WVU Press Culture

Many places of work in today's world require its employees to dress professionally, act professionally, and basically convey professionalism in every spec of their existence. At the WVU Press, this just isn't the case 100 percent of the time. First off, I learned to not overdress while working at the Press the first day I got there when I was wearing slacks, a blazer and a button down shirt and everyone else was in jeans and regular attire. This was not only uncomfortable, but also a little embarassing because I looked so different and stuffy compared to everyone else. I based my attire for the Press off of what I knew of other internships my friends have held, such as at The Dominion Post. The Post requires its reporters to dress very conservativly and professionally at all times. This even applies to when the assignment might not be exactly "professional." For example, a story that requires a reporter to cover a circus in town should not justify the same attire as a reporter covering a city council meeting. Regardless, it is nice to work in a place where the attire matches the overall feeling of the office.

Another part of the culture of any place is the people that you're in close contact with everyday. I work closest to probably one of the nicest ladies I have ever met. She goes by the name of Floanne and is kind of an administrative assistant in the office, but also oversees all of the interns and student workers. She is always available for friendly conversation and is genuinely concerned with how we are holding up in the office. But, like any boss or supervisor, she can be tough. I was actually sitting about three feet away from her the other day when she lit into another intern about not making it into work. After hearing this five minute conversation about whoever this was having a bad attitude and not doing the work she was required to do, I have to say, I never want to get on Floanne's bad side. Ever.

"You're Looking At That Thing in the Corner, Aren't You?"

The title of this post just comes from something my boss said that I found funny the other day. We were going over the continuous edits I have been making to the WVU Press website. We were talking about how the entries were coming together well and now there were just some factual errors and issues of timeliness that needed addressed. For example, some of the entries included reviews of the books, some didn't. Some of them included brief bios of the writers, some of them didn't. In other random instances there are web addresses at the end of the entries that lead to full websites that offer total biographies and current activities of the writers. Most do not include this feature. The factual errors were mostly concerned with where to get more information on the authors, one of which sited a radio program that went off the air more than a year ago.

Since there is so much more to worry about with all of the entries for so many books, Than and I decided to write one perfect entry and then model the rest after that. This includes not only the style, but also the content and length of the entries. Basically, they all need to have a synopsis, review, and blurb from a random person who supports the book. They all need to be similar lengths as well. This will be the hardest part, seeing as all the content for the separate entries is always very different.

So, this is what we were talking about when Than made the random comment, "You're looking at that thing in the corner, aren't you?" I was paying attention to what he was saying, no kidding. There was just this big yellow and black thing in the corner that was pretty unrecognizable. I asked him what it was and he said he didn't know, but everyone who walked into the office looked at it in one point on another apparently. Our general consensus turned out to be a very unsafe, unstable chainsaw-holder-thing, used to cut branches off the tree.

Random, yes. Distracting from work, maybe. Identifiable, no.

Good for Press, Bad for Amber

So this week I am discovering the differences between my job at The Daily Athenaeum and The WVU Press. I've had some problems adjusting to looking for errors in Chicago style of writing, rather than Associated Press style. While I worked at the DA, I was totally emersed in AP style and used it on a daily basis. Now, I've got to get used to Chicago, which I knew slightly before I started at the Press, but am not nearly as strong in as AP style. This has been an issue in copy editing the website and I've really been having trouble catching all of the errors in Chicago style, so I've got to go over everything again. This is frustrating, but I'm learning all the same.
I had to quit my job at the DA in order to fulfill my duties at the Press, but I don't think any of my supervisors realized this. From this I have learned to communicate when I quit other jobs to my higher ups in the future. Anyways, this transition from newspaper to publishing company and the kind of writing they do is presenting some challenges to me in the way I write and edit. When I was told to look over the stuff I had already copy edited I was pretty disappointed in myself for not catching all of the mistakes I should have. However, it is times like these when I realize why I had to leave the DA. It wasn't just because I needed more time in my schedule in general, it was also because I had learned all I could from the DA and it was time to move on to where I could learn more skills involved with writing and editing. Even though it was discouraging to know I messed up, I also understand that this is helping me become as marketable as possible for the stuff that happens after I graduate in May.

