Copy EditingWednesday | 10:10 a.m. | Chan Shun Hall LH2 | Larry Pena Professional writers always follow a style guide. All spelling,punctuation and formatting in professional writing must consistently follow the style of the publication for which it is intended. The Associated Press Stylebook (often referred to as AP), is the primary style and usage guide for most newspapers and news magazines in the United States. The book is updated annually and is around 400 pages long.Style guides vary enormously, and it's important that you don't mix one style guide with another. For example, The Chicago Manual of Style uses serial commas whereas AP does not use them. For a while, you will have to look everything up. Don't let that discourage you. As you become familiar with a style guide, you'll learn to make many of the correct choices instinctively. If you have been using one style guide for some time and then have to use a different one, you'll have to go back to looking things up for a while until you shift mental gears.The most important piece of advice I can give is that your publication be consistent in its style. One article should not use follow one style guide and another article within the same publication adhere to another style guide.You also may decide that your organization needs to develop its own in-house style guide that addresses spellings and issues unique to your publication. This is perfectly appropriate and acceptable.A Quick Look at The Associated Press StylebookAbbreviations•provides most entries under individual listings•uses familiar abbreviations or acronyms that should not be placed in parentheses immediately after their full names•recognized groups (such as FBI or CIA) may be identified fully at first reference or not at all•refers to AP Stylebook or first-listed abbreviation in Webster's New World Dictionary for use of caps and periods. For abbreviations not listed, uses caps and omit periods (for example The American Association for Clinical Chemistry would appear as AACC)•uses a.m. and p.m.•prefers traditional abbreviations for state names (Calif.) except for the eight states that are never abbreviated (Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Ohio, Texas, Utah, Hawaii and Alaska)Acronyms•usually omits periods, but check individual listings to be sureCapitalization•prefers lower case in general•capitalizes proper nouns, trade and brand names•capitalizes formal titles used immediately before a name•lower cases names of job descriptions•lowercases words derived from proper nouns that don't depend on the original for meaning (roman numerals)•lowercases all forms of government (federal, state and local)•capitalizes geographic and structural names, including Capitol and Washington Monument•in titles of works, capitalizes the first, last and all major words, prepositions and conjunctions of four or more letters•capitalizes the first word after a colon only if an independent clause follows•if no individual listing, check Webster's New World Dictionary and use the lowercase form if givenCompounding•uses hyphens to avoid ambiguity•hyphenates unit modifiers, two-thought compounds (like socio-economic), some prefixes and suffixes (especially to avoid duplicated vowels and tripledconsonants—consult individual word entries), compound proper names andadjectives•hyphenates modifiers that occur after the verb "to be" (He is well-known) and some numbers and fractionsQuotation Marks•uses quotation marks to set off names of books (except the Bible and reference books, catalogues, and directories), movies, television shows, works of art, poetry and speeches. Doesn't use quotation marks with names of newspapers andmagazines.Numbers•spells out whole numbers under 10 and follows that general rule even for two or more numbers in the same sentence•always uses figures for time, money, decimals, and percentages (even those under10)•advises applying the same general rules to ordinal numbers•expresses fractions less than one in words (two-thirds) and uses figures and words for large numbers (3 million)•doesn't allow a sentence to begin with a figure. If the first word of a sentence must be a number, the words must be written out; the one exception is in the case of a year (2007 was a very good year . . . .). This instructor thinks this looksawkward and that copy should be rewritten to avoid beginning a sentence with a year.Punctuation•doesn't use the serial comma•uses the apostrophe with plurals of a single letter (three R's), but not with plurals of numerals or multiple letters•to show possession, adds 's to singular common nouns ending in s unless the next word begins with an s (the hostess's invitation, the hostess' seat)•adds only an apostrophe to singular proper names ending in s'•doesn't add an apostrophe to words ending in s that are descriptive (teachers college)•when in