CSU Staffers Give Presentation at Copy Editors Conference

Two Columbia Southern University (CSU) instructional design editors attended the annual American Copy Editors Society conference which was held in Portland, Oregon recently.

Instructional design editor supervisor Rachael McCarty and editor Brooke Sims spoke to copy editors from all over the country about the growing role of the editor in online learning and the collaboration that must exist between editors, instructional designers, and course writers.

“Many members of our audience were just excited to chat with us—during our presentation and after it—about how our process works and what kinds of issues we tend to run into,” said McCarty.

Sims added, “Editing in online education has been somewhat underrepresented in the editing field. It was a pleasure to represent CSU and Columbia Southern Education Group at ACES and to meet other editors in instructional design and higher education.

The attendees with experience in educational editing were very interested in our processes, the way the work flows from writer to instructional designer and to editor.
The pair were very pleased with the ACES conference, which featured several notable publications and editors. “Seeing Grammar Girl’s name in the program was impressive to me, and I was very excited to attend a session given by an editor for The Onion,” said McCarty.

“I was very impressed by some of the larger sessions and how relevant they were to my work in higher education and instructional design,” added Sims.

The pair explained that their duties with the CSU instructional designers and course writers include editing and proofreading copy, making sure it meets the appropriate style to make sure the courses are accurate and clear for students.

CSU offers online certificate and associate, bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degree programs in various fields such as human resource management, occupational safety and health, fire administration, criminal justice and business administration.

To learn more, visit www.ColumbiaSouthern.edu.