Q&A Time: Acquiring familiarity with various style guides

Kristen King

www.inkthinkerblog.com — I’ve been exploring online freelance opportunities, and I’m seeing over and over again that just like you mentioned in your December 4th blog, knowledge of AMA, Chicago, APA, or AP style guides is a prerequisite to the job. I would describe myself as a pretty strong amateur, but I’m not sure how to become more familiar with these manuals. I’m trying to figure out whether copy editing is something I can learn by myself, or whether I’ll need someone to point out what I’m missing at first. Do you know of any teach-yourself-AP books? Is it best to take a training course, or try to get on-the-job training some place full time where I can be supervised closely in the beginning? Thanks for your help.
– R, who wants to be a freelance editor

Ooo, great question. I’m a big proponent of learning by doing, so long as you’re not hurting anyone else. For example, if you don’t know nuttin’ about AP style, purporting to be an AP expert would just be wrong. However, if you get familiar with the guide and successfully complete the AP style quizzes at Newsroom101.com and Copydesk.org, you’ll be in great shape to start getting some practice with live copy as a proofreader or copyeditor.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find comparable learning tools for Chicago, AMA, or APA styles, but there are a ton of great resources to help you get the basics. I’ve got a list of them on the Resources page at my academic editing website.

I’ve recommended it before and I’ll recommend it again: Peggy Smith’s Mark My Words: Instruction and Practice in Proofreadingis an outstanding resource for folks interested in getting into editing. It’s got tons of practice exercises and step-by-step instructions to help your build your skills from the ground up. Get your hands on a copy.

I’d also really encourage you to get your hands on the style guides you’re interested in learning and just read them. It sounds boring and believe me, it is, but the reason hands-on learning is so effective for this stuff is that it forces you to look everything up. Heck, even if you just head over to Borders or B&N or Books-a-Million or whatever you have and sit with the guide for half an hour each time you go, that will help. Ideally you should have your own copy (check Half.com) so you can make notes and add sticky-tabs and dog ear the pages, but something is better than nothing.

You could take a course, but I’d wait until you do this stuff first. Buying the guides and taking free quizzes is way cheaper than taking a class. I’d also hold off on making any major job changes until you familiarize yourself with the source material for this type of work.

Good luck!

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www.kristenkingfreelancing.com
Finalist in 2006 Writer’s Digest Best Writer’s Website Contest

4 comments

From the file cabinet: A blog before I knew what blogs were

Kristen King

www.inkthinkerblog.com — Well, it wasn’t technically a blog, but it was close. Until I stumbled across a trio of misplaced floppy disks, I had completely forgotten about my Princess Letters, a weekly-ish e-mail newsletter I sent out to close to 100 people from June 1997 through October 1998. The Word document that contains all of the letters is nearly 500 pages long, and consists predominantly of brief introductions followed by numbered lists of random thoughts and shout-outs to my friends at the time, including such winning excerpts as these (edited to remove info that would identify people mentioned in the letters, but otherwise untouched):

14) A wonderfully memorable quote straight from the mouth of [redacted] the Anal Retent. “None of the smart girls are hot. Um, oh yeah, except you, Kristen.” Oh, right. Great save. Hope he didn’t think to hard to come up with that one. He might have hurt himself! What a pity.
15) I’m nobody.
16) Who are you?
17) Are you nobody, too?
18) Then there’s a pair of us. Don’t tell!
19) They’d banish us, you know.
20) Ok, who exactly is “they,” hmm? THEY always say stuff, but who are they?
21) That nobody thing, btw, was by Emily Dickenson. There’s more, but I can’t remember the rest. Oh well.

and

Hello, my little peasants! How are you all on this fine evening? I don’t know about you, but the Princess is rather chilled, sitting here by the open window. But alas, it is the servants’ night off, so her majesty must freeze or close the window herself. She wishes to freeze.

Oh, my, speaking in the third person is fun! But it’s also a challenge, and quite difficult for Her Highness to get used to the change, so she will, sadly, return to speaking in the first person.

Although I know it is late for a thought for the day, but what the heck, here it is anyway:

To have joy, one must share it. –Lord Byron

Yes, my pretties, and actual quote from some famous dead guy. But it is definitely up for debate. For example, [redacted], my dear, dear friend, argued that the quotation says that one cannot be happy by oneself, and must have others around to lead an actually happy life, but I think you’re more able to live life to its fullest, and therefore be happiest, when you have someone with whom you may share the love and joy life brings to you. Definitely something to think about, don’t you think? I think so.

“I think, therefore I am. But I ask you this: If I think not, am I not?” If anyone can tell me where that line, lines actually, came from, I’ll give them an extra big hug and be thoroughly amazed and impressed. ([redacted], you can’t play this game, cuz I said that to you a bunch of times, and we had a lot of discussions regarding that particular TV show HINT HINT EVERYONE, so you have an unfair advantage over everyone else. Sowwy.)

If anyone’s wondering, the “I think…” line was from a Saved by the Bell episode. Amazingly, I remember that but have no idea who more than half of the shout-out people are. Evidently we were all the best of friends, but seriously, who were these people?

At any rate, I thoroughly enjoyed that little trip down memory lane, and I hope you did, too. I also find it amusing that my 15-year-old self reminds me a little of Miss Snark, what with the whole playing-a-character thing. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me.

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www.kristenkingfreelancing.com
Finalist in 2006 Writer’s Digest Best Writer’s Website Contest

3 comments

::inkthinker:: Reviews Update

Kristen King

www.inkthinkerblog.com — Well, folks, I’ve already received three books and three blog/website URLs, so hopefully I can get some reviews up in the near future! Not sure what I’m talking about? Go to this post to get the skinny on ::inkthinker:: Reviews and find out how to submit your book or website. Repeat after me: Free publicity is good publicity.

__________________________________________
www.kristenkingfreelancing.com
Finalist in 2006 Writer’s Digest Best Writer’s Website Contest

0 comments

Customization complete (for now)

Kristen King

www.inkthinkerblog.com — The revamp of ::inkthinker:: with the new customization tools is complete — until I change my mind, that is. You’ll notice some changes in the sidebar, slightly larger text all over (I’m 24 and going blind, so this helps), and a little extra information at the bottom of each post. You’ll also notice that I’m a complete sell-out and have added some hopefully unobtrusive but still compelling Google ads in the sidebar and at the very bottom of the blog. This bad boy eats up a lot of time, so I’ll take every dime I can get from it. ;]

__________________________________________
www.kristenkingfreelancing.com
Finalist in 2006 Writer’s Digest Best Writer’s Website Contest

4 comments

Good ideas that I’ve never used (1 of many)

Kristen King

www.inkthinkerblog.com — When I was 15 or 16, I worked at a street fair in a predominantly Latino neighborhood in urban New Jersey. (My best friend’s mom owned a temporary tattoo booth and a hair wrap booth, and she gave me like $8/hour to help her out at local events. It was pretty sweet.) On my lunch break, I wandered into a convenience store that had a counter display of prophylactics on a little turning rack. Their name? “Fiesta word-for-prophylactic-that-starts-with-a-c-but-I-don’t-want-to-use-it-just-in-case.” After I stopped laughing, I came up with a great slogan:

Fiesta You-Know-What: Put a Party in Your Pants

Alas, I have never done anything with this brilliant marketing slogan.

__________________________________________
www.kristenkingfreelancing.com
Finalist in 2006 Writer’s Digest Best Writer’s Website Contest

0 comments

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