doubt, check The Associated Press Stylebook for each markSpelling•The Associated Press Stylebook is organized like a dictionary. For spelling, style and usage questions not covered in the book, consult Webster's New WorldDictionary. When consulting the dictionary,use the first spelling listed, unless a specific exception is noted in the stylebook.A Few Thoughts on Punctuation & GrammarHyphens, En Dashes & Em DashesThe hyphen divides a word between syllables at the end of a line.The hyphen joins the elements of certain compound words.Examples: sky-blue walls, happy-go-lucky.The hyphen is used in non-inclusive numbers, such a telephone numbers and social security numbers.Example: Please call the front desk at 965-6311.Example: The account number is 019-5432-01807.The en dash replaces the conjunctions ―to‖ or ―through‖ in expressions of time. Examples: Monday–Wednesday, March–July, 9 A.M.–10 P.M.The en dash replaces the conjunctions ―to‖ or ―through‖ in expressionsinvolving numerical sequence.Example: pp 4–8, Chapters I–V, Exhibits 3–5.The en dash separates figures (numerals) and letters, often indicating thestart of a subcategory or a further breakdown.Examples: Public law 85–2, Appendix 2–B, WTOP–TVThe en dash replaces the conjunction ―and‖ in expressions like AFL–CIO and AM–FM.The em dash shows that a further explanation is coming.Example: Oil, steel, and wheat—these are the sinews of industrialization.The em dash signals a sudden change in thought in a sentence.Example: When the stockpile was sold—indeed, dumped as surplus—sales were hit hard.The em dash introduces a list, each item of which completes an introductory. Example: After a cursory examination, we wondered —if Jones had consulted anyone before making the decision;if Brown knew Jones;if Braun was as surprised as everyone else.*****Compound AdjectivesCompound adjectives that precede a noun are usually hyphenated. Compound adjectives such as "real-life examples," "hand-picked olives," and "cold-pressed olive oil" are hyphenated. However, when you say ―Our olives are hand picked,‖ the word ―picked‖ becomes a verb, which means that ―hand picked‖ is not hyp henated Example: China imports thousands of mass-produced shoes to the U.S. each week.Example: Our very fine Italian leather shoes are not mass produced.Adverbs that end in "-ly" are not hyphenated when used in a compound phrase.Correct: The brightly lit room made us squint our eyes.Wrong: The brightly-lit room made us squint our eyes.Correct: Lucy is a happily married woman.Wrong: Lucy is a happily-married woman.Correct: Please memorize the most commonly used copyediting marks. Wrong: Please memorize the most commonly-used copyediting marks.When numbers appear at the beginning of a sentenceWhen numbers appear at the beginning of a sentence, that number would be spelled out regardless of any inconsistency this may create. For example—One hundred ten men and 103 women will receive advanced degrees this quarter. Forty in Hollywood, is like 50 anywhere else in the world.*****―Was‖ versus ―Were‖"If I were a hopeless cad, I would never apologize."In this case, ―were‖ is a subjunc tive verb. Subjunctive verbs show up when you state something that is contrary to fact. Tevye, the main character in the musical Fiddler on the Roof,sings ―If I Were a Rich Man‖ with the sadness of a man who knows thathe’ll never be anything but poor. Tevye’s song is about a condition contrary to fact—something that is not true. When used as a subjunctive verb, ―were‖ expresses a condition contrary to fact.If Donovan were an honorable spy, he would not revealatomic secrets to the Taliban.The reason why this is subjunctive is that Donovan is NOT an honorable spy and he IS going to reveal the atomic secret.Correct the following three sentences—If I was president, I would have asked the Martian colony to secede.Murgatroyd acted as though he would have been grammarian-in-chief.Ludmilla would have been happier if she was in the Marines.*****Split InfinitivesAvoid split infinitives. In other words, don’t split your ―to be‖ verbs.Sometimes it’s awkward not to split verb tenses, but avoi d when possible. Wrong: Be sure to promptly reply to the invitation.Correct: Be sure to reply promptly to the invitation.Correct: Be sure to reply to the invitation promptly.Parallel Sentence StructureParallel sentence structure is created when grammatically equivalent forms are used in a series, usually of three or more items, but sometimes only two. Using parallel structure helps to give paragraph coherence. The repeated parallel structures reinforce connections among ideas and they add both tempo and sound to the sentence.Faulty parallelism usually results when you join nonmatching grammatical forms.Wrong: Love and being married go together.Correct: Love and marriage go together.Correct: Being in love and being married go together.Wrong: Having a solid marriage can be more satisfying than the acquisition of wealth.Correct: Having a solid marriage can be more satisfying than acquiring wealth.Correct: A solid marriage can be more satisfying than wealth.Correct: Differing expectations for marriage not only can lead to disappointment but also can make the couple angry.Wrong: Differing expectations for marriage not only can lead to disappointment but also makes the couple angry.