. Pepper 10 commercial. This ad is about the new Dr. Pepper with only 10 calories per can. The ad takes place as if in an action movie and the main character says to the audience women get bored of this and don't like these movies, just like they don't like Dr. Pepper 10 because it's for men. The end of the ad says NOT FOR WOMEN. I find this interesting, if someone was editing this ad would they choose that piece of work because it's controversial or not? Too me this is unique

Headlines

As this week is a short week I decided to wait and blog about the topic of the week to see how we are progressing as a class through the editing process. Currently we are discussing headlines. Headlines are important to all articles as it draws some attention from the readers. Readers look at headlines sometimes to determine if the story is worth reading or not. I will say this, there are some real shitty headlines out there. I understand editors create these headlines but sometimes they should put in a little effort towards these titles. We practiced them yesterday in class and I know it's hard with limited space but at least try to be creatvie to grab some attention.

Editing Quiz

Last weekend, our class took a quiz on editing grammatical errors, punctuation errors along with other miscellaneous errors in writing using our AP style book. Half of the test was an open book test, which seemingly makes any test easier, that is except for this test. The AP style book is a helpful book to have and has all the answers, however I still hate it completely. Searching for terms and words gets quite confusing in the book, telling you to go to a different section or not even mentioning the word. The key is to look for other words or terms in the book, which to the college student takes too much time and can become too complicated. I don't
 think it was a surprise the average on this test was dismal for that portion of the test. I know I need to work on looking at the AP style book, it's just a hassle and I need to push through my laziness, however I did feel this test was an eye opener as some of the questions were pointless to some but crucial mistakes in the book. Overall a good lesson to learn.