The Pattern of On-line Activities by People Who Use Internet Outside Home

Please read topic then responses to the topic and then tell what you like/dislike, agree/disagree about each response. If you have nay questions/advice please give it. NOTE: there is two different topics and four different responses. SO, your post should be evaluating 4 different responses. Please keep each separate and title them.
Topic 1: Should you be required to learn mark up language, especially if more people are choosing to mark copy via word processing programs? Why or why not—drawing on information from the text and another resource online—something easy like this link: http://37signals(dot)com/svn/posts/1879-copyediting-man-vs-machine
or
2. Which do you prefer, electronic copy editing or manual? Why? Bring in an additional source—again, something like this one.http://37signals(dot)com/svn/posts/1879-copyediting-man-vs-machine
Response 1: My routine writing for work revolves around internally developed platforms such as Google Docs, Drive, Sheets, etc. We collaborate via these platforms, often across time zones and continents. Because of this, it is completely impractical to use manual editing. In fact, most of the documents never reach paper and ink form, but remain in electronic form throughout their useful existence. Because of this, I have grown very accustomed to using electronic copy editing and have learned to accept the shortcomings that are intrinsic to that form. As time goes on, software companies have become ever more understanding of these shortcomings, and are doing their best to improve the editing and review functions of the software.
With that said, I really do like manual copy editing personally, it allows for easier understanding generally of the markups made. I don't always know what a markup means, but it's pretty easy to find the information when I question it. Much like reading paper books, there is just something about the manual markup that feels more concrete holding paper in hand.
I'm afraid that we are approaching a paradigm shift in this sense, where like I mentioned earlier, most work never touches a printer and that concrete feeling will be lost to all but the few looking for nostalgia.
Source referring to docs editing and tracking:
http://techcrunch(dot)com/2014/07/25/google-docs-makes-collaborative-editing-easier-for-word-users/
response 2: I prefer electronic copy editing to manual. With the document edited and the final draft there to be approved or declined it helps to make things move along quicker. I will acknowledge the difficulties that “Codyediting: Man vs. Machine” described, such as it being difficult to read the electronic version. With the different options in viewing you can choose to have the changes shown in a balloon to the side of the page rather than in line, but I do understand how the mark in red on paper would still be easier to read. The difficulty of things become jumbled can happen on paper and electronically and it seems to me that being halfway to finished by the time you finish marking up a paper is the single most impressive feature to me. I am not an editor by profession and perhaps that makes me a little naive about the ease or difficulties found in each method. If I were a full time editor I might find that the ease of not having to make key strokes and clicks on a mouse were more fulfilling as I went about my day, but for now I will stick with electronic.
Topic 2:
There are two options, either from chapter 5 or chapter 6. Be sure to respond to at least two of your classmate.
Chapter Five
1. Definitions. Illustrate the difference in structural and procedural markup by marking the first two pages of this chapter (or other document your instructor provides) in both ways. For example, in procedural markup, you might mark the title as 14-point bold Helvetica with 18 points after. In structural markup, you would mark the title simply as a title. Discuss what you find from doing this exercise.
2. Editorial affordances of a word processing program. If you don't know how to do most of the tasks below, choose this exercise. Get to know your word processing program. (Look for tutorials on youtube and elsewhere. I often do a quick search in google: how to "apply styles in text." Discuss what you learned about the experience of working through these various tasks in terms of how to learn new tasks in the future.
a. Apply styles in text.
b. Change the format of a style (such as one font to another, spacing before a heading, etc.).
c . Turn on the reviewing toolbar.
d. Show individual reviewers.
e. Change which reviewer's comments show.
f. Show individual types of changes (insertions and deletions, comments, etc.).
g. Track changes—turn on and off via button.
h. Compare documents in window.
i. Merge two documents.
j. Insert and delete comments.
k. Move to the next change using buttons on the reviewing toolbar.
l. Accept all changes.
m. Reject all changes.
n. Make two columns.
o. Create a running header or footer.
p. Insert page numbers.
q. Make a .pdf file.
r. Use a template stored within the program.
s. Find a template online, published by your word processing program's company.
