Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Media Bistro Copy Editing Certificate Course- Another Update

Hey there all you writers! My goodness, I'm excited about this weather! In my blissful spring state, I was propelled to drive home from work with the windows all rolled down, something I feel the need to do when the weather is over 60. So I'm driving along and a bee gets sucked into my car and hits my face. Yeah. Little freak out. Don't worry, no one was hurt. Except the bee maybe, in my panicky state it's no wonder. Anyway, that was my highlight.

Okay, so I'm now on class number three in my Copy Editing Certificate program from Media Bistro. Feel free to see the previous two posts to follow from how I chose this program , my first impressions and my first update.

So I just finished the Grammar and Punctuation course. It was fine, but I wished I could have learned more. I don't really feel like I'm getting my monies worth. The class lasted four weeks. Each week is one lesson. Which basically is a 3-5 page PDF "lesson" and then a 1-2 page assignment. Doesn't feel like much of a lesson or much of a practice/assignment. I feel like they could be giving us a lot more instruction or testing our skills a lot more than they are every week. Guess one of my electives is going to have to be Advanced Grammar. Ugh. That probably wasn't proper grammar. See how much work I need?

Today was day one of Copy Editing Intermediate. My first lesson was pretty lame. It was supposed to be on hyphens, en-dash and em-dash. We were gold a basic explanation of when to use each, which wasn't something I was wondering about. I know that hyphens are for compound words, en-dash is for ranges and em-dash is interrupting a sentence. I was hoping to learn how to type those, which I didn't. I was also hoping to learn when to use em-dash vs parenthesis vs comma. You know:
My cat, who is extremely fat, sleeps all day.
OR
My cat (who is extremely fat) sleeps all day.
OR
My cat--who is extremely fat--sleeps all day
* Those double hyphens are supposed to be em-dashes. See, how would I write them in a paper? Who knows? So yet again, when I come to this question in my own editing and writing, I'll have to look it up online at some random website. I can't tell you how may things I've had to look up online that I felt I should have learned so far from this schooling.

The assignment after, which I thought was going to be a series of sentences where you choose which to use, was a news article from a magazine or news paper that we had to edit. It had absolutely nothing to do with the lesson. Ooookaaay....

So my impression so far isn't very good. I thought I was going to be so happy: I saved money and will learn from the media experts! But I don't feel like I'm learning all that I should. I can't even say I'm going to a real school. But listen to me complain! For $1,500 I don't know what I expected. More I guess. But I don't work for Media Bistro nore am I getting paid to endorse anyone. I'm just trying to provide an in-depth review of this program from an actual student. So if you do enroll, you may feel similar feelings. The only testimonials I read were raving about the great teachers. What teachers? How can you really praise a teacher for an online course? One chat night a week and they're amazing? I must be missing something.

Either way, I'm still pursuing more education and experience to lift my editing business off the ground. I have just been accepted into another internship (since apparently my first one is on an "as-needed" basis). It's at a real publishing house, editing books and poetry! So my schooling, experience and passion must have meant something!

Anyway, keep reading if you are still debating whether Media Bistro's Copy Editing Certificate Program is for you. I'll post again soon!

From One Writer...

Love,
Shelby

5 comments:

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  2. Do you think this program is more geared towards journalism and knowing AP style type editing?

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    1. Hi Josh! Thanks so much for reading. Your question is a great one and one I wish I had asked before sighing up.
      It appears it IS geared more towards journalism type editing. I was dissappointed since I want to edit fiction books. But yes, the very first class, they have you buy a subscription to the AP style book and you go through page by page. So if that is where you are headed, it might be perfect for you! Feel free to ask any more questions! Have a great day!

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  3. To make a double hyphen and em dash, you have to space after the word, write the double hyphen and then space again, before writing the next word, and it will auto create an em dash, (at least in a word doc, not on the internet). Online you have to use hotkeys: you hold down the ALT key and then type in 0151, and then hit the space bar, like this — .

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    1. haha! Thanks Amy! In my writing, I discovered that by accident. :) Good to know about the online method too! :)

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