Historical Editing Fall 2002 Dr. Jon Hunner
Tuesday/Thursday 2:35 -3:50 pm. 646-2490 jhunner@nmsu.edu
Office Hours: Tues. & Thurs. 11-- noon and by appt. Breland Hall 242
This course will explore the process of editing historical documents for publication. There will be two main semester projects will involve selecting and editing a collection of historical documents from local archives. Once you have created a hard copy, we will publish it as a web site. We also will research and compile historical photographs of the Mesilla Valley for an upcoming book.
Week of Topics and Assignments
8/19 Course Introduction and begin discussing Editing Historical Documents, pp. 9-40.
8/26 Continue discussing Editing. Tour the Rio Grande Historical Collections 8/29. The finding aids for the RGHC are on the web site at Please explore this web site before the tour. Due: your vita.
9/2 Discuss the art of writing and collection selection and transcription. Read all of Elements of Style and Editing, pp. 41-84. Due: History of the day you were born.
9/9 Discuss document management and control. Familiarize yourself with Turabian’s A Manual for Writers. Due: transcription of two pages of letters from RGHC.
9/16 Transcription continued. Read Editing, pp. 85-120. Due: transcription of newspaper article.
9/23 Text Issues, and the beginning and the end. Read Editing, pp.121- 242.
9/30 Web editing lab.
10/7 Web editing lab.
10/14 History of Las Cruces, overview of project, and viewing of photos already assembled. Due: your assignments of 9/9 and 9/16 on a web page.
10/22 Viewing and selection of photos. Class canceled 10/22 for Fall Break.
10/28 Finalize selection of photos.
11/4 Arrangement of photos and writing of captions.
11/11 Writing of captions. Due: captions for your photos.
11/18 Assembling the book.
11/25 Begin proofreading. Class on 11/28 canceled for Thanks giving.
12/3 Finish proofreading.
Final Exam Dec. 10, 3:30-5:30
All assignments are due on the Thursday of that week.
Required Readings
Michael E. Stevens and Steven B. Burg, Editing Historical Documents: A Handbook of Practice (Walnut Creek: Altamira Press, 1997).
Kate Turbian, A Manual for Writers (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996).
William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White, The Elements of Style (New York: Allyn and Bacon).
Grading
Edited Collection-- hard copy 15%
Edited Collection as a Web Page 15%
Assignments on 8/26 & 9/2 (5% each) 10%
Captions for photo book 45%
Working with the staff at RGHC. 15%
Course Guidelines
Lack of attendance will affect your final grade.
Late assignments will have a grade deduction for every day that they are late.
Withdrawals from this course are the responsibility of the student.
Incompletes will be given only if the student has passed the first half of the course and can not complete the course due to documented illness or family crisis.
Academic misconduct in this course will cause the student to fail the course. Please consult the Student Code of Conduct in the NMSU Student Handbook.
Plagiarism will be rewarded by a grade of "F" for the semester. Plagiarism is turning in assignments that you did not produce without acknowledging who really produced them.
Students with disabilities should provide documentation to me from the Office of Disabled Students about their status.