Editing Workshop, G54.1123, Spring 2005
Sonia Jaffe Robbins
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1. Usage & Style
2. Reference: Facts; Words; Journalism and media; Current events;; Miscellaneous
3. Copy-Editing Associations
4. What Do Copy Editors Do?
5. Jobs (Copy Editing, Writing, Freelance)
6. Word Fun
If you have suggestions for this list, send them to me. Students in the Editing Workshop, G54.1123, will receive extra credit for their suggestions. Send a description of what you've found, with the URL, to the class mailing list/forum, copyxediting. We'll check it out and discuss online how useful the resource is.
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1. Mark Israel's original alt.usage.english FAQ 2. The alt.english.usage newsgroup's current FAQ 3. Mini-FAQs, a FAQ supplement, and a search facility for the newsgroup 4. More information about the various versions of the FAQ |
There are at least three versions of the FAQ, including supplements, for this longstanding newsgroup, which discusses all facets of the English language, highlights the most frequently asked grammar, punctuation, pronunciation, and spelling questions; usage disputes; word and phrase origins; and lists recommended dictionaries, grammars, usage, as well as online works and related newsgroups. |
| The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation | Jane Straus is a consultant and teacher of grammar and good writing to organizations, corporations, and other groups. This site has short, easily remembered tips and quizzes for basic grammar and punctuation questions. The author also promotes her own book and consulting services. |
| Common Errors in English | Paul Brians, an English professor at Washington State University, has posted this comprehensive site. |
| English Grammar Resources | Ohio University offers grammar resources, primarily aimed at people learning English as a foreign language, but useful for native speakers as well. |
| Garbl's Writing Center | Gary B. Larson offers an editorial style manual, writing resources online, and a guide to concise writing. |
| The Grammar Lady | Mary Newton Bruder, who created the Grammar Hotline in 1987, and the Grammarlady.com Web site, died suddenly last August. For the moment, it appears that her Web site went with her. |
| The Guide to Grammar and Writing | Charles Darling teaches basic English and humanities at Capital City Technical College in Connecticut. Not specifically for journalists, this site is useful for brushing up. It includes self-grading quizzes for those whose browsers are Java-enabled and offers a technically grammatically correct 239-word sentence. which was actually published in a reputable magazine. Whew! |
| "Language Corner" | The Columbia Journalism Review's regular column on usage: grammar, punctuation, clarity, logic. The Web page includes archives, as well as the author's responses to e-mailed comments. |
| News Watch Project Style Guide | News Watch is a project of the Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism of the San Francisco State University Journalism Department. Developed with the collaboration of the working journalists of the NAJA, NAHJ, NABJ, AAJA, and the NLGJA, the News Watch Project Style Guide is an online resource for fair news coverage of people of color, lesbians/gays, and all groups that have been subject to media bias. In addition to the style guide, the News Watch Web site includes articles and discussion on coverage. |
| The Word Detective | The online version of a newspaper column of the same name answering readers' questions about words and language. It is written by Evan Morris and appears in newspapers in the U.S., Mexico and Japan. The Web site is updated monthly, and includes an index of previous online columns. |
| ACES Reference list | The American Copy Editors' Society offers a wide variety of useful noncommercial information available on the Web -- journalism associations, federal statistics, even crossword puzzle help. |
| Amazon.com | At least as good a resource as Books in Print for checking book titles and authors' names. Click on the book jacket, if it's available, to verify name spelling. ***However, Amazon's search engine has become unwieldy lately, because it's trying to do too much for too many disparate audiences. If you're checking a specific title, use the Books Advanced Search only. *** |
| Army units and commanders | The U.S. Army's organizational chart of units from squad to field army, the rank of those who command each unit, and the typical number of soldiers in each unit. (Would you be surprised to learn there's no fixed number?) |
| BeliefNet | Facts, news, and other information about specific religions and religious holidays and spirituality in general.  |
| CIA 2004 World Factbook | Yes, the CIA posts basic information on most nations in the world, including geography, people, government, economy, history, and such problems as environment, political, ethnic, and the military. (There is also a link to purchase the book.) There are also up-to-date Chiefs of State and cabinet ministers. A useful feature: family name is bold, so editors can know which name to use on second reference, although it is not obvious in which order given name and family name should be used. |
| Conversions Online | When you need to convert kilos to pounds, you can do it here easily. Also distance, speed, area, temperature, cooking, and many more. But you will have to ignore the ads in the margins. |
