Today’s Plan:
- Handing back posters (missing a few names) & Mid Semester Grades
- Review Groups / Projects / Poets
- Production Research
- Homework
Handing Back Posters Etc
I’ve graded the posters and revisions, though I need to attach names to a few projects. Check Canvas today to see if you (or I) have missed any work.
Production Research
In today’s class I will ask you to begin researching your book production. You will spend some time here in the classroom, and some time over in the library. You will submit the fruits of today’s labor to me as a memo via Google Doc (be sure to set the documents share settings so that anyone with the link can access, then submit your link to the document via Canvas). Your memo should have a heading, a summary section, and then three discussion sections, detailed below.
The first discussion section should concern research into covers of your poet. I recommend using Amazon, in addition to other Google Image searches. You should copy and paste copies of the images into your Google Doc (be sure they are appropriately sized). I’m looking for at least 5 covers–enough for you to get a sense of trends or the range of different approaches historically used. This is genre awareness.
The second discussion section should deal with the physical dimensions, layout, and typography of the volumes. For this, I will ask that you go to the library. If you have a ruler, then bring it. Find copies of your poet in the stacks. Take pictures of some key sections: title page, table of contents, a few pages of poems inside. Take measurements on the book’s dimensions. Take measurements of a page, too: how large is the margins? Also, look to see how things like footnotes are handled (if they are at all). You should do this for 3 volumes, if possible. If there isn’t three volumes of your poet in the library, then look at comparable authors (in terms of movement, time period, style, etc). You should be able to look up your poet in the usf catalogue before you walk over.
The third discussion section will address the homework for the next class. I would like every person in your group to go to a different book store (so, if you are a one person group, then I expect you to go to one bookstore, if you are a two person, two stores, etc.). I want you to document what edition of your poet is in the store, and to take photographs of up to 3 books of poetry on sale. This will give us two pieces of valuable information: first, we will know what cover you are competing against, and we will get a bit more of a sense of the genre of contemporary poetry covers.
Homework
As I indicated above, your first homework assignment is to visit a bookstore. In order to make sure everyone can complete the homework, make sure the person who created the document has shared it with everyone else before the end of class.
Also, you should have completed InDesign lessons 3 and 4 by Thursday. These can be turned in to Canvas. We will be working on InDesign chapters 5, 6, and 7 Thursday and over the weekend.
