1. PROOFING & EDITING FOR FEATURE ARTILE

2. Basic Editing
Check for proper spelling, grammar, punctuation, and mechanics.
Re-read story for comprehension and flow.
Possibly re-arrange, add to or take away.

3. Quote Style Editing
Don’t set up the quotes by stating the question you asked or what you did to obtain the quote (showing how the sausage was made)
Don’t set up quotes by saying the obvious and repeating exactly what’s to come in the quote
Don’t stack quotes one after another without a transitional sentence between
Don’t use “direct quotation marks” around stored source information (from the web)

4. Attribution Style Editing
Don’t say that two people said the exact same “direct quote.” Someone can agree with someone else in a paraphrase though.
Information that is well known public knowledge does NOT need to be attributed.
Information that you gather from being on-the-scene or witnessing it is NOT attributed.
Answers to questions that you asked personal sources ARE attributed.

5. Attribution Style Editing
“I really think this is going to be the best school year ever,” Mr. Bohac, assistant principal, said.
“This is an amazing group of seventh and eighth graders,” Bohac said.
According to Sports Illustrated, Peyton Manning said Blah, Blah, Blah.
CNN.com reports Blah, Blah, Blah.
Personal First Hand
Subject/Verb
Comma inside
Includes title
Use Quotation Marks
Second Mention
Stored
Do Not Use Quotation Marks

6. AP Style Editing
Do not capitalize the names of school subjects unless it is the official course titles or the name of a language.
Do not capitalize a.m. or p.m.
Do capitalize the name of athletic teams: Raiders, Scots, but not football team, volleyball team.
Do abbreviate well known abbreviations in all caps with no periods.
Do abbreviate states when preceded by the name of a city.
Do not abbreviate state names that stand alone.
Do abbreviate months when they are followed by a date. Months with no abbreviated form are March, April, May, June, July.
Do not abbreviate days of the week.

7. AP Style Editing
With the exceptions noted below, numbers one through nine are written out and numbers 10 and up are numerals.
Spell out seventh, eighth, etc. when referring to grades.
Use noon and midnight rather than 12 a.m and 12 p.m.
When starting a sentence with a number, spell it out.
Exceptions: Use numerals when referring to ages, weights, sizes, dimensions, scores, prices, degrees, percentages, time ratings and hours of the day.
For even amounts of money or times, eliminate the extra zeros. $10, 7 p.m.

8. AP Style Editing
Proper titles are set in quotation marks, not underlined
“To Kill a Mockingbird”
Don’t underline websites … in fact, leave off the and cite it by saying “According to Yahoo.com,”
download
eBay Inc. (use EBay Inc. when the word begins a sentence)
e-book e-book reader e-reader
cellphone
Facebook
Google, Googling, Googled
hashtag
IM (IMed, IMing; for first reference, use instant messenger)
Internet (after first reference, the Net)
iPad, iPhone, iPod (use IPad, IPhone, or IPod when the word begins a sentence)
social media
Smartphone
Twitter, tweet, tweeted, retweet
World Wide Web, website, Web page
YouTube
Wi-Fi