| CyberTimes Navigator | The Web reference source for New York Times reporters and editors lists links to search engines, journalism sources, references, directories, New York regional politics and culture, and online publications, as well as entertainment, sports, and other fun sites. |
| Direct Search | Here's Gary Prices guide to the "invisible Web," where material not easily found by general search tools like Google and AltaVista is located. Campaign finance databases, local and national government data, speech transcripts and much more. |
| The Earth Calendar | Do you need to know the date of a holiday anywhere in the world? Or want to know what holidays there are tomorrow? Try the Earth Calendar, "a daybook of holidays and celebrations around the world." |
| Elections Around the World | Are you an editor on the foreign desk? Need to know when parliamentary elections in the Czech Republic will occur? Here is the place to look. |
| European Union | The European Union Online is the official Web site for the EU. It includes information on EU institutions, documents, a brief history, links to member states' and new member states' Web sites. The Eurojargon page is especially useful for editors and reporters. |
| The International Trademark Association | The Trademark Checklist here lists almost 3,000 registered trademarks and service marks. Contact the International Trademark Association directly if the name you are looking for is not listed. INTA also sells the complete Trademark Checklist and Proper Trademark Use Kit. |
| The Internet Broadway Data Base | Want information about a Broadway show or actor? How many revivals has Cat on a Hot Tin Roof had? Find it here. |
| The Internet Movie Data Base | Need to check a movie title? Want to verify whether Frenzy was Alfred Hitchcock's last movie? Or just want to add your opinion to those of many others on the movie you saw tonight? This is the place to go. |
| Internet Public Library | Here is an online reference center in such areas as science and technology, arts and humanities, business and economics, and many others, including guides to general reference sources and FARQs (frequently asked research questions). |
| Local Times Around the World | Do you need to check the time right now in Jakarta, or Baghdad, or Khartoum? Go here. |
| New York City neighborhoods | In New York City, is it upper Westside? upper west side? Upper West Side? Here's where to find out. Looking for the correct spelling of other city neighborhoods? Go to Google and type in the name of the city and the word "neighborhood." |
| The 2004 Tsunami Disaster | An annotated directory of Internet resources. |
| U.S. Postal Service Zip Codes | Type in an address and get the Zip + 4. |
| 1. U.S. telephone area codes 2. International dialing codes 3. Fone Finder 4. Linc Madison's Telephone Area Codes & Splits. | Phone codes around the world. Use the Fone Finder if you know the telephone number but not its location.
Linc Madison's site will tell you way more about the history of area codes and telephone number information than you ever imagined existed. |
| Who's Alive and Who's Dead | Bob Hope: didn't he die recently? This site is easier to navigate than the Dead People Server. |
| World Bank Atlas | Data for a variety of "development indicaters" (people, economy, environment, etc.) are presented in interactive maps. If your computer is not up-to-date, you may not be able to view this information. |
| World maps | Relief Web "serves the information needs of the humanitarian relief community." Its maps show details of trouble spots around the world. |
| 100 Most Often Misspelled Words in English | The dictionary Web site presents the 100 words most frequently mispelled, oops, misspelled in English, along with a short mnemonic to help you remember the correct spelling. |
| American Biz Jargon | This site defines American business jargon for nonnative speakers of English, but since most of the jargon listed has become cliche, it's worthwhile for editors to peruse the list periodically and prune these cliches. |
| The American Dialect Society | This association of linguists is dedicated to the study of the English language in North America, and of other languages, or dialects of other languages, influencing it or influenced by it. Members at its annual meeting choose Words of the Year--the word for 2004 is "TKTKTK after January conference." Words of the Year back to 1990 are archived here. |
| Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 1919 edition | The online Bartlett's is more than 80 years old, so it's useful only for classic quotations. Best to use the print version. |
| Computer Acronyms, Emoticons, and PC File Extensions | When you don't understand RTFM or AFAIK or BTW in your e-mail, check here. There is also a page with many emoticons, and a handy list of file extensions (for PC users), if you've ever wondered, for example, what .dat means. |
| The Jargon File, aka The New Hacker's Dictionary | The Jargon File is the online precursor to the print edition of The New Hacker's Dictionary. If you want to know the meaning, and sometimes history, of computer terms, here is where to look. |
| Merriam-Webster | The online version of Webster's 10th dictionary and thesaurus is most useful if Webster's 10th is your publication's house dictionary. If your house dictionary is, say, Webster's New World, this site can still be helpful for meanings, but don't rely on it for spelling. |
