ENGL 407: Professional Editing
Prerequisites: ENGL 306
Three hours lecture (3)
Prepares students to analyze the readability of professional documents written in the workplace (e.g., instructions, manuals, abstracts, proposals), and to deal with problems of correctness, consistency, clarity, organization and rhetorical effectiveness of language and layout. Realistic weekly assignments include excerpts from technical manuals, insurance and government documents, instructions and reports.
Note(s): Applied Learning designated course.
Detailed Description of Content of Course
The course emphasizes audience and purpose in analyzing and improving the verbal and visual characteristics of a text. Students examine the rhetorical situation of writer, subject, audience, and purpose in different types of documents.
Students edit a variety of documents intended for different audiences, addressing global issues such as content, organization, rhetorical effectiveness in text and graphics, and consistency, and local issues such as appropriateness of diction, pace, and sentence clarity, conciseness, and correctness. Such documents may include proposals, reports, documentation, correspondence, and news releases drawn from a range of fields.
Supplementary assignments may include working directly with an author on a technical manuscript, editing a document online rather than on hard copy, and evaluating grammar-checking programs.
Detailed Description of Conduct of Course
Lecture and instructor-led discussion of the text and assignments.
Goals and Objectives of Course
Students will learn how to:
Assessment Measures
The tests on grammar and punctuation, the editing exercises, and other assigned work will be graded to monitor the student’s progress and determine his or her grade in the course.
Other Course Information
Review and Approval
March 27, 2017
October, 2009
March 01, 2021