So this semester I decided to take an elective class which would allow me to work on the publication of some of the academic journals at my school. When class started our professor informed us that we would be working on two academic journals this semester, Essais and Intersections. She let us know from the start that it was an ambitious thing to do and that it would require a lot of work. We would be taking both journals from the initial stages to print. We created the submissions posters, called for submissions, and conducted reading night (which is when you read all of the submissions and make decisions as to what will be published in the journal). The first few weeks, minus trying to get submissions, was relative easy and I didn’t have much to do with the class. As a matter of fact all of my classes were less demanding this semester. But I knew once we got submissions the publications class would pick up and I was right.
After we chose the pieces we wanted in each journal, we had to source check the pieces. Since these were academic papers, the authors used outside sources to make their points and we had to make sure they cited those sources correctly and had to make sure the quotations and paraphrasing was done right. We didn’t want to break up into groups based on the journals so our professor broke us up into smaller groups and gave us pieces to work on from both journals. Within my group, we broke it down even further and each of us got a piece to work on. I chose to work on a Shakespeare piece about Malvolio and Twelfth Night. I went about the source checking by finding the texts in the library and online. For pieces I wasn’t able to find I worked with the author. I edited the piece and was going to send it to him when I noticed that the piece he’d written for this volume of Essais was very familiar to a piece he’d written for the journal last semester.
Our professor was showing us what beautiful typesetting looks like when I noticed the piece. I was pissed off and a little upset because I’d put in all of that work only to have someone basically cheat. You are not allowed to use pieces of your own paper in another paper written by you unless you cite yourself which is just weird. Later that night, I did further research to see to what extent the author had lifted from his previous paper for his current paper. The topic was similar; they were both about Malvolio and Twelfth Night. I was able to find several instances where the author just used the same sentences from one paper to the other. After my next class, I had a meeting with some of my classmates and we decided not to publish the piece because it was just too similar to the one that been published last semester. It irritated me that the author would do that because it just didn’t make any sense.
After that was all settled it was time to go into production for the journal. We had to typeset the journal using Adobe InDesign which is publishing software used to edit documents. I spent Fridays and weekends working on that. I put in a lot of time with that and pushed my ankle to the max. By the Wednesday before Spring Break I had to slow it down and get some rest. We got the journal published and had our launch night last Tuesday. The journals turned out really well and I am very proud of the work I did to make that happen. I learned so much from that process and I am happy I ended up taking the class.
Kristen
It's a girl!
Kristen trying to guess prices of baby products
These balloon flowers were super cute!
On Sunday, I went to Heather's baby shower. It was a long drive out to Midvale, UT but I had a good time. Heather was in a good mood and very entertaining. I liked meeting the new people but it wasn't as fun as Kristen's shower because there weren't as many games.
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Heather with her pink boa and looking ready to pop soon :)
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