| Urban Dictionary | This dictionary-in-progress presents several thousand current slang words with definitions provided by their users. If you don't want to sound so 10 minutes ago, check this out. |
| WordNet | An online conceptual thesaurus, this is a project of Princeton's Cognitive Science Laboratory. This searchable database of English words is organized into "synonym sets, each representing one underlying lexical concept." |
| The World Wide Web Acronym and Abbreviation Server | This University College, Cork, Ireland, Web site allows you to find the expanded, or spelled out, version of many acronyms and abbreviations. Since many acronyms and abbreviations requested are unknown, the webmaster invites identifications for these as well as submissions of new acronyms and abbreviations. |
| yourDictionary.com | Created in 1995 by Dr. Robert Beard, a linguistics professor at Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, this compendium links to 1,800 dictionary in more than 250 languages, as well as to specialized English-language dictionaries, linguistics resources, and linguistic fun. It includes the Endangered Languages Repository |
| ABYZ Newslinks | This index to newspapers and other news sources around the world describes each source according to media type, media focus, and language. |
| AJR News Link | The American Journalism Review's links to newspapers, magazines, and radio/TV everywhere. |
| A Bibliography for Copy Editors | Mindy McAdams has taught Copy Editing for Magazines; this section of her online syllabus includes the basic reference works, both in paper and online. |
| International News Archives on the Web | Here you can find links to non-U.S. news archives around the world, as well as to the home page of the newspapers themselves. Some of the archives charge a fee for old articles. |
| Journalism and Media References and Resources | Compiled by Denny Wilkins, a journalism professor at St. Bonaventure University. |
| Journalism and Online Publishing Help | A handy tutorial on math and statistics is the best feature of this excellent site of news, reporting, and online publishing sources compiled by Robert Niles, a journalist at the Los Angeles Times. |
| The Journalist's Guide to the Internet | Christopher Callahan, associate dean of journalism at the University of Maryland, offers this vast collection of Internet resources, including links for covering courts and the law, the federal government, business and nonprofits, politics, and using listservs and FOIA, but it hasn't been updated in almost two years. |
| The Journalist's Toolbox | Mike Reilley has compiled more than 20,000 free Web resources for editors, reporters, and researchers. Editors and copy editors should check out Copy Editing first. |
| The Newseum | "The world's first interactive museum of news," the Newseum is a project of the Freedom Forum (which supports First Amendment issues and newsroom diversity, as well as the Newseum). The Newseum aims to help the public and the media understand each other better. At the moment, its only presence is online, while a Newseum is being built on the Mall in Washington, D.C., scheduled to open in 2006. |
| The Poynter Institute Writing/Editing | The Poynter Institute supports research useful for journalists, future journalists, and teachers of journalism. It maintains links between the industry and those teaching for the industry. |
| "Writing and Reading Today" | The American Society of Newspaper Editors 1997 report (updated in 2000) on the language journalists use and how newspapers are read is based on a conference bringing together linguists and journalists. |
| Al-Jazeera | A source for news from the Arabic-speaking world, in English |
| Back to Iraq | Chris Allbritton, former adjunct at NYU's journalism department and now a freelancer for Time magazine, writes this blog from Baghdad. |
| Iraq war | The American Press Institute offers links for background and current information and sources on the war in Iraq, including alternative news sources. |
| Iraq election | Iraqi elections-at-a-glance from the BBC |
| South Asian Journalists Association | Reporting tips on the tsunami disaster as well as backgrounders, story ideas, how to help, news sources, and journalists available in South Asia from this association serving journalists in the U.S. and Canada. |
| The 2004 Tsunami Disaster | An annotated directory of Internet resources |
| Tsunami Aftermath Resources | The Poynter Institute's Web Tips includes this column by Jonathan Dube, which lists an annotated list of tsunami coverage resources, including blogs "updated more frequently than most news organizations update their websites." |
| 'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing' (or words to that effect) | Have you ever wondered if that quote that everyone knows is really a quote that everyone knows? Three years ago, Martin Porter researched this 18th century "quote" by Edmund Burke; his results may surprise you. Copy editors aren't required to check all "commonly known" quotes, but you have every right to be suspicious. |
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1. Baseball Almanac 2. The Baseball Archive 3. Major League Baseball History 4. Retrosheet 5. Society for American Baseball Research | Okay, I just love baseball, and here are some sites that showcase baseball's history. Retrosheet specializes in stats for teams and games back to the beginning of organized baseball in the 19th century.
