Editing Today Workbook

Ron F. Smith is a professor of journalism at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. Smith has worked for newspapers in Indiana, Ohio and Florida, and published numerous articles in Journalism Quarterly, Newspaper Research Journal, Collegiate Journalist, Quill and Journalism Eudcator. He was a research fellow at the Poynter Institute and co-authored Groping for Ethics in Journalism with Gene Goodwin, assuming sole authorship on the fourth edition.

Introduction: Why Study Editing? vii The Copy Editor's Job 3
Coaching and Editing Stories 3
Checking Facts in the AP Stylebook 8
The Basics of AP Style 12
Checking Word Usage and Grammar in the AP Stylebook 21
Quick Course in Grammar and Punctuation 53
Nouns, Pronouns and Agreement 53
Modifiers, Prepositions and Conjunctions 61
Subjects, Objects and Verbs 67
Commas, Clauses and Phrases 75
More Commas, Clauses and Phrases 81
Commas and Nonessential Information 87
Hyphens, Modifiers and Verbs 95
Syntax 109
Using Words and Phrases Correctly 109
Dangling Modifiers 117
Punctuation and Quotation Marks 125
Editing the Hard-News Story 135
Ridding Copy of Wordiness and Repetition 135
Content Editing 143
Other Ways to Tell the News 155
Handling Wire Copy 171
Math and the Journalist 179
Writing Headlines 185
Libel and Fairness 187
Putting It All Together 197
Appendix: Answers to Practice Exercises 215