REFERENCES

Editing

Purdue University On-line Writing Lab (OWL)
One of the best online guides to grammar and punctuation. Includes MLA and APA citation styles.

Writing/Editing/Design for Copy Editors
A multifaceted site from the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, and therefore newspaper oriented. Site includes tips for writing headlines and captions.

The University of Illinois Writers' Workshop Online Resources for Writers. If you find anything missing from OWL, try the Grammar Handbook here.

Jack Lynch's Grammar and Style Notes. Addresses many of the tricky questions that copy editors face frequently.

George Mason University

Mason's home page: http://www.gmu.edu

Communication Department: http://www.gmu.edu/departments/comm/

Student Technology and Resources: http://media.gmu.edu/

UCIS Support: http://www.gmu.edu/departments/ucis/help_center.html

The Broadside: http://www.broadsideonline.com/

Grammar

One reference book most writers have on their shelves is "Elements of Style" by William Strunk Jr., THE bible of appropriate grammar. Find it at: http://www.bartleby.com/141/index.html

For those of you who need help with commas -- and grammar generally: http://cctc.commnet.edu/grammar/index.htm

Web grammar: http://www.webgrammar.com/writing.html

General punctuation: http://mason.gmu.edu/~sklein1/comm351/punc.htm  

Misc.

WWWebster Dictionary: http://www.m-w.com/dictionary.htm

WWWebster Thesaurus: http://www.m-w.com/thesaurus.htm

AP Tipsheet: http://ocean.st.usm.edu/~ddavies/aptip.html

Library of Congress Search System: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/resdev/ess/booksquery2a.html

Journalist Express: http://www.journalistexpress.com

Hot Sheet/the easy way to the best of the Web: http://www.hotsheet.com

The New York Times’ Navigator: http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/reference/cynavi.html

Journalism Net: http://www.journalismnet.com

Steve Outing's column on Editor & Publisher online (http://www.mediainfo.com) twice a month. A must-read for online journalists.

Jakob Nielsen on the Internet: http://www.useit.com/. If you go nowhere else, go here.

http://www.poynter.org/medianews/

http://www.poynter.org/

http://ojr.usc.edu/

http://ajr.newslink.org/

The Band-Aid AP Stylebook, created at the University of Missouri in 1997, is a summary of the most commonly used items in the Associated Press Stylebook. It includes helpful reminders, but it is not a substitute for it. When in doubt, look it up in the AP Stylebook.

http://web.missouri.edu/%7Ejschool/missourian/style.htm

Plagiarism

The Internet age has made it easier than ever to plagiarize, reports the Poynter Institute's Chip Scanlan in a centerpiece feature on the Poynter Web site. In the piece, he offers some tips on how to avoid becoming a thief of words. Don't be tempted to cut corners, even though the Internet makes it so simple to do so.

Sports

These sports databases will help you research and source your stories.      http://www.geocities.com/mike_reilley_2000/sports/onlineindex.html

Writing

This page includes links to the online versions of general style guides, such as the APA Style Guide and Chicago Manual of Style, as well as many others. You can find dictionaries and other writing tools at Internet Reference Resources.

http://www.quintcareers.com/writing/writeref.html