If you are A WRITER and want to expand your income
possibilities you may look to write both books or magazine content and
newspaper advertorials/editorials or hard-news. In order to fit in both writing
personas you need to be familiar with two distinct styles of writing. Style Guides
should deliver usable and consistent advice on things like abbreviations, spelling,
punctuation, and standard jargon.
The AP Stylebook is THE Bible when it comes to newspapers, advertising
and public-relations. Book authors, book editors and much of the entertainment publishing
market need to rely on the rules in The Chicago Manual of Style. Two other
guides also come into play regularly: American Psychological Association (APA) Style
is used when writing for social sciences, like psychology, politics and
sociology; Modern Language Association (MLA) Style, is used mostly in
academics, literature and humanities. All of the guides have specific ways of
citing references and rules against plagiarism.
Often individual companies will have more personalized style
guides that all have a foundation in one of the major style guides. Each
company wants consistency in all of the writing that comes out of their
offices. Individual book publishing companies also prefer consistency and may
have a personalized style guide which may include formatting and spacing. Ask
if the company has a style guide along with the submission guidelines. Book
authors and editors will usually have more time to “get the style right”, but
newspapers, especially hard-news, have to stick with very tight deadlines and
the style needs to be a lot more concise.
Although many (mostly new) authors assume the polishing of a
manuscript belongs to “the editor”, there are really several different types of
editors — it’s a good idea to know which one you really need.
· Line Editors: these folks tend to do
it all, correcting spelling, grammar, content, consistency and more. This is probably
the type of editor most small publishing companies and indie authors use.
· Proofreader: these look for spelling,
punctuation, and grammatical errors and OBVIOUS mistakes in the manuscript.
· Copyeditor: much like a proofreader,
they check for spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Copyeditors work by the AP
Guide and generally work in the newspaper type business.
· Content Editor: these look at the
content of the book and will go through the plot, characters and setting for
inconsistencies.
· Acquisition Editor: these are
generally the people who see your manuscript first and will hopefully move it
along the editorial line.
· Development Editor: these are often
ghostwriters who work with the manuscript the author produced and “re-write”
where necessary without changing the overall story or author’s voice.
Writing
Exercise: Which style guide would apply for (1) your daily newspaper, (2) the story
book you read to the children every night, (3) your son’s school textbook, (4)
ad copy for the local store, and (5) the serial installments in the latest
mystery story magazine?
Writing
Prompt: You are an overnight guest at your distant cousin’s house (this is the
first time you are visiting there) You decide to go for a walk after dinner
while your cousin drives his children to the local ice cream stand. It’s
blazing hot out and when you return to the house (the door was left unlocked)
you go in and make yourself comfortable (clothing?). You are relaxing on the
recliner watching TV and doze off. Sometime later you wake up to the sound of
the door closing and people coming in only to discover you entered the WRONG
house! What do you do?
Challenge
Assignment: Take the longest newspaper article (news) you can find. Rewrite the
article as a fiction story using the appropriate style.
