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English
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St. Norbert College is the center of the publications universe for Sigma Tau Delta, the international English honor society. The society’s three national publications have been produced by student interns at the College for the past five years as a result of a proposal submitted by Robert Boyer and John Pennington ’80 (English). The projects give two students the opportunity to serve as editors and a third student provides the graphic design skills to make the publications come to life. “When Dr. Boyer and I first thought of doing this, it was primarily to provide students with some professional editing experience and to bring a little notoriety to St. Norbert,” Pennington said. “Especially in English and the humanities, it’s somewhat more difficult to bring that kind of experience to the undergraduate level.” The year-round publications process has grown to become a larger workload than it was when the College originally gained the responsibility. The St. Norbert team redesigned two existing publications and created a third for the honor society, which confers distinction upon outstanding students of the English language and literature in undergraduate, graduate and professional studies. The Newsletter now includes feature articles rather than the lists of information which were its staple fare in the past. It brings news of international and regional conventions, international writing contests, new chapters, honor members and writer members. The Rectangle is Sigma Tau Delta’s annual literary magazine, containing the works of society members, and The Sigma Tau Delta Review is the new annual literary journal that publishes critical essays on literature, essays on rhetoric and composition, and essays devoted to educational and instructional issues. Student interns typically spend two years on the team. The application process includes, for the two editors, a writing sample. “The students need to demonstrate high-quality writing and the means to do high-quality editing,” Pennington said. “I have to rely on them, because we need more sets of eyes than just one.” Stefanie Jochman ’07 from Sheboygan, Wis., and Jerusha Agen ’05 from Seymour, Wis., handled the editing duties this past academic year, while Beth Maus ’06, from Hutchinson, Minn., took care of the graphic design duties. Jochman caught the attention of faculty when she took a 300-level English course her freshman year. An English major with a forensics background, she enjoys the deadline pressure of publication work. Her greatest aspiration is to be a published novelist. “Dr. Pennington asked me if I was interested in being a Sigma Tau Delta intern, and explained to me more about it,” she said. “I jumped at the chance. It was an opportunity to edit again—I had worked on my school’s high school yearbook three years—and I enjoyed the process of putting together a publication.” One of Jochman and Agen’s first tasks was to bring an armload of essays and creative submissions home for a week last summer for some intensive screening. They select the best of the group, and those submissions are then sent out to external judges for further review. A nationally known writer gives out awards in poetry, short story, critical essay and creative non-fiction categories. “There’s a lot of copy-editing work to do, but overall the quality of the pieces is pretty good,” Agen said. Agen got her start editing the Green Bay area home school group’s newsletter, and has worked at the College’s writing center as a tutor. She plans to earn a master’s degree in creative writing and eventually go into the publishing business as an editor. Maus is a graphic design major, who prefers the more open creative options available with The Newsletter over the strict text of the two books. “It gets busy when I’m working on the books,” she said. “I have to be there five days a week after classes, but the nice thing is, these books are for an international English society.” - |
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English Phone: (920) 403-3119 |
