This was another great week of learning and growth. In my very first blog post, I mentioned how I will need to work on my organization and time management skills. This week, I had my first minor slip-up.
In my meeting with Dr. Farless and Trisha (the other intern) last week, we mentioned meeting every other Tuesday for communicating our thoughts, ideas, a paper editing progression. I mistyped this in my schedule and had it in my calendar as starting next week. This meant, on Tuesday, I was frantically trying to find out how to get on our group zoom meeting.
This mistake on my part not only caused me undue stress, but Dr. Farless as well when I emailed her about the zoom issue. Now, the meeting date is clarified, but it is an important learning curve for me to understand the importance of proper dates when working in an asynchronous group setting.
Despite this setback, I still feel confident about this week. On Saturday, I completed editing my first paper. This paper was over 20 pages and on a topic I was unfamiliar with. Even so, I feel confident in my editing suggestions. Completing this paper took roughly 5 hours, however, I don't think this lengthy process will need to be replicated. While editing, I tried out different reading systems to see what worked best. In the end, I found a system that I think is efficient and effective for reading papers. Undoubtedly, this will be changed and improved as my internship progresses, but I am proud that I have started setting up a solid system this early in the process.
My system is as follows:
I first generally skim the piece to look for key pieces of information within the essay. Where is the thesis? Does each paragraph have a "mini thesis" and is it properly tied back to the point of the overall paper? This step also helps me understand the purpose and tone the student is attempting with the paper so I can best make edits that make sense in the next step.
Then, I focus on citations. I go through the footnotes and compare them to the Chicago guide and make sure all points and evidence are properly cited. Last week, Dr. Farless emphasized that this was a very important step for us to complete, so I will try to spend most of my time on this.
Next, I focus on grammar/passive voice. I cntrl-f for "to-be" verbs within the paper and ensure they are not used for passive voice construction. During this, I comb through each paragraph for common grammar mistakes (breath commas, simple/run-on sentences). I know this will be the step that will change the most. The "common grammar mistakes" I focus on will change as I read more papers and gain a better idea of what the most common mistakes actually are. Furthermore, I already know that I will approach this step differently as I go and edit more essays this weekend. Last time, I did this in one go. However, next time, I think I will try and break this down into time chunks to ensure I don't get as fatigued.
At this point, I am familiar with the paper. In the previous steps, I will have highlighted formatting issues I may have noticed. I will now go back and consult our provided Florida Conference of Historians formatting guide to ensure these are done correctly.
Again, I am sure this process will change, but I am still excited about the progress I have made in gaining confidence in my editing abilities.
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