3. Job requirements. Look up job ads for "technical editor" online. Determine what technological requirements the jobs have—what software do they expect you to be familiar with? Post what you find in your discussion. If you had to learn one of these programs on your own, what might be a viable strategy (i.e., what kinds of tutorials can you find online? what kinds of download options are there--i.e. free for 30 days, etc.
4. Current technologies. Look in Intercom (the STC's magazine), technical communication journals, and conference proceedings for information on current technologies editors are using. Discuss what you find. Cite your sources.
5. Current discussions. Search technical communication electronic mailing list archives for questions technical editors and writers have had about structural markup, cascading style sheets, and single-sourcing. Discuss what you find.
6. Software programs. Find software programs that use the languages from this chapter (for example, search "XML editor"). Compare two programs for their abilities. Discuss what you learn.
OR
Chapter Six
1. Learning how to use tracked changes and comments. Go to http://office(dot)microsoft(dot)com/en-us/word-help/review-tracked-changesand- comments-HA010370562.aspx and work through the how-to articles. (As an alternative to typing in that web address, search at Google.com or Bing.com into the search box: microsoft.com Make revisions to documents that others can see.) Discuss what you discover/think about differently as a result (and connect to the book's discussions).
2. Using one of your own papers, or the paper at the end of this document take some time to explore track changes, document comparison, and comments. If you are using a word processor other than Microsoft Word 2010, look for the parallel functions. Save the original document, and then save the one that you edit in a separate file with a different name. Once you're finished with option 1 or option 2, post to the discussion board--what did you learn/think about differently and how do you connect what you learned to the chapter?
Option 1: Follow all the tips in this chapter, beginning with the section "Change Tracking in Word: Tips and Techniques."
Option 2: Focus on the three techniques described below.
a. Open the document. Press Ctrl + Shift + E to turn on Track Changes. Edit some sentences and observe what happens. Press Ctrl + Shift + E again to turn off Track Changes and observe what happens. Use the dropdown menu in the Review tab > Tracking to change the selection from Final Showing Markup to Final. (If you are working on a Mac or another version of Word besides Word 2010, find the corresponding menu and toolbar options to complete this exercise.)
b. Query the writer about a puzzling point, ask for more information, or seek approval for an editorial change. Drag your cursor over the words in the file best suited to posing your query. Select the Review tab > Comments > New Comment and type your query. Now move the Quick Access Toolbar to below the ribbon and put a copy of the New Comment icon on it. Add another query using the New Comment icon on the Quick Access Toolbar. (Extra credit: Find the default keyboard shortcut for inserting a New Comment.)
3. Silent editing. In your own words, summarize the issue of silent editing—editing without a record of the changes. In what circumstances might it be appropriate to change the file directly without recording every change? When should you mark the changes you make to a file?
4. Document comparison tools. Read about one or more of the document comparison tools for web pages, using the URLs listed above in Websites for Products Mentioned. (Araxis and CS-HTMLdiff are two such tools.) Write a memo to your professor describing these tools and analyzing their use for editing a website compared to the electronic overlay method used by Adobe Acrobat. Identify the advantages and drawbacks of each method for editing web pages. State which method you would prefer to use and explain why.
Technical Editing
Tracking Changes and Using Comments in Microsoft Word Tutorial
Goal
This exercise requires you to modify a document while tracking your changes and to insert author queries using the Comment function
You will need to copy the sample text at the end of this document into a Microsoft Word file. Then follow these directions.
Directions
1. Turn on Track Changes. Microsoft Word will mark insertions, deletions, and moves. Thus, it will keep a record of your editing.
How:
- - In the Review menu, find Track Changes in the middle of the ribbon and click on it.
2. Edit the document. You will need to correct errors in grammar, punctuation, and spelling. You will also make style choices, including hyphenation and capitalization.
