Week 4 post: Slow and Steady

[sherrilledwards]

This week, I’ve worked in making progress in each area each day, alternating projects where needed. If I get tired working on one, I just work on another and circle back later.

Mailer Article Remediation

In my Week 2 journal post, I talked about my proposed strategy:

I have decided to fully process each paragraph, one at a time, dealing with endnotes, footnotes, and works cited as they are mentioned … I’m hoping the paragraph approach will mean fewer errors in the long run with citations … I try to keep the momentum going by doing a paragraph each evening.

This has worked well for me. Front-loading the effort has meant that I got some intense practice in, and then the article has gotten easier as I proceeded. Working on one paragraph a day has helped me pace myself and maintain skills. I’m glad to participate in making a peer-reviewed journal more accessible online.

Assigned Readings

Textbook

I have found multiple sections from Ch. 5 of Writing and Editing for Digital Media^[1] to highlight this week:

• Generating Story Ideas: ^[2] The biggest problem I always have is generating an initial idea. This chapter had terrific strategies for what I always call “the blank page problem.” Here are two of my favorite quotations:

  • “Truly great stories rely on …”^[3] What follows is a delicious list of attributes including: strong characters, transcendent meaning, authenticity, human interest, dialogue, etc. This list alone itself generates ideas.

  • “Our best assets in this pursuit are our ignorance and curiosity.”^[4] I love this—I can look within for ideas. What am I ignorant of? What am I curious about?

• Putting Ethics Into Practice:^[5] I really appreciated the step-by-step process outlined to identify and weigh competing ethical principles so that you can determine the best path forward. Here’s my favorite quotation:

“The secret sauce is to have this process established and agreed upon before crisis hits and, thus, anticipate and even get some practice weighing the values that compete in ethical dilemmas. These crises seem to hit right before deadline or when it’s time to call it a day and go home.” ^[6]

Editing Wikipedia p. 7-9

I have really been enjoying the Editing Wikipedia article that we have been reading in chunks. This week my favorite part has been this question: How is Wikipedia different from a college essay? The four part answer is: fact-based, not persuasive; formal tone and simple language; no large block quotes; and pickier about sources.^[7]

I find the first two pretty easy. The third one is harder for me–when I find a quotation with language I like, I’d rather cite the quotation! The group Wikipedia editing project is good practice for me.

The fourth part of the answer is ironic to me because of my earlier skepticism, but now I really respect Wikipedia’s source requirements.

Group Wikipedia Editing

I am part of the group editing the Stabbing of Adele Morales article. This week have been spending a lot of time reading biographies I can access on the Internet Archive. I’ve been focusing on:

• Mailer: A Biography by Hilary Mills^[8]

• The Last Party by Adele Mailer^[9]

I have also been inspired by the working group’s thread on LucasForum to help me reorient my perspective:

• Considering feminist sources

• Centering Morales’ point of view more than Mailer’s

• Making the tone more neutral

• Using more biographical sources than news sources

Wishing for a Sandbox

Working with sandboxes both on Project Mailer and Wikipedia has made me wish more than once that we had a sandbox option on LucasForum to craft our journal posts. I guess I’ve gotten spoiled with sandboxes!

GIFs/Memes

Overall, this week has made me fond of turtle/tortoise GIFs: What kind of GIFs/Memes speak to you, energize you, or brighten up your day?

---

1. Carroll, Brian (2023). Writing and Editing for Digital Media. 5th ed. New York: Routledge Publishing. ISBN 978-1-003-22384-9. ↩︎

2. Carroll, Brian (2023). Writing and Editing for Digital Media. 5th ed. New York: Routledge Publishing. ISBN 978-1-003-22384-9. P.130-135. ↩︎

3. Carroll, Brian (2023). Writing and Editing for Digital Media. 5th ed. New York: Routledge Publishing. ISBN 978-1-003-22384-9. P.134. ↩︎

4. Carroll, Brian (2023). Writing and Editing for Digital Media. 5th ed. New York: Routledge Publishing. ISBN 978-1-003-22384-9. P.134. ↩︎

5. Carroll, Brian (2023). Writing and Editing for Digital Media. 5th ed. New York: Routledge Publishing. ISBN 978-1-003-22384-9. P.142-145. ↩︎

6. Carroll, Brian (2023). Writing and Editing for Digital Media. 5th ed. New York: Routledge Publishing. ISBN 978-1-003-22384-9. P.145. ↩︎

7. Wiki Education. Editing Wikipedia. P9 ↩︎

8. Mills, Hilary. Mailer: A Biography. New York, Empire Books, 1982. ISBN 0880150025. ↩︎

9. Mailer, Adele. The Last Party: Scenes From My Life with Norman Mailer. New York: Barricade Books, 1997. ISBN 1857821955. ↩︎

[Allison]

Hi Sherill,

Glad to see slow and steady. I need to now tackle my works cited and I cannot seem to get it to look like the others. Okay back to the drawing board.