Blogging Away in Redact-a-Ville
I have recently learned of a new aspect to my job: redacting. From webster.com:
redact
\Re*dact"\ (r?*d?kt"), v. t. [L. redactus, p. p. of redigere; pref. red-, re-, again, back + agere to put in motion, to drive.] To reduce to form, as literary matter; to digest and put in shape (matter for publication); to edit.
In other words, I put pieces of tape on paper. To cover up confidential, sensititve, or otherwise important tidbits of information. Believe me, though, there is some artistry involved in all this. For example, do I use the 6-line tape? Or maybe the 2-line tape would be appropriate? At times, even, I must use the 1-line tape, for those itty-bitty bits of text that might make or break the case (but let's be honest here, know that X compound is at Y% won't amount to jack-shit and we all know it). And even though we quickly slap the tape down on the paper, in order to move on to the next page, this can't be a slapdash type job. We must be neat. Or at least, we pretend to have that need. It gives us a more structured and rigid framework in which to work. Gives us a goal, something to work towards. And all too often, this job of box-moving, copying, filing, etc. is without any sort of structure. And i think that that's what can drive us crazy. It's as if our job is just a big, amorphous blob.
But I digress.
We can cut up the redacting tape, and so it's almost like arts and crafts here at work. Only, we can use white redacting tape and nothing else.
A co-worker describes this task as Redact-a-thon. In her mind, everyone just sits there in the room, itching to get done as fast as possible. Sadly, there always seems to be more text to redact, so it just goes on ad infinitum. And yet, people just start going faster and faster. Conversation lulls as we all focus on our goal - to finish. We all know, of course, that we will likely never finish all the same. I don't know why we fool ourselves that once we finish with a specific document that our work will be over. There's always another document.
As for my own take on redacting, I don't think it of it Redact-a-thon, since that carries with it such pessimistic connotations as I described above. Rather, I look back to a singular event in my adolesence (sp?) - not one that I particularly cared about while a teenager, but it was there, going on, just the same - and refer to redacting as Redact-a-polooza. 2004, if you're counting. That's right - Redact-a-polooza 2004. Does this wipe away the endless monotony of the actual task? Come to think of it... no. But I think it's more fun to say, and here at the 45th floor, that's quite enough.
ddm
email me
I have recently learned of a new aspect to my job: redacting. From webster.com:
redact
\Re*dact"\ (r?*d?kt"), v. t. [L. redactus, p. p. of redigere; pref. red-, re-, again, back + agere to put in motion, to drive.] To reduce to form, as literary matter; to digest and put in shape (matter for publication); to edit.
In other words, I put pieces of tape on paper. To cover up confidential, sensititve, or otherwise important tidbits of information. Believe me, though, there is some artistry involved in all this. For example, do I use the 6-line tape? Or maybe the 2-line tape would be appropriate? At times, even, I must use the 1-line tape, for those itty-bitty bits of text that might make or break the case (but let's be honest here, know that X compound is at Y% won't amount to jack-shit and we all know it). And even though we quickly slap the tape down on the paper, in order to move on to the next page, this can't be a slapdash type job. We must be neat. Or at least, we pretend to have that need. It gives us a more structured and rigid framework in which to work. Gives us a goal, something to work towards. And all too often, this job of box-moving, copying, filing, etc. is without any sort of structure. And i think that that's what can drive us crazy. It's as if our job is just a big, amorphous blob.
But I digress.
We can cut up the redacting tape, and so it's almost like arts and crafts here at work. Only, we can use white redacting tape and nothing else.
A co-worker describes this task as Redact-a-thon. In her mind, everyone just sits there in the room, itching to get done as fast as possible. Sadly, there always seems to be more text to redact, so it just goes on ad infinitum. And yet, people just start going faster and faster. Conversation lulls as we all focus on our goal - to finish. We all know, of course, that we will likely never finish all the same. I don't know why we fool ourselves that once we finish with a specific document that our work will be over. There's always another document.
As for my own take on redacting, I don't think it of it Redact-a-thon, since that carries with it such pessimistic connotations as I described above. Rather, I look back to a singular event in my adolesence (sp?) - not one that I particularly cared about while a teenager, but it was there, going on, just the same - and refer to redacting as Redact-a-polooza. 2004, if you're counting. That's right - Redact-a-polooza 2004. Does this wipe away the endless monotony of the actual task? Come to think of it... no. But I think it's more fun to say, and here at the 45th floor, that's quite enough.
ddm
email me
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