*****Quotation Marks, Question Marks, and Exclamation PointsRule One: If you quote a question, put the question mark inside the quotation marks.―Are you trying to kill me?‖ asked Felonia as she shook her fist at the piano mover. As she eyed his lunch, she continued, ―How could you eat a tuna sa ndwich while hoisting a piano?‖Rule Two: If the entire sentence is a quotation, put the question mark outside the quotation marks.Did he say, ―I was just giving you a free piano‖?Did he add, ―I can’t give you a bit of my sandwich because I ate it all‖?Rule Three: For those rare occasions when both the quoted words and the sentence are questions, put the question mark inside the quotation marks. Donot use two sets of quotation marks.Did the mover really ask, ―Is that lady for real?‖Did Fel onia ask, ―What’s the number of a good lawyer?"Correct the following sentences—Did Lulu say, ―I wish a piano would drop on me so that I could sue?‖?Did Lulu say, ―Does he think I’m so ugly that he had to drop a piano on me?‖?Subject and Verb Agreement1. The following pronouns take a singular verb:each anyone someone oneevery anybody no one nobodyeither everyone somebody everybodyneither2. Plurals of Latin and Greek words take a plural verb:datacriteriamediaphenomenacurriculasyllabi3. "A number of . . . . " takes a plural verb:A number of people were in the park.4. "The number of . . . ." takes a singular verb:The number of chores we have prevents us from doing our reports.5. Compound subjects that used the conjunction "and" takes a plural verb.Aging and impairments impose great hardships on citizens.6. A compound subject joined by anything other than "and," such as "as well as,""in addition to, or "along with, "takes a singular verb if the main subject issingular.Aging, as well as impairments, imposes great hardship on citizens.7. A compound subject joined by "or" takes a verb that is in agreement with thesubject closest to the verb:Ill health or misfortune afflicts everyone at some point.When ill health, misfortune, or disabilities afflict us, we know who our friends are.8. "Either . . . or" and "neither . . . nor" follow the same rule that applies to "or":Neither money nor talent was lacking.Neither money nor men were lacking.9. Some plural nouns take singular verbs:Nouns that are plural in form but singular in meaning usually take singularverbs. In all doubtful cases, consult a good dictionary.News travels faster than ever in this age of satellite communication.Economics is a fascinating subject.Words that regularly treated as singular include:aesthetics, astronautics, economics, genetics, linguistics, mathematics, measles, mumps, news, physics, and semantics.Words regularly treated as plural include:blue jeans, slacks, trousers, scissors, and suds.10. Some nouns can take either singular or plural verbs:A few nouns that end in "-ics" (such as athletics, acoustics, and statistics) areconsidered singular when referring to an organized body of knowledge andplural when referring to activities, qualities, or individual facts.Athletics is required of each student. (Activity in games is required of each student.)Athletics provide excellent recreation. (Various games provide excellentrecreation.)Acoustics is an interesting study.The acoustics in the auditorium are good.Collective NounsA collective nouns names a group that is thought of as a unit. A singular collective noun generally requires a singular verb; a plural collective nouns, like other plural nouns, requires a plural verb. Following are examples of collective nouns:army crowd herd platoonaudience den jury policeband faculty league publicchorus family membership quartetclass flock mob staffclergy gang navy teamcommunity government number varsitycouncil group orchestraA singular collective noun that refers to a single unit requires a singular verb.The team refuses to eat at Joe's Diner.A flock of geese is flying south for the winter.A singular collective noun that clearly refers to members of a group as individuals requires a plural verb. (If the plural verb sounds awkward to you, insert "members of" before the collective nouns.)The faculty have been assigned to various committees.The band are going to their homes.The members of the band are going to their homes.When a subject is a plural collective nouns, it requires a plural verb.The teams refuse to eat at Joe's Diner.Several flocks of geese are flying south for the winter.。
