Editing Today Workbook

Editing Today Workbook, Second Edition provides practical exercises to sharpen student skill and complements Editing Today, Second 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

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. Editing Today Workbook, Second Edition provides practical exercises to sharpen student skill and complements Editing Today, Second Edition