LINGUIST List 14.39

Wed Jan 8 2003

Jobs: General Ling: Foreign Language Copyeditor, Quia

Editor for this issue: Sarah Murray <sarahlinguistlist.org>

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  • robenalt, General Ling: Foreign Language Copyeditor, Quia Corporation, CA, USA

    Message 1: General Ling: Foreign Language Copyeditor, Quia Corporation, CA, USA

     Date: Mon, 30 Dec 2002 17:10:11 +0000
    From: robenalt <robenaltquiacorp.com>
    Subject: General Ling: Foreign Language Copyeditor, Quia Corporation, CA, USA




    University or Organization: Quia Corporation Rank of Job: Foreign Language Copyeditor/Instructional Designer Specialty Areas: General Linguistics, Language Acquisition Required Language(s):English (Code = ENG); French (Code = FRN); German, Standard (Code = GER); Spanish (Code = SPN)

    Description: Quia produces Web-based workbooks in partnership with leading educational publishers. These online workbooks engage students and make the learning process more satisfying through interactive exercises replete with vibrant color, sound, and images. Computer grading saves time and gives students immediate feedback about their performance.

    Job Description: Your job is to review online foreign-language workbooks that Quia's development team has created. There are two aspects to this:

    1. Proofreading. You will compare Quia's online books to the pre-existing printed books that they are based on, looking for typos and making sure that bolding, italicizing, and other formatting match. This must be done with 100% accuracy.

    2. Instructional design.

    You will determine whether Quia's developers have successfully adapted printed workbook exercises to work well in an online environment. For example, consider a Spanish workbook exercise that asks students to identify pictures of various foods. The instructions read, ''Write the name of each food, in Spanish, in the corresponding blank.'' The first picture is of an apple, and the answer key reads ''la manzana.'' This works fine on paper, when there is a real person grading each student's response. But in an online format, the computer is doing the grading, and we have to be more thoughtful. For example, nothing in the instructions makes it clear to students that they must enter the definite article. Should we accept ''manzana'' as a correct answer also, or should we change the instructions to tell students to use the definite article ''la'' or ''el''? What about plurals? A student might enter ''las manzanas'' instead of ''la manzana.'' Would we want to accept ''las manzanas'' as a correct answer in this case? Finally, we may want to change the instructions from ''Write the name...'' to ''Type the name...'' since students are using a keyboard rather than pencil and paper.

    This is just an example, and we'll give you guidelines that cover common situations. But our guidelines don't cover everything. You'll need to think creatively and analytically about the various ways that students and educators might use our products so that you can suggest appropriate modifications.

    We are looking for applicants with the following skills. The first three are essential.

    1. Strong proofreading skills. You must be able to proofread written English text to identify typos and misspellings. Knowledge of English at the native-speaker level is essential.

    2. Copy editing experience and/or strong English grammar skills. You will be writing instructions, in English, for workbook exercises. Your instructions must be reliably well written and grammatically correct.

    3. Knowledge of Spanish, French, German, and/or Italian. Fluency is a plus but is not absolutely necessary. You must at least have the equivalent of 3 years university-level study and a particularly strong knowledge of grammar. Experience with several languages is a big plus.

    4. An interest in education. You will need to mentally put yourself in the place of both a teacher and a student in the course of reviewing our products. A natural curiosity about the processes of teaching and learning will therefore be an asset.

    5. HTML skills. You won't need to write any HTML, but if you can look at a Web page and have some sense of what goes on behind the scenes in HTML to make it look that way, that will be helpful.

    In addition, you must be detail-oriented, able to think analytically, and able to quickly master unfamiliar computer software.

    This is a project-based contract position. You must be able to commit at least 10-20 hours per week for at least a month.

    If interested, please send e-mail, including your resume, to resumequiacorp.com.



    Address for Applications:

    Attn: Product Director Tara Robenalt 839 Hinckley Road, Suite A Burlingame, CA 94010 United States of America Applications are due by 01-Mar-2003

    Contact Information: Product Director Tara Robenalt. Email: resumequiacorp.com Tel: 650.259.4200 Website: http://www.quia.com