"A course designed to prepare students for editing responsibilities found in a variety of fields, including education and scholarly publishing."  (Central Michigan University Bulletin Description)

Rationale:

This course will examine several aspects of textual analysis and editing. One aspect will be the scholarly editing of literary texts and historical documents; we will study how scholarly editors arrive at an authoritative edition and how they determine what such an edition is, and we will attempt to trace the course of some prominent works through their various editions. Another aspect will be the editing of academic articles for publication; we will explore elements of such editing through work on articles and papers by graduate students and teachers. A third aspect is the editing of works-in-progress, one's own or those of others; we will edit papers not only written for the course but also written for other courses. Together with reading in textual criticism and discussion with working editors, these several approaches to editing will lead us to an understanding of the range of interests and techniques available to the contemporary editor. Tentative: Guest speakers in the course will include scholarly editors of literary, academic, and historical publications.

1. an editing journal responding to readings, discussion, and workshops, most of them assigned but some self-generated--expect to write eighteen entries over all;
2. a descriptive bibliography discussing the various editions of a specific literary text, assignment to be further explained in class and to be workshopped by the class;
3. a paper written outside of class (either for another course or a prior course or independently), also workshopped in class;
4. an edited portion of a historical manuscript with introduction and apparatus; and,
5. editing activities such as the critiquing, evaluating, copyediting, and proofreading of works-in-progress by other students in the class and of submitted works by students outside the class.

• Gross, Gerald, ed. Editors on Editing: What Writers Need to Know About What Editors Do 3^rd Edition (New York: Grove Press, 1993)
• Williams, William Proctor, & Craig S. Abbott. An Introduction to Bibliographical & Textual Studies 3^rd Edition (New York: Modern Language Association, 2000)

You should also buy a couple of 3 1/2 inch hard disks formatted for IBM. We will be using the Microsoft Word word processing program in the English Computer Lab.

Please Note: The course information will be posted and updated on the Internet throughout the semester. The address is: http://www.chsbs.cmich.edu/Robert_Root/Eng638/CourseSp04.htm.

CMU provides students with disabilities reasonable accommodation to participate in educational programs, activities or services.  Students with disabilities requiring accommodations to participate in class activities or meet course requirements should contact me as early as possible.

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