Week 6

Last week I was surprised and a bit amused by how the new prices for the catalog were determined. This week, I was again surprised by the process for determining the prices of these ebooks FIT is trying to go to more and more. They are trying to determine the correct balance between printed material and electronic material. The printed material costs more to produce so represents a large cost for FIT. The electronic material costs, really, nothing, at least not after its production, so is purely revenue. So the discussions about ebook prices were basically to determine the correct markdown. The discussed markdown right now is about 50%, but nothing is definite.

Besides the hold up by discussions of prices for ebooks and the like, the catalog is about done. Once the designer puts a draft together, it will come back and be proofed, then will be printed and sent out. I am still copyediting and proofing, though now it is mostly scholarly articles for FIT's International Journal of Sport Exercise Physiology (IJSEP). Each article is, generally, written by a different author with his or her own style and background. Some use MLA, others APA, others sort of make up rules as they go. FIT and the IJSEP use APA, something with which I am not, or was not before this internship, well acquainted. Most things are consistent, but its the little stuff, the minutia, that is different and must especially be watched for. An example is the use of square brackets and parentheses. Chicago, and PEMDAS, says that square brackets are to be the outside parentheses and (ordinary) parentheses are to be the inner brackets. APA, I think MLA, and teachers since I was about 12, say that that should be opposite ( [ ] ). I learned that today, so must go back through about six articles I just copyedited to change it from [ ( ) ] to [ ( ) ].
Journal articles