Editing Resources

Style guides

• The American Heritage Book of English Usage—a resource for grammar rules, style, and word formation—hours of fun!
• Chicago Manual of Style's FAQ.
• Common Errors in English—a compendium.
• The Elements of Style by Strunk & White.
• Guide to Grammar and Writing—Charles Darling's guide.
  
• Hit Parade of Errors in Style, Grammar, and Punctuation—University of Toronto Health Sciences Writing Centre.
  
• U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual
  

Dictionaries and other references

• One Look—Searches many online dictionaries and a couple of acronym databases. A click to a link takes you straight to the entry without retyping.
• Merriam-Webster OnLine—handy dictionary and thesaurus.
• Bartleby links to an array of online reference volumes.
• TechWeb—an encyclopedia for technical terms; offers variants.
• U.S. National Library of Medicine. See NLM's Recommended Formats for Bibliographic Citation (1991), a style guide that addresses electronic formats, including CD-ROMs, e-mail and the Internet, courtesy of your tax dollars.
• Virtual Computer Library.
• Webopedia—an encyclopedia of technical terms.

Of further interest to editors

• American Copy Editors Society (ACES)—a resource for copy editors in journalism.
• Copy Editing for Magazines—an information-packed syllabus for a course at New York University taught by Mindy McAdams, among the first and most thoughtful of online editors. McAdams is formerly of The Washington Post.
• Editing for the Web.
• Editcetera—a San Francisco Bay Area organization that trains editors in classes, and tests and certifies freelance publishing professionals, after which Editcetera can recommend its members for job and contract placement.
• The Editorium—important newsletter for editors presented by Jack M. Lyon. Editorium is geared toward mastering Microsoft Word and other contemporary editing programs. The Editorium offers macros and software programs, some for sale and others that are free and do tend to ease the editing life.
• Electric Editors—a British-based group with discussion lists and free macros for Word and WordPerfect.
• International list of publishers' Web sites from Acquisitions and Collection Development Librarians (ACQ). This is a source for publishers' permissions policies and staff names.
• Media Alliance—offers classes in editing, writing, and computer applications related to publishing.
• ReferenceChecker is a program that checks all the name/date-style references in a document.
• The Observer—In "Black Day for the Blue Pencil," journalist Blake Morrison argues editors are now an endangered species.
• UC Berkeley Extension offers classroom and online courses in editing, writing, technical communication, and Web publishing.
• UC Berkeley Extension's four-course sequence in editing is for working editors who need a concentrated program to acquire additional skills, those who want to make a transition into editing, and those who want to enter the publishing field as editors. A certificate is awarded upon completion.

Of interest to freelance editors and writers

• Editorial Freelancers Association—a professional organization of self-employed workers in the publishing and communications industries. Based in New York City, EFA has members nationwide.
• Freelance mailing list—discussion among publishing industry freelancers.
• Freelance Online—based in Philadelphia.
  

Job links

• Bookbuilders West Jobs Bank
• Copyeditor.com—the companion site to the Copy Editor newsletter includes a searchable jobs board.
• Editor and Publisher classifieds page.
• Editor and Publisher—for newspaper industry news.
  
  

Of specific interest to writers

• The National Writers Union. Peek at NWU Writer Alerts, the instructive mini-hall of publishing scam artists who have contracted with writers but did not pay them.
• The Publishing Law Center.
• Resources for Writers from Midwest Book Review.
• The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America offers cautionary tales for writers.
• WritersDigest.com.