Editing: The Design of Rhetoric (Baywood's Technical Communications Series) - Hardcover

Sam Dragga; Gwendolyn Gong

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0895030608 ISBN 13: 9780895030603

Publisher: Baywood Publishing Company, Inc., 1750

Synopsis

Awarded 1990 Best Book! Excellence in Scientific and Technical Writing. Sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English. This book is intended to familiarize readers with the theoretical basis and practical applications of the editing process. This involves the examination of the rhetorical canons--invention, arrangement, style, delivery; and the corresponding rhetorical objectives of editing--accuracy, clarity, propriety, and artistry. We envision a diverse audience for this book. For aspiring editors, we offer an introduction to rhetorical principles as a vehicle for developing a repertoire of theoretically sound and effective strategies. For professionals--directors of communications, public relations specialists, experienced writers and editors of professional and technical publications--this book will serve as a reference and guide reinforcing their intuitive understanding and appreciation of the art of editing.

Editing- The Design of Rhetoric covers the traditional topics associated with editing (e.g., style guidelines, editing symbols, typography). In addition, we introduce a variety of new ways of approaching both routine and special editorial designs.

The key objectives of this book are: to show that editing is not merely a mechanical procedure, but a complex and creative process; to demonstrate that the editor's job is to mediate the writer-reader relationship, and therefore; requires a sensitivity to both the writer's aims and the reader's needs; to emphasize the importance of the rhetorical canons in the editing process by briefly explaining; their historical evolution and current implications; to exemplify the application of rhetorical theory in the editing of three major categories of texts--technical, news, and promotional publications; to provide a series of heuristics for analyzing the verbal and visual characteristics of a text; and to identify the process of editing as applicable to writers and readers in all disciplines and to the texts of all disciplines.

About this title

Review

"Both the novice and the advanced editor can benefit from the procedures outlined in this book."

-- Dr. Arthur W. Steller, Journal of Educational Public Relations

"Dragga and Gong make significant contributions to whatever lacuna of course design has existed, and provide teachers with conceptually sound and thematically or systematically arranged instructional materials for course instruction...the authors consistently suggest new and fresh ways of thinking about the editing process. . .best suited to upper division or graduate level technical communication courses. It provides a number of fresh and innovative approaches based on solid theoretical and research models. ...this text would help such courses be surely innovative as well as comprehensive."

-- Gerald M. Parsons, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Technical Communication Quarterly

"Especially useful for book and periodical editors who may already have a wealth of practical knowledge and experience, and who perhaps yearn for a little complementary theoretical rigour, or for use in journalism courses." -- Peter-John Lewis, Media Information Australia

"Sam Dragga and Gwendolyn Gong offer a genuinely new textbook in their Editing:

The Design of Rhetoric by Baywood Publishing, a long-time supporter of high quality scholarly publications in technical communication. ...each chapter makes rhetorical theory practical, useful, and current for today's student--a powerful combination. Dragga and Gong concentrate their efforts on producing a straightforward, practical, informative, and scholarly textbook, and they have done their work well. This book is a remarkable addition which many of us have already begun to use with great success in our classes, and we should all welcome its arrival."

-- Frances S. Johnson, Old Dominion University, Journal of Advanced Composition

Edition details

• Publisher: Baywood Publishing Company, Inc.
• Publication date: 1750
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0895030608
• ISBN 13: 9780895030603
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 232