Style

Keeping the editor happy Paul Mundy www.mamud.com

Style

 Follow the style used in the series you are writing for  Audience  Level of language   Length Nature of text (scientific, professional, popular…)  Use of headings, graphics, tables  Citations and references

Style

 Check the

Instructions for Authors

 Ask for the house style  Ask the editor for guidance  Copy a previous issue in the series  Use a style guide  See last slides in this presentation for references

Copy good examples

 Find a book that is written is an easy, open style  Look at how good newspapers present information 

The Economist



The Guardian Weekly

Gender sensitivity

 Make sure pronouns refer to both men and women  

The boss… he The secretary… she

   Use

he or she

Use the plural Alternate use of he and she   

The boss… he or she Secretaries… they The farmer… she… The trader… he… The scientist… she

Gender sensitivity

 Careful of words that refer to men or women   Postman Chairman Policeman Webmaster   Find another word   Mail carrier Chair Police officer Web administrator Many farmers are women!

 The farmer and his wife Men and women farmers

Gender sensitivity

 Careful of pictures that show men and women in stereotyped roles  

Men

working, earning money, making decisions, in important jobs, as aggressors

Women

cooking, washing, in kitchen, in junior jobs, as victims  Aim for a balance  

Women

working, as boss, being aggressive

Men

in kitchen, looking after kids  Roughly equal numbers of men and women in

pictures

Stereotyping

 Be careful of other stereotypes  Prostitutes preyed on the farmers  The farmers are ignorant, so middlemen rip them off  Farmers are lazy  Find other words  The farmers spent their money on sex workers  The farmers lack information about prices, so cannot negotiate with traders  Farmers lack incentives

British or American?

 For an international audience, use International English  Set Word to UK spelling  British     Practise (verb) Defence Labour, colour Programme American Practice Defense Labor, color Program

Zs or Ss?

 -

ization

or –

isation

?



Z

s 

S

s USA, Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford University Press Most British & Indian publishers  In Word, UK spelling =

S

s  Follow the style required by your series editor

To change from Ss to Zs

 Manual Search and Replace ( Ctrl+H in Word) 

isation

►

ization

  

ising

►

izing ise

►

ize isab

►

izab

To change from Ss to Zs

 Don’t do a global Search and Replace    Some words always have -

ise



Advise, practise (verb), promise…

Don’t change web addresses Don’t change names 

FAO

Food and Agriculture Organization

 

ILO

International Labour Organisation

Don’t change publication titles or quotations

Use a dictionary

  Oxford English Dictionary (UK) Webster’s (US)  Use a spell checker  Microsoft Word: Tools > Spelling and Grammar F7 ) (or

Use a thesaurus

 Roget’s thesaurus  Microsoft Word thesaurus  Tools > Spelling and Grammar (or Shift+F7 )

Create a style sheet

ABCD

cross-cultural

IJKL

indigenous knowledge

QRST

reappraisal

EFGH

Green Revolution extensionist

MNOP

policy maker microcredit Millennium Development Goals

UVWXYZ

Submitting your manuscript

 Don’t expect the editor to do your typing for you  Provide a hardcopy and a softcopy  Ask the editor what file format  DOC, RTF, plain text

Submitting your manuscript

 Give the editor a

clean

word-processed file  No Comments  No Track Changes   No missing info Don’t try to reproduce the final layout or design  That’s the editor’s/layout person’s job!

Style guides: Online, free

     

FAO

style http://tinyurl.com/yj95gvq

Practical Action Publishing

http://tinyurl.com/ygm5uu3 house style manual

The Economist

style guide http://tinyurl.com/kq879

European Commission

http://tinyurl.com/yswxy6 , Directorate-General for Translation. 2005. English style guide. A handbook for authors and translators in the European Commission.

United Nations

editorial manual online http://tinyurl.com/na89rk

UNDP

style manual http://tinyurl.com/yz9nsm6

Style guides: To buy

  British usage    Ritter, RM. 2003. Oxford style manual . Oxford University Press.

http://tinyurl.com/2vutc3

Truss, Lynne

. 2003.

Eats, shoots and leaves.

http://tinyurl.com/jn755

Marsh, David

.

Guardian style

. The Guardian. http://tinyurl.com/yzwgdsv American usage     

University of Chicago Press. 2003. Chicago manual of style. http://tinyurl.com/dlmp8j

Associated Press stylebook.

www.apstylebook.com/

Turabian, Kate

. 2007.

A manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations

http://tinyurl.com/yz7ar84

Strunk, W. and E.B. White

. 1973.

The elements of style

http://tinyurl.com/s6coh

Council of Science Editors

. 2006.

Scientific style and format: The CSE manual for authors, editors, and publishers. http://tinyurl.com/ygl24xv