In novels and stories and other creative works, words spoken by a character are normally set off from the narrative with quotation marks, and the speaker is identified in the run of text by tags like “she said.”
In editing formal prose, we fix nonstandard English without hesitation. But in editing creative works, we often need to throw out the stylebook so a narrator or character in a novel or play can abuse grammar to good effect. . . .
Since it was first published almost twenty years ago, The Copyeditor’s Handbook has served as both textbook and guide for copyeditors in book publishing and corporate communications. The revised fourth edition of the Handbook is now published alongside a companion, The Copyeditor’s Workbook, . . .
There are two different kinds of apostrophes: smart and straight. To use them correctly, it helps to understand how they work. . . .
If you cite your sources in your thesis or dissertation (or class paper) using numbered notes, you will probably also need to include a bibliography. A bibliography is an alphabetical list (by author) of all the sources cited in the notes. . . .
It’s time for another editing and proofreading quiz! This is the second in a series of workouts that will apply your editing knowledge and proofreading skills to Chicago style.
Okay, so you’re an editor or proofreader who knows Chicago style, but now you need to follow AP. Or you’re a student, and you need MLA for one project and Chicago (or Turabian) for the next—and APA after that. . . .
Many theses and dissertations (and some longer class papers) use photographs, drawings, charts, and other figures in the body of the paper to present data or to augment the text. . . .
Many of us write or say “12 p.m.” (or “12:00 p.m.”) when we mean noon and “12 a.m.” when we mean midnight. This seems reasonable enough, at least intuitively. . . .
This is the first of a series of workouts that will test your editing knowledge and proofreading skills.
