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Paperless Mark-Up: Editing Educational Texts in a Digital Environment

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Abstract

An affordance “refers to the fact that the physical properties of an object make possible different functions for the person perceiving or using that object” (Sellen and Harper in The myth of the paperless office. The MIT Press, Cambridge, 2002). Historically, authors, publishers and editors have preferred to check and mark up hard-copy page proofs because it has been easy and flexible to read, cross-reference and annotate. Ironically, changes to the physical properties of computer hardware, as well as improvements to software such as Adobe Acrobat, are eroding our nostalgic preference for paper mark-up and highlighting paper’s inherent limitations. This article compares the affordances of paper in regard to editorial mark-up with those of digital, and demonstrates how digital affordances have impacted positively on editors’ workflow within educational publishing’s highly pressured production process. Specifically, how authors are supplied with complete electronic copy from previous editions and how editors perform their paperless mark-up.

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Notes

  1. I am indebted to Dr Louise Poland, Lecturer, Monash University; Stuart Angus, former IT Team Leader, Merri Community Health; and Eleanor Gregory, Senior Publishing Editor, Cengage Learning Australia, for reviewing this paper.

  2. AJ Sellen and RHR Harper [8], 17.

  3. WW Gaver [4], 1.

  4. The terms “action” and “outcome” in relation to affordances comes from A Dillon [1], 1298.

  5. RM Thomson et al. [11], 77.

  6. Sellen and Harper [8], 17.

  7. Sellen and Harper [8], 17.

  8. Sellen and Harper [8], 53.

  9. D Kalantzis [5], 62.

  10. For further information regarding new editions, see JB Thompson [10], 215–18. For further information regarding the average cost for secondary and tertiary textbooks, see Peter Donoughue [2], 213–16.

  11. Sellen and Harper [8], 18.

  12. Sellen and Harper [8], 148.

  13. Sellen and Harper [8], 150.

  14. For information on stripped-back files, I am indebted to Campbell Craig, former Lead Instructional Design Manager at Cengage Learning Australia, and Adam Bextream, former Resource Development Coordinator at Australian Academy of Science—Primary Connections.

  15. For further discussion, see T Lieb [6].

  16. Snooks & Co. [9]

  17. P Duguid [3], 65.

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  1. Film, Media & Communications, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Jocelyn Elizabeth Hargrave

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  1. Jocelyn Elizabeth Hargrave
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Hargrave, J.E. Paperless Mark-Up: Editing Educational Texts in a Digital Environment. Pub Res Q 30, 212–222 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12109-014-9360-9

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