Editorial Report 15A - Introduction

As the final project had to be completed in record time, my revision and editing process came under a time crunch. Looking back at my rough draft I wrote only a few days ago, I only had hours to comb through my podcast and make the editing changes that would finalize the project for good. What follows is a few question on how I made changes to my introduction from the rough cut, to the re-edited final version of project.

Selection from rough cut:

Introduction

    Hello, my name is Alexander McCarthy, and in this podcast, you’ll hear me discuss the first three projects in my English 109 honors class, for first year english.

*Introduction Music*

Starting my second semester in college, I always knew English would be a rough class, a class that would be highlighting my transition from a high schooler to college student in my freshman year. Even in high school, I was not a magnificent English student, but I was still met with success. Seeing as I am majoring in Aerospace Engineering, my enthusiasm for English is lacking, and after years of having history essays thrown at me, with little successful teaching in previous English classes, I did not feel ready for honors level college English.

*Consider Sound effect*

Starting the semester I was worried. One of my high school friends who had this teacher for English in the Fall semester said he gave out a ton of homework, but overall the teacher was a cool guy and the projects were interesting. I soon found out this was all extraordinarily true.

*Pause / Music rise in volume*

Reflecting back on the semester, I discovered that my writing process in general has remained uniform, but when you examine works closely, such as the first three projects of my English 109H class, you uncover how each topic, and especially, each genre, has unique properties that modified my writing process. One overarching theme does recur though, an emphasis on time management, which I also learned, through long nights and spurts of productivity. 

Questions:

1. How did the content change (even slightly - details matter!) when you re-edited it? Why do you think the content is being communicated more effectively in the re-edited version?
   -  My introduction did change quite a bit. I added quite a few sections, such as some detailed like what classes I took in high school to set me apart, or the tidbit that my english class was at 8am, both designed to relate to the audience why I am an honors student, and why I had some dread about this class. I also included almost and entire section dedicated to why I am writing about specifically the writing process, and not just my writing in general. This helps the audience understand better what the podcast's purpose is, rather than leaping blind like my original cut.
   
   
2. How did the form change (even slightly - details matter!) when you re-edited it? Why do you think the form is presenting the content more effectively in the re-edited version.
   - The form of my introduction did change, such as actually including transition audio between my introduction first sentence, and the rest of my introduction, and also putting emphasis on works such as lacking, or the entire semester. This all gave my vocals some personality, letting the audience relate to my feelings or emphasis on certain parts of the project, coming off more clearly than a boring monotone voice. Much of the grammar of this introduction paragraph was also changed as I read through the script, in order to accommodate a smoother speaking voice, which lends itself to the conventions of the podcast. 
   
   
   
   
   Re-Edited Selection: 
   
   
   Hello, my name is Alexander McCarthy, and in this podcast, you’ll hear me discuss the writing process of the first three projects in my English 109 honors class, a freshman level english class composed of four major projects.  
   
   
   *Introduction Music*
      
   
   
   Starting my second semester in college, I always knew English would be a rough class, a class that would be highlighting my transition from a high school senior to a freshman year college student. Even in high school, I was not a magnificent English student, but I was still met with success, getting A’s on papers all four years, even through Advanced placement courses like AP Literature and AP Composition & Writing. However, seeing as I am majoring in Aerospace Engineering, my enthusiasm for English is... lacking, and after years of having history essays thrown at me, along with little successful teaching in previous English classes, I did not feel ready for an honors level college English class, especially at 8:00 AM.
   
   
   *Consider Sound effect*
   
   
   Starting the semester I was worried. One of my high school friends who had this teacher for English in the Fall semester said he gave out a ton of homework, but overall the teacher was a cool guy and the projects were interesting. I soon found out this was all extraordinarily true.
   
   
   *Pause / Music rise in volume*
   
   
   Blog posts, image citations, research paragraphs, and peer reviewing rough drafts, a lot of spontaneous work of different qualities and forms comes rushing back to me when I think back through parts of the semester. All of this work, I realise, was in hopes of developing my writing process, and not my actual talent as a writer. Therefore, as I look back on my semester in english, I must focus myself on how creating, researching, editing, everything about the writing process, has changed for me.
   
   
   But when reflecting back on the entire semester, I discovered that my writing process in general has remained uniform. When you examine works closely, such as each of the first three projects of my honors English class, you uncover how each topic, and especially, each genre, has unique properties that have modified my writing process. Two overarching themes do recur though, an emphasis on time management, and a challenging amount of blog posts, which I learned through long nights and spurts of productivity.