Resources

By Valerie S. Berman, EdM My fascination with idioms began at a Weight Watchers kickoff meeting 35 years ago. As I sat in a circle with a few other newcomers, we listened to each other’s weight stories. When my turn came, I explained that I’d had knee surgery and gained a few pounds during my recovery. Without hesitating, the facilitator asked, “Oh, so you saw the writing on the wall?”…

By Laura A. Wackwitz, Ph.D. My first rejection as a writer came in the form of public humiliation. I was sixteen years old. As a member of Harbinger, my high school literary arts magazine, I’d submitted a poem for publication consideration. My teacher—our sponsor—liked it so much that she thought it a shoo-in for the…

By Richard Shealy Established copyeditors always have a solid background in the appropriate college coursework capped by certification in the field, right? Okay, you can stop laughing now. In all seriousness, there are as many legitimate paths to a good grounding in the fundamentals. Take my case, please. (Sorry, I can’t avoid a clear opportunity…

By Dana Sitar An article’s headline has an important job: get someone to read the story. It places that huge responsibility on about 60 to 70 characters. You have to get creative to make sure every word, letter, space, and punctuation mark in your headline is totally necessary and carries its fair weight. What makes…

By Sofia Matias Conscious language needs to be taken into account across a wide variety of areas, from gender to age, to sexual orientation and socioeconomic status. Having a resource that can quickly scan through a document to point out any terms that editors should reconsider or delete altogether can, therefore, be a huge timesaver.…

By Christy Zuccarini If you’ve ever been involved in the development of a brand, you’ve probably learned that “brand” is about more than a mark. Our brand is our personality; it represents what makes us stand out from others. How we talk about our work is crucial to how we are perceived by and engage an…

By Marianne Goss When I started blogging on ChicagoNow five years ago, the managing editor offered me feedback: I use too much punctuation. Editor friends laughed at the comment, thinking he meant I should punctuate less often. What he meant, however, was that I use too many different punctuation marks. His comment amused me, too,…

By Paula Froke Spell-check can’t help you correctly select there, their or they’re. But the AP Stylebook can. Some of the most popular style tips we share on the AP Stylebook Twitter account are commonly confused words. Here’s a sampler of some of the distinctions we have shared to help ensure, not insure, you get it right:…

By James Harbeck English is not one language and never has been—even Old English had different dialects. Global English is a family of varieties, mostly mutually comprehensible but loaded with traps and surprises. And even when you can easily understand English from another part of the world, you will most likely recognize that it’s from…

By Hannah Garrison When a tricky editing project has put me out of my depth, the first thing I reach for is my trusty style guide. But that will only get me so far. As an environmental sciences editor, I’m confronted daily with this conundrum: when my grasp on the subject matter is limited, what do…