The Most Grueling Job

I just finished one of the most grueling jobs...ever. I know that I am only an intern and therefore given the "grunt" work, but wow this was awful. I love helping out on projects in any way that I can, especially when it seems that I can really help. So when Than gave me an in-depth project with the Matewan text, I was thrilled. I was to check the notes within the text and make any suggestions to promote clarity for the reader. The first two days I worked on the project were not too bad, the information was interesting, I had a great system for working, and with my suggestions the book can be better. But after four days of this same project, I easily became bored and simply 'fed-up' with the text and the mass amount of notes.

So after working 16 hours on the same project, I finally finished. Although it was repetitive, I was happy to finish this project because I felt a great sense of accomplishment. I had contributed some great suggestions to the final product of this book and hopefully can make it easier for the reader to understand. At least now I can really understand the time that is put into each little part of a project in order to make it the best published work.

Feeling LIke I Matter

I knew starting this internship that I was not going to be making huge decisions for projects in their final productions. But I am excited in how much my opinion matters in these projects. One project in particular I felt that my opinion was valued. I was to help create a magazine ad for the recently published Bringing Down the Mountains book. My job was to create and select headlines and blurbs that I felt best fit the ad, along with choosing pictures to impact the reader. My headline was not used, but my blurbs and picture were. This made me feel important to the Press and the project in particular. Although they didn't need my opinion to complete the project, it was nice to know that what I thought was considered.

The Macrofungi project also gave me an opportunity to contribute greatly to a project. I created a back-cover text based on the information in the introduction. This served as a "teaser" to what the book contained. I took the information that I felt would be most useful and the most interesting to make the reader purchase and read the book. Then I assembled this information in the best way and submitted it to Than. I am still unsure if it, or any of it will be used. But it is awesome that my suggestions will at least serve as a base to the final product.

This is one aspect of the job that has been great. No matter what small job I may have, I know that I am making some impact and that my suggestions will be considered for projects. To know that I helped on a project and made it better in some way is extremely rewarding. I just can't wait until I become an editor and I have the final say in what happens, but for now I am happy doing the little things.

1st Week

My first day at the WVU Press was exciting yet very overwhelming. I was excited to get started and put to use what I had learned in my PWE classes. Although I was not familiar with all of the programs used, I figured I would know enough and catch on quickly. My first day was spent learning programs and the webserver system on the mac computer. As Than was explaining everything to me, my head was filling so fast and I became confused. I have never really used Mac computers so that in itself I have to get used to, but the programs it seemed as if I could never learn how to use this...stuff. Than showed me how to log into webserver and then asked me to do it. I was so nervous that I couldn't get his password right, which made me feel like an idiot in front of the guy who would be teaching me for the semester.

Then we moved on to InDesign, where I became lost even more. Than is so experienced and could fly through everything that I barely had time to catch up and understand it. So the rest of my day was spent practicing and exploring this program, along with the Mac itself. It seemed as if it was going to take me forever to understand and be able to use these programs on my own. But I guess that is the best way to learn...by doing.

The rest of my week consisted of proofreading and working more with InDesign. I actually surprised myself with how much I actually learned in a week. I learned how to create running heads, how to fix margins, and how to add and edit pages into the existing text.

The rest of this semester is going to be interestingly amazing. I can tell I will learn a great deal from Than and Rachel, and I can't wait to make a real impact in the production of a book. So far, this is great!