The third university established in Victoria, La Trobe University has a diverse community of more than 38,000 students and staff. Its commitment to excellence in teaching and research prepares students to make a bold and positive impact in today's global community. La Trobe provides Open Universities Australia with its core tenets, entrepreneurship and sustainability.
Critically engage with the ethical, legal and economic aspects of editing and publishing and sustain this engagement in clearly written prose and oral presentations to the group.
Demonstrate knowledge of the history of editing and publishing and the capacity to critically evaluate the significance of the social contexts in which these are practiced.
Understand structural editing, copy editing and proofreading and put these skills into practice effectively.
Work cooperatively with peers to communicate with each other clearly in oral and written forms and share knowledges and skills.
This subject explores how editing and publishing practices are evolving in the twenty-first century. Students are introduced to key editorial skills – from proofreading, copyediting and structural editing to negotiating the author-editor relationship – and to vital ethical, legal and economic considerations in contemporary publishing. Placing both the local and global industries in their wider historical and cultural contexts, we'll consider how publishing has always been at the cutting edge of technological and social change, and how external factors continue to shape editing and publishing today.
A series of 5 editing tasks (equivalent to 2500 words), increasing in length and difficultly, designed to assess different editing skills. Feedback provides accumulative assessment during Weeks 3 to 10 of semester. (60%)
One 1500-word essay essay analysing the social, cultural, ethical, legal and/or economic aspects of the contemporary publishing industry. (35%)
Oral presentation (equivalent to 250 words) on one aspect of the research essay. (5%)