Greetings and Salutations!
This week, Abigail and I met with Dr. Farless over Zoom, and discussed a schedule change for our weekly/bi-weekly meetings. We briefly touched on a few questions regarding primary source searches as well as some minor issues or changes with Microsoft Teams. We plan to meet next Monday evening, 4 October, to go over – in more depth – a large paper for publication. After we discuss additional recommendations for the paper, the author will join us at a later date over Zoom. Since this particular paper will be published and is of exceptional length, we will be devoting much effort to reach an optimal page limit. The removal of content from a paper presents a challenge as we do not want to diminish the hard work put forth on such a project. For the time being, we are getting a lot of practice with citations, and really diving into the text in search of the most valuable parts! In addition to our current focus, our team also discussed whether or not to publish another paper.
While all papers potentially need editing work, there are some considerations we accounted for when we came to a decision or recommendation (It should be noted here that the ultimate decision belongs to Dr. Farless and the committee at the Journal of the Florida Conference of Historians). Initially, we recognized that a student may or may not want to devote a certain amount of extra time for modifying their work (if extensive), which may depend on their own current course load or other activities. With that said, simple fixes should not get in the way of a recommendation for publication. However, when we discussed the paper in question, we found that missing context was the deciding factor. If we went forward with the editing process, the student would need to devote more time or research to substantiate their argument or elaborate on the context. Overall, we had an informative meeting with opportunities to ask questions and express concerns.
Here are some moments from our meeting on 28 September 2021:
The game face of editing... We are serious, and don't call us Shirley.
Taking a moment to say cheese!
Can’t wait to discuss further recommendations for our current assignment! Since the papers are initially introduced as anonymous, this removes any bias of personality and allows us to approach the work with a blank slate. With that said, any recommendations are not deemed to be an attack on the author, but hopefully a helpful aid. Here's to teamwork and paper polishing!