John Skilton links to contemporary baseball, from the majors down through the minors, college, amateur, international, and much more, with 11,289 unique links. |
| The Bishops of Rome, the Popes, 42 AD-present | I had to check the dates of a pope once and found all of them here, starting with St. Peter, and including the anti-popes and church councils, along with their year of ascension. |
| The Museum of Hoaxes | Hoaxes existed long before the Internet; they just didn't circulate as rapidly. Alex Boese, a historian of science, began this site while procrastinating on his dissertation. He includes hoaxes throughout history, quizzes to test your gullibility, and definitions of "hoax." |
| The Society for the History of Authorship, Reading & Publishing | The name is self-explanatory. Includes information about the American Newspaper Repository, created by the writer Nicholson Baker, who wrote about the fate of old newspapers in Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper. |
| Snopes.com Urban Legends & Folklore | These sites are useful as Internet "bullshit detectors." (See also the Museum of Hoaxes, above.) Check either or both on any Internet story or e-mail that looks too good/bad/weird to be true. Chances are it isn't what it purports to be, but if it is, you'll find out here. |
| The American Copy Editors Society | ACES's members are mostly newspaper copy editors. ACES holds an annual conference (this year's is March 18-20, in Houston), useful for brushing up on skills as well as networking, and conducts a discussion list (read samples here; subscribe here). The Web site also includes Editing Guidelines (showing the kinds of editing tests you might find while applying for work), a tribute to good headlines, tips on doing the job better, and a job bank. |
| Editorial Freelancers Association | A nationwide professional organization of freelance copy editors and editors. Most of its services are available to members only (like job postings, health, insurance, and networking events), but if you're thinking of freelancing, read the FAQ for tips. About a dozen articles from past newsletters are on the EFA Web site. |
| Copyediting-l | This mailing list attracts copy editors from around the world who work at newspapers, organizations, or free-lance on books, technical materials, and other kinds of publications. A high-volume list, it sends out two to eight digests a day, each digest containing from five to 16 messages. And it's worthwhile reading the FAQ before participating on the list. Kathy Frost put together an editing checklist (in PDF format), invaluable if you are producing complete documents. Copyediting-l also maintains a searchable archive, but you have to subscribe to the list in order to use the archive. |
| Copyeditor.com | The Web site supplements Copy Editor, the newsletter, with job listings and information on how to subscribe and workshops offered. |
| The Editorial Eye | The Web site supplements this monthly newsletter for publication professionals, based in Alexandria, Virginia. The site includes subscription information, as well as a comprehensive index of past articles. |
| Freelance | This is an electronic mailing list for freelancers in the publishing industry; newcomers are welcome. Topics include publisher comparisons, job searches, and types of work; rates and (non)payments; insurance and taxes; home offices and equipment; and any other work-related issues. |
| Prints the Chaff | Tom Mangan's blog for newspaper editors has been retired. He was blogging before there was a word for it, and he's reached burnout. The retired blog is still here so you can get its flavor. And the "Banned for Life" terms will never be forgotten. |
| Anne Glover, assistant managing editor/copy desk at the St. Petersburg Times | "In search of the perfect copy editor: 10 Copy Editor Traits That Guarantee You Success" "The Seven Deadly Copy Editing Sins" "Personal Responsibility for Copy Editors" |
| Nancy Hanger, founder of Windhaven Press | "Why Copy Editors Are Necessary" offers a description of book copy editing tasks, especially for fiction. |
| Bill Walsh | The Slot, formerly the Crusty Old Slotman's Copy-editing Peeve Page, includes a description of what newspaper copy editors do. |
| ACES | The American Copy Editing Society posts job listings, mostly at newspapers. You must register for this list. |
| ACES's internship guide | ACES also provides a guide to newspapers offering internships, mostly in the summer, as well as two mentors willing to discuss questions about editing as a career. |
| Copyeditor.com | Click on "Job Board," then "Look for Jobs" to see the job listings. |
| Editor & Publisher | E&P Online: click on "Classified" on the left-hand index, click on "Search Basic Classified," then click on "Editorial" (or whatever category you want) in the category box. Then get out your résumés. (The zones allow you to limit the location where you want to work. Check the zone map to see what number fits the zone you want. New York is in Zone 2, Vermont in Zone 1, San Francisco in Zone 9.) If you want to see only copy-editor jobs, type "copy editor" (two words) in the Key Words box. |
