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.

Final Cut Pro X

I watched tutorial on izzyvideos.com over the weekend on how to use Final Cut Pro X. I must say it was quite interesting to watch. Editing to me is important after spending 5 minutes in this class. Currently I must say I have realized how it is important to me and I must say Final Cut Pro X is fantastic for editing. I understand why it's extremely expensive along with why it's so useful. The layout is fantastic, and each tool to use is just simple. It's easier to upload a video, also how to cut film. My one question is does this alter at all between Windows and Macs. I have an HP, if I was interested in purchasing Final Cut I want to know the program works as well on PC as it does Mac.

Critique of JS online

This week we had an assignment to critique the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal's website and give our honest opinions and thoughts on the site. Personally I thought the website isn't awful, it's easy to navigate through it while also containing many pictures and images. To my surprise, everyone else essentially hated the website, saying it was confusing, certain parts were unnecessary and the news wasn't the best. Apparently my opinion on websites are completely different compared to everyone else's. I feel one reason for this is I have been using this website since high school, I am used to the site and know how to navigate through it all. My local paper is much smaller than this paper, to me the sentinal is large and contains important news. A majority of my class is from Illinois and are used to the Chicago Tribune. That paper is clearly better and contains higher news stories, but I still was shocked to see so many people hating on jsonline. I feel a reason for that is because of prior locations. Once your used to something better, a downgrade is hard to look at as acceptable, but upgrades are amazing. To me that is interesting and I feel editing the tribune could be a surprise to those Illinois bound people as I was to my newspaper.

Editing, Photoshop style

This past week, we focused on taking pictures as well as using photoshop to edit all the pictures. I loved this idea as well as am used to it. The past class I had with Dr. Byers we spend a long time on photoshop and the attributes of it. Photoshop is a great skill to learn and I feel it can help in editing. It turns a good picture to a great one. Ridding red eye, cropping, removing shadows all help in the process and make it a bit easier to have photos look good. Editing photos is now crucial to know for journalism, without it we would be out of jobs, with it, a new window of opportunity opens up.

Photoshop/ Editing 9/11 thoughts

Two weeks into the class and we had photoshop. Oh how I miss editing pictures and fixing the red eye, as well as cropping or blurring a photo. This is a crucial part to editing in terms of photos because photoshop is the best at what it does. I was supposed to look up a photoshop tutorial on d2l but it failed to open on any computer I tried to use. Unfortunately this isn't the first time d2l has forced me to not do homework, maybe that site could use some editing.

Today is 9/11 a day that will never be forgotten, a day that changed the world. I still remember to this day what I was doing when the planes crashed into the towers. However, this morning I was watching the History channel and they collaborated about 25 different handheld camera angles from that day in New York ten years ago, edited the videos and produced a bigger video displaying each camera's shots as well as the emotions captured through the lens. The editing in this was fantastic and made me want to learn to more about editing to make a document like that which is inspirational and breathtaking. Hopefully this class helps me in that aspect.

Opening Day

Round 3 of Marquette has begun for me this year, it also signifies the third semester I have had with Dr Byers. Don't worry though the classes I have had with him are three seperate classes, I don't flunk two times in a row. It's now time for the next big step in journalism: editting. As I begin to prep for the LSAT I will be taking in the October 2012 (yes I am prepping for it already) a class on how to better edit myself is the perfect way to not only moniter what I write but make it better. This is the first of at least 15 blog posts, don't worry Dr. Byers I will actually update this one this year. MU ROUND 3, and so it goes.