1. YOUR CLASS TITLE with YOUR NAME YOUR CLASS TITLE with YOUR NAME mediabistro presents: Intro. to Copy Editing with Ted Trautman

2. Agenda, Lesson 1, Part 2: What is a style book? What other tools are needed?

3. Where does a stylebook fit in? A stylebook is essentially the copy editor’s “Bible” -- it promotes consistency when there is more than one right answer. It is the first place to look up the general rules of grammar, spelling, punctuation, and style.

4. A few examples: red, white, and blue -OR- red, white and blue traveling -OR- travelling Gov. Brown -OR- Governor Brown October 10th -OR- Oct. 10

5. 2 Basic Types of Stylebooks 1. Industry standards – AP – Associated Press – CMOS – Chicago Manual of Style – MLA – Modern Language Association – APA – American Psychological Association – etc. 2. In‐house or house style guide (custom rules)

6. AP vs. Chicago Associated Press: news current blogs + web press releases AP Style is practical for working on tight deadlines, easy to navigate, and deals with controversial social issues. Chicago Manual of Style: magazines books academic research white papers Chicago is highly detailed, more difficult to navigate, and handles issues related to book publishing (indexes, footnotes, bibliographies, etc.).

7. What about other reference materials? You may use other sources of information, such as a dictionary, but remember that your official stylebook always overrules them.

8. Other reference materials: Merriam‐Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (m‐w.com) Atlases, encyclopedias, industry organizations, governments, companies, individuals, nonprofits The Internet, but proceed with caution!

9. The copy editor’s hierarchy for looking things up: House Style Guide > Stylebook (AP, Chicago, or other) > Dictionary > Other Reference Materials

10. What other basic tools do I need as a copy editor? Word processor (MS Word) A pen or a pencil Email Blogging and social media tools Whatever an employer or client asks you to use

12. Questions? Whenever you’ve got questions, you can either: – post them to our online message board – email them to me directly at ted.trautman@gmail.com.