| Freelance Success | A source for freelance writing jobs. |
| The Jobs Page | Created by Joe Grimm, recruiting and development editor at the Detroit Free Press, this comprehensive site includes job listings, internships, tips for applying for jobs and writing your résumé, interview strategies, and lots more. Check out the stress test! |
| "How papers can find and retain copy editors" | This article by Hank Glamann, from The American Editor, February 2000, reveals the hiring process from the employers' point of view. |
| Journalism Jobs | The American Press Institute hosts the Journalist's Toolbox, which includes this collection of more than 250 job sites. |
| JournalismJobs.com | Founded by a former staffer at the Washington Post and operated in conjunction with the Columbia Journalism Review, this site posts several hundred jobs in print, broadcast, and online media, and allows users to post their résumés as well. Internships, fellowships, and other resources are also listed. (A Diversity Job Fair will be held in Boston on February 20, 2004.) |
| MediaBistro | The ultimate networking Web site "connecting media professionals to new opportunities--and to each other" |
| The National Diversity Newspaper Job Bank | This Web site is devoted to diversifying the newsroom with women and minorities. Jobseekers can post their résumés or check the job bank. Users need a free password. |
| National Writers Union | If you're a free-lance writer paying the rent with copy editing, consider joining the NWU. The union supports writers' grievances against publications that don't pay and maintains a job bank for members. In 2001, the Supreme Court found in its favor in a lawsuit concerning writers' electronic rights. (Disclaimer: I was a plaintiff in this lawsuit, Tasini et al. v. The New York Times et al.) |
| News Jobs Network | This is a metadatabase of jobs pages, from the Associated Press to the Washington (D.C.) Association of Black Journalists, listing media and news jobs and other resources leading to jobs in the U.S., Canada, and U.K. |
| The Poynter Institute's job links | In addition to job links, Poynter posts several articles to help people get started with their job hunt. |
| Bookworm | Look for the green bookworm and click on "play now" to play this addictive word game. So far it can be played only on PCs or Macs with OSX. | |
| A Game a Day | Word games easy and hard, of all sorts. | |
| Game Room | See your name written in hieroglyphics, Chinese, nine other languages. Or play any number of crossword puzzles or other word games at YourDictionary.com. | |
| Geographical Trivia | Links to geography quizzes online, for kids and others. There are also links to word games and other fun on the right-hand part of the page. | |
| Interactive Word Games | Boggler and crossword clues as well as word game tools are available here. | |
| Logophilia: The Word Lover's Web Site | Links to new words and games with words; for fun and browsing rather than instant help. | |
| Middle East map quiz | Test your knowledge of Middle East geography. Click on the name of a country, then move your mouse so the red arrow points to the country's location on the map. You'll get instant feedback whether you're right or wrong. | |
| National Novel Writing Month | This has nothing to do with editing journalism, but everything to do with writing. If you have ever thought of writing a novel, here is one way to jump-start yourself. The month is November; you begin writing on November 1, and the goal is to write 50,000 words by November 30. Impossible? The aim is quantity, not quality. Because comes March, you enter National Novel Editing Month, in which you edit those 50,000 (or more) words you wrote in November (or later). If you want to try it, sign up on October 1. It does work. NaNoWriMo got me to finish the first draft of my novel. I'll let you know how NaNoEdMo goes after the semester is over. | The Simplified Spelling Society | Okay, you can tell what I think of "simplified spelling" by where I've placed this link in my list of resources. But even if you think learning the "simplified" system will be harder than learning to use the dictionary and managing your spell-checker, this is a fun site to browse. |
| Text Twist | You have six letters. Form as many three-, four-, five-, or six-letter words as you can in two minutes. If you get one six-letter word, you automatically move on to the next round. Addictive. | |
| Web Economy Bullshit Generator | Intended as humor, but business writers and editors could benefit by spending some time here and working to eliminate the phrases generated by this "laughbot." | |
| Word Game of the Day | Merriam-Webster offers a Word Game of the Day as well as word game archives. |
Last revision: January 17, 2005
