Greetings readers!  We at the DLR have appreciated your commitment and interest in our journal and blog throughout the year.  As the academic year winds down and the team prepares for the journal’s next chapter, we thought we would bring all of you into the daily life of a DLR team member.

In this blog post, you will dive deep into the inner workings of the DLR, discover what the class entails, and hear from the team members themselves about their thoughts on creating an academic literary journal.  As you progress through the blog, some of the team members will reveal their personal triumphs and tribulations they faced while working as a team to generate the third issue of Ball State’s own Digital Literature Review.

The Digital Literature Review is a topic-based journal created here at Ball State University by undergraduate students.  During the first semester, students conduct research on the year’s topic and create blog posts, cultural history projects, and potential submissions to the journal.  After returning from semester break, the three teams (Design, Editorial, and Publicity) begin the process of putting together the year’s current issue, all under the guidance and assistance of a professor.  Also, this portion of the class consists of the opportunity to attend a conference at Butler University and hold the DLR’s annual spring gala.

 

Is there something specific that drew you to the DLR?

“Not a lot of twenty-somethings can say they’ve worked on an academic journal, published an academic journal, and potentially published their own writing.  I hope to work in collegiate academics for the rest of my life, so an early start, especially an opportunity like this that I may never come across again, was not something I could pass up.”  –Cassie Grosh

 

What was it like to work collaboratively as editors to an undergraduate journal?

“I believe that collaborating with the other members of the team made me a stronger writer.  We bounced ideas around and learned a lot from each other.”   –Nikole Darnell

 

Did you find it difficult to balance the journal, other classes, and your extracurricular activities?

“I had a part-time job and several other classes that demanded quite a bit of group work, reading, and presentations, but I didn’t find myself overly stressed during the semester.  Coming to the DLR class every Monday and Wednesday was actually fun and interesting because of the work we were doing and the people that I worked with.  This class rarely ever seemed like an actual class, but more of an ideal opportunity to practice what I’d learned so far with a great group of people.”  –Brittany Ulman

 

Our Design Team Members:

Jessica Carducci – Fall Team Leader – Senior

Isabel Vazquez – Senior

Shannon Walter – Spring Team Leader – Senior

 

Design Team’s responsibilities:

  • Generate advertising material for the DLR and Gala event
  • Produce advertising material for recruiting new members every school year
  • Format the finished journal for publication
  • Work with InDesign, Photoshop, and other Adobe Creative Suite applications
  • Take and manage photos for journal purposes
  • Craft design image for journal cover

 

What made you decide to be a part of the Design Team?

“I decided to be a part of the Design Team because at the beginning of the fall semester, I began learning a lot about graphic design and thought that this would be an awesome opportunity to expand my capabilities!  I have always been a pretty creative person and thought that my abilities would be best utilized on this team!”  –Shannon Walter

 

Our Editorial Team Members:

Nikole Darnell – Junior

Olivia Germann – Junior

Cassandra Grosh – Sophomore

Kathryn Hampshire – Lead Editor – Junior

Allison Haste – Senior

Sarah Keck – Senior

Bryce Longenberger – Senior

Amory Orchard – Senior

Lauren Seitz – Senior

 

Editorial Team’s tasks and responsibilities:

  • Evaluate journal submissions
  • Send author acceptance/rejection
  • Copyedit accepted journal submissions
  • Review and copy edit the final DLR publication
  • Edit blog posts

 

How does it feel to be a part of the DLR Editorial Team?

“Being a part of the DLR is a wonderful experience where you get to collaborate with passionate and curious students.  Learning and moving forward together as both a group and a journal draws people together in a way that make this academic experience different than anything a student has taken part in before.”  –Olivia Germann

 

Our Publicity Team Members:

Gabriel Barr – Fall Team Leader – Junior

Jessica Carducci – Spring Team Leader – Senior

Lauren Cross – Junior

Ellie Fawcett – Junior

Brittany Ulman – Junior

 

Publicity Team’s tasks and responsibilities:

  • Supervise appropriate distribution of advertising materials
  • Post and advertise for DLR events
  • Maintain Twitter, Facebook, and blog
  • Organize the annual Gala
  • Promote the next year’s journal and class

 

What skills did you develop during your time on the Publicity Team?

“The Publicity Team does a lot of different jobs for the DLR, such as scheduling class visits, the Gala, and social media posts, so the biggest part of my work revolved around organization and managing all these various things.  I got really good at putting together checklists, schedules, and plans for what we needed to do and when it needed to happen.  Still working on following them myself though.”  –Jessica Carducci

 

Now that you have more specific details concerning Ball State’s own Digital Literature Review, hopefully you are considering being a part of the journey in the future—whether that be submitting your own work to the journal or joining the DLR team.

Lastly, always remember to regularly check the DLR’s blog, Facebook, Twitter, and website for any updates about the journal and the amazing research our team members have been conducting.