COMM 353: Upcoming assignments - WATCH THIS SPACE

*** PLEASE WATCH THIS SPACE! I WILL POST MORE DETAILS OVER THE WEEKEND ***

In class today (Thursday): We should devote the class period to planning Bulldog Bytes. I will convene the class, to act as an editorial committee with three items on today's agenda:

1. Organization. Choose a leader (managing editor, king, queen, mother superior, generalissimo, whatever) and assign duties to other members of the class. You should probably function like the editorial committees described in Nancy Brigham's "How To Do Leaflets, Newsletters and Newspapers."
   
2. Sketch in a budget, i.e. a tentative list of stories, artwork, etc. You already have a good start on this from earlier class discussion. But I think it would be a very good idea to start filling in the blanks and make a composite list, using the discussion of editorial budgets in Rachel Kanigel's "Student Newspaper Survival Guide"; Brigham's example of a scheduling wall chart [see below]; or a combination of the two as a guide.
   
3. Work out a tentative copy flow schedule - spelling out who does what and when, who it goes to next, when each step has to be finished and so on, working back from a publication date in mid-April. You need to track this on a single wall chart, spread sheet or whatever so you don't get multiple copies of the same article floating around with different revisions. Don't ask me how I know this! Again, Brigham's wall chart [below] would be a good model.

Brigham's wall chart shows budget, copy flow (click to enlarge)
Before the midterm (due Feb. 23): Read or re-read Carol Saller's "Subversive Copy Editor"; the handout I gave you from Nancy Brigham's guide to newsletters, leaflets and newspapers; and the material I have posted/photocopied for you relating to: (1) Editing as a management function; and (2) the collaborative nature of creative work. Your midterm will be a take-home essay test with questions on these issues. As I formulate the questions, I will post drafts to the Mackerel Wrapper so you can begin thinking ahead of time about how you want to answer them.

For class Tuesday, Feb. 14: Complete reading Saller's "Subversive Copy Editor," if ou haven't already. Let's also look at the related blog at http://www.subversivecopyeditor.com/.