Monday, November 11, 2013

Online Editing

Chapter 6 of Brian Carroll's work Writing for Digital Media focuses on the idea of online editing, from both the perspectives of design and publishing.  Carroll brought up several excellent points, and I want to highlight and discuss each individually, below.

Carroll asserts in one of his first paragraphs:

 "Online publishing is not at all like editing for print, at least in terms of job responsibilities.  In print, there are clear distinctions between roles and duties among writers, designers, editors, and copyeditors.  Media convergence online is blurring and blending the job descriptions and responsibilities traditionally assigned to writers and editors.  Even hotshot page designers need to know how to write a declarative sentence; writing skills are not optional" (Carroll 120).

His assertion stating that writing skills are not optional was of particular interest to me.  Am I the only one who notices the constant spelling, grammatical, and content errors spread across Internet websites?  To what writing skills is Carroll referring to?  

Certainly, there are well written pieces available on the Internet - but because anyone can "publish" his or her work on the blogosphere or create a website, I definitely feel as though writing abilities and quality is decreased on the Internet.  Something to think about . . . .

I also enjoyed Carroll's online editing step-by-step directions.  I found it very appropriate and useful for people who edit and publish their work independently on the Internet.  In particular, I enjoyed his recommendation to define the style of the website or Internet source that content is published on - I agree it makes a difference to how the piece should be edited.

The case studies Carroll featured in this chapter were also quite informative.  I especially appreciated Case Study 3: Error Prevention Project in Brazil, because I found the idea of training writers and editors to learn how to prevent errors really interesting.  If we start with educating children as they learn to write, perhaps writing skills will only be enhanced and nourished as they grow up.

What do you think about all the various elements of online editing?  Do you think it is the same or different than print editing?  Why?

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