A3: Client Editing Assignment
Editing for Usage and Style by Tiffani Tijerina is licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 International
Editing for Usage and Style by Tiffani Tijerina is licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 International
Now that you have practiced editing your own work and collaborating with your peers, you are ready to step into the role of a professional editor. For this assignment, you will work in small editorial teams to edit open educational resources (OER) for real-world clients.
Each client has provided a text along with specific goals and expectations. Your primary job is to balance professional editing standards with your client's unique vision, delivering a refined manuscrupt alongside a project-specific style sheet.
A Note on AI: Because this assignment involves the work of a real-world client, the use of any AI-powered editing tools must be discussed with your client ahead of time. If they are uncomfortable with you using AI to assist in your editing, you may not use it. Respect your client-editor relationship.
A sign-up sheet is now available in Blackboard containing detailed briefs for each client project.
Team Sizes and Availability: Each project has a strict limit on the number of editor "seats" available. If a project's seats are full, you must select another option.
Scope of Work: Projects vary significantly in their needs. Some require more copyediting (grammar, consistency, mechanical polishing), others demand structural or developmental editing (reorganizing content, adjusting tone, improving accessibility), and several include bespoke requests directly from the client. Review the project descriptions carefully to find a project that aligns with your editorial interests.
For the first week of the project, you are expected to sign up for a project and connect with your team via email, group chat, or other method.
You should copy (cc) both Tiffani (ttijerina1@ualr.edu) and Chloe (camcgehee@ualr.edu) on all emails to the client. Chloe will be your primary point of contact for the project, with Tiffani available as needed.
During the second week of the project, your team will need to get in touch with your client. You should introduce yourselves and let them know that you will be starting work on their project. You should also let them know whether you want to be attributed for your editing work or left anonymous (see the sign-up sheet for details on how each project will attribute your work). In addition, you need to ask them at least the following questions:
Aside from the details provided on the sign-up sheet, do they have any other specific editing requests?
What is their preferred method of communication?
If email, how often do they want you to check in and provide progress reports?
If Zoom meetings, try to schedule meetings so that the whole team can be there, but if that's not possible, designate a team leader to manage client communications.
To what extent are they okay with you using AI in the process of this project?
Remember that you are creating a project style sheet as you go, and that it will be delivered back to the client (and submitted with the assignment). See "Key Deliverables" below.
If you are unable to finish the project in the timeframe given, you need to clearly indicate where you left off in the document and the style sheet so that they can continue the work.
Edited Manuscript: Working alongside your team and communicating with your client, you will produce a clean, edited draft that directly fulfills the client's needs.
Project Style Sheet: Every team must create and maintain a comprehensive style sheet throughout the editorial process. The document will detail:
Document-specific mechanics (spelling variants, capitalization rules, numbers vs. words)
Key terminology and specialized vocabulary
Formatting guidelines and structural choices
Rationale for major editorial decisions made during the project
At the end of the project, your team will submit the edited manuscript and style sheet in Blackboard for credit. Additionally, you will deliver both documents back with your client so they can maintain consistency as they continue developing or updating their open educational resource.