PUBLICATIONS ISSUES AND MANAGEMENT
ENGLISH 6953 (Fall 2000)

Office Hours: 9:00-11:00 a.m. TTh; 8:30-9:00 a.m. S; 11:45-12:15 S; and by appointment

Prerequisite:  Graduate standing or permission of the department chair. 

• Text 1: O. Jane Allen and Lynn H. Deming, eds. Publications Management: Essays for Professional Communicators. Baywood’s Technical Communications Series. Amityville, N.Y.: Baywood, 1994. (Choose this text if your interest is publications management, business, or academia; choose text no. 2 if you want to be a tech writer but not necessarily a publications manager. You may want to buy both—the first is more "theoretical," the second more nuts-and-bolts "practical.").

• Text 2: Hackos, JoAnn T. Managing Your Documentation Projects. New York: John Wiley, 1994.

• Two IBM-formatted 3 1/2" computer disks, or one 3 1/2" disk + a zip disk.

SUPPLEMENTAL TEXTS (optional)

• Judd, Karen. Copyediting: A Practical Guide. 2nd ed. Los Altos, CA: Crisp, 1990. (Good if you want to be any kind of editor.)

• The Chicago Manual of Style, 14th ed. (Standard at many presses; a supplement to MLA at others.)

• The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law. Cambridge, MA:  Perseus, 2000. (Standard for journalism.)

• Lyon, E. Nonfiction Book Proposals. Blue Heron, 1995. (Useful if you want to be a writer.)

• Larsen, Michael. How to Write a Book Proposal. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest, 1985.

• Flammia, Madelyn, ed. Perspectives on the Profession of Technical Communication. Arlington: Society for Technical Communication, 1995. (Good whether your interest is academia or industry.)

• Adobe. Adobe PageMaker Classroom in a Book (Version 6.5). (Comes with a CD.)

COURSE OBJECTIVES

In English 6953, you will explore issues related to technical, trade, and academic publishing. In addition, you will acquire cognitive and mechanical skills needed to manage publications in a variety of arenas, including technical communication departments, journal production, newsletter production, and book publishing.

Objectives include the following:

• to explore the variety and scope of responsibilities of people who manage and produce publications;
• to explore how various texts are conceived, designed, and produced;
• to explore organizational, editorial, and authorial voice;
• to examine practical strategies for handling such management and publication-production problems as strategic planning; organizing work flow; maintaining quality; increasing productivity; estimating costs and budgeting; putting a publication on-line; and hiring, motivating, and evaluating employees;
• to apply such strategies, using a problem-solving approach to plan and produce both an individual project or paper and a collaborative publication;
• to explore publishing issues in business, industry, and academe.

PROJECTS AND GRADING POLICY

Your grade in the course will be based on the following assignments:

*The individual publications-related project may be any of a variety of projects: a paper describing and evaluating the management policy at your place of work; a newsletter/publication/web site/manual exhibiting publications skills; a paper on a publishing topic, issue, or controversy; a paper you prepare to submit to a particular book or journal; a paper on the evolution of a particular journal or magazine; a paper comparing/contrasting multiple journals or magazines in a particular field; or another approved project.

Late assignments will not be accepted unless you have received prior approval; they may result in a "docked" grade (one letter grade per day). If you want a major grade back by midterm, you must turn in either the collaborative project or your individual project by October 21.

(The number at the end of each line indicates the total possible points for that assignment or series of assignments. The final grading scale is as follows: 90–100 points, A; 80–89 points, B; 70–79 points C; 60–69 points, D; and fewer than 60 points, F. Failure to complete all of the assignments will result in an automatic F.

Regular attendance is expected. Considerable work on the projects will be done in class, where you can ask for help and consult your colleagues.

The drop date is Saturday, October 28. YSU is closed September 4 for Labor Day, November 10 and 11 for Veterans Day, and November 23-November 26 for the Thanksgiving break. Exam week begins December 11.