by: Grace Barwick
Introduction and Editing by Jeran Braydon Bivens
Jeran Braydon Bivens is an English MA student at the University of Central Arkansas
Throughout this process of working on this assignment, I was able to dust off the set of skills I was able to develop in my undergraduate studies in UCA’s Writing department in editing. I found much of this process to be cathartic, as the interpretive nature of the assignment feels like it applied a lower-stakes pressure to rounding out the semester. In terms of my approach to the overall process, I foregrounded the potential undergraduate student or otherwise underprepared prospective reader of To all present Rulers in my editing style, as I wanted to provide an accessible-yet accurate edition that would provide more-historically-accurate formatting meanwhile modernizing and standardizing the text for spelling errors and inconsistencies in capitalization. Most important to my edition is the use of endnotes. I made this choice as a result of my desire to depict the text in a way that resembled its original formatting, with footnotes leaving the pages too crowded. While footnotes are less exhaustive in comparison to the flipping through pages that endnotes require, I made the choice to foreground a clean and clear page of text for aesthetic purposes. I predominantly refrained from intervening directly (alteration of words, etc), however toward the end of the final section, I made the choice to insert a break in Barwick’s writing. I made this decision as when viewing the text as a whole, the final section of writing appeared to be longer or ‘heavier’ in comparison to the more clearly separated initial sections. Furthermore, I identified a subtle shift in Barwick’s writing, so I made the decision to separate this into her final, conclusionary paragraph. As an effect of this, I feel that the text ‘flows’ better, at least to my mind.