Comments | cavedwellers: Readin', writin' and bitin' off hedz

cavedwellers

Readin', writin' and bitin' off hedz

Jan 25, 2006 03:42

After a grand 18-month hiatus from anything even remotely educational, I laid down $150 (yeah, big spending, I know) with the CCAE in the hopes of learning how to actually do my job ( Read more... )

Comments 8

mdm_sosostris January 25 2006, 15:26:20 UTC

I feels your pain. It's hard being the only one who paid attention in English class the first time around, non? And I'm sorry, but nonacademics in an academic setting are the definition of tedium.

Your class is a suck. Any chance you could bail and find someone competent to teach you? *I* can track changes in Word, you know. I even know where to find the menu. I'll take your $150.

cavedwellers January 25 2006, 16:05:38 UTC

Well, as much as I would love to ditch my Great Grey Lady of Copyediting, I feel like I need to hang onto this. See, the real heartbreak here is: None of the things mentioned above are things I need to learn -- I, too, possess the knowledge of Track Changes. What I _need_ to know -- and the reason that I took the damn class in the first place -- is how to prepare a proper style sheet. And that seems like a topic she can't possibly fuck up ... right? *sigh*

mdm_sosostris January 25 2006, 16:06:57 UTC

Yeah, I don't know that either. Sorry. What's a style sheet?

cavedwellers January 25 2006, 16:51:48 UTC

Let me see if I can describe it, seeing as I don't really have the best grasp on the whole thing myself: It's sort of a stylistic manifesto that applies strictly to the material being copyedited -- style sheets can vary wildly from project to project, and often diverge from Chicago, the AP, etc. I sort of have a running laundry list of jargon and usage specific to the Dig ("nutsack," "badass," "fuckin’ A"), but it's not quite a style sheet.

When I first mentioned "style sheet" to Dave, he thought I meant I was taking the class to learn CSS -- and boy, I'm pretty fucking lucky I'm not, eh?

Thread 5

abark March 8 2006, 04:25:48 UTC

Try 'basic italian' at the BCAE.

I spent 1 class paying attention, and the remaining 7 trying to look up the girl's skirt across the class from me.

Late to the game susannalk May 8 2006, 20:29:46 UTC

I don't think I could have sat through that without politely pushing the instructor aside and teaching the damn class myself.
I assume the class is over by now. Did you ever learn how to do a style sheet?

Ditto! cavedwellers May 17 2006, 05:46:29 UTC

Oh, yes. Only an 8-week class. One gets what one pays for. It was just kind of eye-opening.

Yeah, the Word "tutorials" were pretty painful. Gah.

Re: style sheets -- yes and no. I wish I knew more about how other newspapers did theirs ... the instructor's teachings were primarily geared toward discrete, finite projects like textbooks and novels. Ah, well. Since the Dig has a fine tradition of running on complete half-assery, mine probably isn't going to hurt it too badly.