Third Post- 31 May, 2024

This week I finally began dipping my toes into copy editing the article. I have mostly finished double checking the 

syntax of the article's footnotes, though I may have to go back and make more changes later. The author seems to 

have not made many mistakes, at least not that I can find. This leads me to worry that maybe I have misunderstood 

something about my instructions or maybe I am simply not looking hard enough. I do not have enough prior 

experience to be able to anticipate how many errors should normally appear in the footnotes. I plan to double check 

with Dr. Lester in order to touch base on these issues.

 

The process of looking into the origins of these sources was quite fun. Unlike last week, I was actually quite 

surprised at how many of these vintage newspapers were available on the UCF library website. Frustratingly, I found 

that those that were available online were blocked by a paywall, so the person writing the article must have either

 paid for this service or encountered the documents in person. Thankfully I do not necessarily need to read the actual 

text of a source, so long as it is properly cited. It would be helpful, of course, to have as many sources as possible 

available so that I could double check facts and claims made by the author, but I think it would be unreasonable to 

suppose that I could do the same amount of research that they did in preparation for writing their article. Many of the 

footnotes come from conversations and personal contributions made by people with connections to the subject 

matter. This has made for a very interesting review process, as these are not only tricky to copy edit from a 

grammatical standpoint, but they are not necessarily verifiable.

 

As for copy editing the main text of the article itself, I have already noticed several aspects of wording that I am 

looking into changing. Some, however, such as entire sentences built around very passive language, would require 

major restructuring in order to make the sentences more direct, and I do not want to use too heavy a hand. The same

applies for the few run-on sentences I have encountered; I hope that I am able to correct them gently and without 

interrupting the flow or the implied meaning of the original manuscript.

I have also begun to consider one of the more interesting parts of my specific article, which is where to insert the 

images which came with it. These visual aids have been extremely helpful, making the subject matter seem more 

real as I read about these stories that can at times feel almost abstract or foreign. I am currently trying to determine 

where these pictures would best fit in the body of the text so that they appear relevant and aid the narrative instead 

of distracting from it. Dr. Lester has explained to me that I do not need to worry about page breaks or demarcating 

sufficient space, as this will be adjusted and decided in the final formatting and printing process. I was relieved to 

discover this, because it means I will have to worry less about design and be able to focus on the information itself!