Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences Manuscript Editing and Editorial Report

Developed from a desire to offer authentic assessment with potential real world professional or employability outcomes, this technique sees students develop an editorial report for a partial manuscript drafted by a bona fide industry professional. In WRIT7070 this takes the form of an extract of unpublished fiction authored by a practised fiction writer, but could be easily appropriated across HASS courses with the discipline-specific text and the specific editorial tasks informing the necessary approach. For example, Social and Political Science students might provide reviewer comments on draft journal articles or grant proposals; while Music students could offer creative feedback on original scores etc. One of the key professional capabilities this technique fosters is that of constructive critique, wherein students must strategically construct concise, measured, yet critically-informed feedback in a professional context. As this task engages with industry professionals it is best suited to final year or postgraduate cohorts, but could be successfully delivered as a hypothetical exercise in undergraduate courses. Students who excel at this task can ideally include this assessment as part of a professional portfolio when applying for a range of applied or scholarly positions, especially if the author endorses their recommendations and acknowledge students in subsequently published works.