Contemporary Editing

Exercises

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Editing 2.0 Exercises

Module 9.1

Questions

1. Will texting destroy our facility with the English language? Or are texting and other forms of conversational communication online simply examples of evolution in how humans interact with technology to communicate with one another? In other words, what are the benefits and tradeoffs of the many social forms of discourse online?
2. How should you (or anyone else) distinguish between on the one hand effective communication specific to a particular mode or medium, for example, texting, and on the other hand simply a sloppy, lazy, degraded use of language?

Activities

1. Write a poem using only Twitter. In other words, you have only 140 characters with which to work. Here’s a tip: Haiku might be the poetic form best suited to this activity.
2. With a group of classmates or friends, collaborate to write a mystery, one tweet at a time. Do this by having each succeeding tweeter extend the narrative.

Quiz

Editor’s Bookshelf—Additional Reading Suggestions

Making a long story short: Editing for brevity and clarity

Tenore, Mary Jean. What Twitter teaches us about writing short & well. Poynter.org, Aug. 30, 2012.

Rubin, Danny. Write less, say more: The power of brevity. Lifehacker, May 11, 2012.