Welcome Distractions

One of the things I like best about working at the WVU Press is the fact that I'm constantly exposed to the written word. I don't exactly get to fully read any of the books I work with, but it's still nice to be surrounded by literature. I got to help copy edit a book the other day called The Safety of Deeper Water. This is about a lady who enjoys fishing when she is not busy being a nurse. Her husband is in prison and keeps threatening her via letters that when he gets out he will come after her and harm or kill her in some way. She ends up divorcing him while he's still in prison, which just annoys him even more. She also falls in love with a very interesting character who tends to enjoy fishing naked, for whatever reason. Thats all of the plot I could figure out from just skimming the pages looking for orphans and widows. In case you don't know, an orphan is a word left by itself at the start of a line and a widow is part of a phrase left at the top of a page.
Anyway, this has made me realize that while copy editing can be tedious, especially when it involves just looking for simple words and phrases, I think I can really come to enjoy it if it involves working with interesting text. I've never exactly hated copy editing, but I haven't really enjoyed it either. I think this is a lesson in applying something I actually like to something I don't really enjoy doing all that much. As long as I've got at least something, be it as small as getting the gist of a good book, it makes life a little more bearable. I say this because working in an office wasn't exactly what I hoped for when I decided to get into writing and editing, but that is where the books come in. By being able to read or at least skim over a plot, I can take my mind off of being cooped up in an office and let it focus on not only the task at hand, but also the details that surround that task, such as a setting next to a river.

Th Office, The Stockroom, The Hallway

My job at the WVU Press so far consists of running between the main office and the stockroom via a very smelly hallway that holds the oder of an old locker room and about 40 years of dust. I started by building a site map of the Press' website, just to get a feeling of what content I have to work with. I then started to copyedit some of the entries that were up that described the plot of the books the Press publishes. Most of them were alright in terms of the description, there were just some errors in the use of Chicago style and spelling on a few. I say that I spend a lot of time between the stockroom and the office because I have to go back into the stockrooms and find the hard copy of the book for which an entry is made and make sure the price, ISBN, spelling of the author's name, among other things are all correct. I'm vaguly sure I look like a mad woman running back and forth between rooms so much, but I'm learning quite a bit about what it means to get used to a new workplace, especially since I'll probably be working somewhere similar in the future.

I've also managed to quickly punch out my Internship Contract for this capstone and got some very interesting answers from my publishing-supervisor-guy, Than. For example, when I asked him to tell me what learning goals he has set for me during this internship he said simply, "Synthetic Thinking." This means that when I don't know what I'm doing I should try to accomplish the task by taking what I know from previous patterns and experiences to figure out what I need to do. He also said I would obviously be learning basic editorial skills, but synthetic thinking was the first thing he mentioned. I've heard many people say that asking questions is always the best way to figure out something when you don't know the answer. I think this is true, but I also think that it is important to learn how to improvise sometimes and come up with creative solutions, especially in writing and editing. This can not only help with the writing aspect of copy editing, but can also help the editor-writer relationship. I feel this way because the more creative you can be with coming up with solutions to a problem, even if it's something you're not sure about, can be helpful in gaining feedback to figure out a solution that pleases the writer and editor.

Post One-Introduction to the WVU Press

On Friday I went to my first day at my internship with the West Virginia University Press. This is a new path for me in regards to what I'm used to writing and working on. At the Press I'll be working primarily on their website, or reworking it, I should say. The site currently severely lacks flow and is has a very plain, unappealing design. It's very uninteresting and doesn't really draw the user in to further explore the page, much less accomplish the task of leading the user around the site. My job at the Press will be to enhance the usability, among other tasks I'm sure, but this is the main thing I'm going to be focusing on throughout the semester. As I said, this is a very new avenue for me. I've critiqued websites before in my comprehensive editing class and I've worked on websites in my technical writing class, so at least I've got a bit of experience I can apply to this new internship.

When I think about all of the classes I've had during my time as a Professional Writing and Editing minor one word comes to mind: Work. All of the classes I've taken have been challenging in their own way and have required me to do tons of work that at the time I found to be tedious. I also have to say I was a little peeved when I found out I had a capstone for this minor when many of my other friends' minors do not require any sort of final coursework. However, I am grateful for the time and effort I've had to put into this minor. This I feel has prepared me for the next level of my life, which is the stuff that happens after I graduate in May, I suppose. Either way, I'm looking forward to learning more about this field. I think that my previous classes have prepared me to do well on most of the assignments in this capstone, especially the writing assignments and this blog. I've got plenty of time to reflect on what I've learned each week and the writing exercises in general help me clear my head and put what is going on in the class or internship in perspective.

One thing I am worried about in this course is the amount of hours I have to be at my internship each week. I realize that 10 hours per week shouldn't really be a big deal, but it tends to stress me out just thinking about the task set in front of me. As I mentioned before, this internship is going to be a new adventure for me, so I'm pretty nervous about what Than (the guy in charge or us wee interns) is expecting of me. He seems nice enough, though, so that is at least a little comforting. Another reason I'm apprehensive about this internship is the fact that I already hold a very good job at The Daily Athenaeum as the administrative reporter. I'm currently covering the presidential search and the Board of Governors, which takes up a significant portion of my time already. I would hate to have to leave the DA, but if it comes down to it I will because, after all, I have to have this internship to graduate and I've done a large amount of work at the paper already. It might be time to move on, but I'm not ready yet, so I'm giving it a chance and seeing if I can handle both.