Greetings and Happy Friday!
This week marked my first official assignment as an intern. In addition to the new experiences of interning and editing, I am new to using Microsoft Teams and tracking changes through Microsoft Word. With that said, the tasks of this week involve reviewing two undergraduate submissions from 2020 and making some recommendations for grammar and citations for the up-and-coming edition of the FCH Annals: Journal of the Florida Conference of Historians. Thankfully, Dr. Farless saved copies of current and previous submissions to provide examples for a newbie like myself to learn hands on! Microsoft Teams allows us to collaborate on projects and access the same documents in a professional setting outside the Canvas platform. In order to avoid drastic mistakes on my part, and to protect the original documents and changes, it is necessary to download a copy of the research paper to begin the editing process. Once completed, my recommendations get uploaded to Microsoft Teams for a collaborated review. The recommendations for this week are to be submitted by Monday.
During our Zoom meeting Dr. Farless proposed the idea of submitting my own research paper or poster for the 2022 FCH Annual Meeting in February. Since I am currently taking the mandatory research-intensive course, HIS4150: History and Historians, the opportunity to present my own work is a real possibility yet sounds exciting and intimidating. As an undergraduate with unsure plans for the future, I would hate to not throw some caution to the wind for a panel of history professionals to examine my work. Why not? I have heard Dr. Farless share multiple times that students should pursue a topic that most interests them. Although reading through other undergraduate submissions will help me with my own editing, the theses and topics are reflections of the interests of other students, not necessarily a shared interest of my own. The dishonorable act to hijack another student’s submission and pass it off as my own would not be a simple task nor a logical decision with plagiarism checkers like Turnitin. Each student has their own writing style, so any recommendations or corrections that I make should maintain the essence of my fellow undergrad. In the near future we will work directly with some of the contributors as well as graduate students during the editing process.
What a great honor for the undergraduates who have made it to the review process for the journal!