3. Query the author using the Comments function. You can write your queries to the author in the electronic file. Query the date 1996 in the second paragraph. (Note the other dates in the paragraph as you phrase your query.) Also query the percentages (41% vs. 59.7%) in the third paragraph. (Consider the order of information preceding these numbers: should the first number or the second be higher?)
How to insert comments:
Highlight 1996 in the second paragraph.
From the Review menu, select "New Comment."
Type your query in the balloon that appears. Be specific about the problem with the date so that the author will know how to respond.
To insert the second comment, highlight the percentages in the third paragraph. Write your query.
4. More information.
a. Accepting or rejecting changes. You can use Track Changes to accept or reject the changes. An author could accept your editing and thereby remove the tracks from the files.
How: Using the pull-down arrow in the Track Changes icon, select Accept or Reject changes. Follow the instructions in the windows that appear.
b. Changing the display. You can change the default colors for marking changes.
How: From the Review menu, select Track Changes in the ribbon. Using the pull-down arrow, select "change tracking options." A window will appear on which you can change the some features of marking. If you choose color "by author," each author's changes will appear in a different color. Depending on your company policy, you might unclick "track formatting" so that the notes about formatting changes will not clutter up the page and distract from the substantive comments.
c. Changing the user identification. You can identify the comments by the name of the person writing them and change this identification with new users. This function is important when you are conducting a "blind" (anonymous) review.
From the Review menu, use the pull-down arrow by "Track Changes" and
Sample text
Copy this text into a new file. Save it as your instructor directs.
ONLINE ACTIVITIES OF OUTSIDE-THE HOME INTERNET USRES
The pattern of on-line activities by people who used the Internet outside the home differed from, that of home users. With the exception of job related activities, a smaller share of people, who used the Internet outside the home, reported engaging in each of the measured activites. Among internet users outside the home, 50.2% were online for job-related tasks, an increase from 44.6 percent in 1998.
In 2000, 32.2% of people using the Internet from outside the home died so to take courses--down from 38.8% in December 1998. In 2000, 45.0% of people using the Internet did so to search for information, in 1998, the figure was 50.1%. People using the Internet outside the home to check news, sports, and weather also dropped slightly. On the other hand, e-mail use was up to 59.1% in 2000 from 53.6% in 1996. Online shopping and bill paying was 10.4% in 2000 up from 7.5% in 1998.
Outside the home, whites were more likely to go online for email than Blacks, 61% vs. 51%. Blacks were more likely to use the Internet outside the home than Whites to take a course (41% vs. 59.7%), and were more likely to use the Internet to search for jobs (14.7% versus 7.2%).
In August 2000, an estimated 4.3 million people used the Internet outside the home to search for jobs. This represented 8.4% of the 50.9 million people who used the Internet away from home. Those with lower incomes was much more likely to search for jobs using the Internet. Among those with household incomes below $25,000 using the Internet away from home, more than 12% were searching for jobs, almost twice the 6.5% rate of those with incomes above $75,000. (Figure II-16.)
Response 1: I found the tracked changes in Microsoft Word to be very cumbersome to follow. Every change I made, be it a spelling change, a punctuation change, or grammatical change, they all show the same simple red vertical line in the left margin. Without clicking on this line, there is no way to know what the change actually was. In some instances the lines just run together and are very hard to discern. Because of this, it is much more difficult to follow the markups over manual editing markups.
On the other hand, I really like how queries work and stand out in the right margin.
Work is in attachments!
Response 2: After completing this assignment I learned that it was essential to toggle between the mark up and final draft. I found errors in the final that had been obscured by my markups previously. I like the ability to leave comments on single words or whole sections and I do appreciate words ability to approve things individually or as a whole. The one thing I did not like was that even though I replaced a letter with another letter, such as correcting capitalization, it still left the original next to it. I found that I liked viewing it with the revisions in the balloon better than having the revisions inline. This was the opposite of what I had originally anticipated. I still stick with my theory that electronic copy editing will ultimately save time, but I can now clearly see the headache it could cause. The document I worked with is in attachments as well.