Links: Useful editing resources

The following are just a handful of resources related to editing that are available on the Internet. They should lead you on to many more. All links open in a new window.

Amazon.com
The Earth's Biggest Bookstore! Whether you're buying or simply checking bibliographic details, it's worth a look.

Book Depository (UK)
It may not be as big as Amazon, but it's almost always cheaper, primarily because of the free postage to Australia (and everywhere else). There's a US version too, but the UK one is often cheaper.

Chicago Manual of Style FAQ
Questions and answers on issues of (Chicago) style from the people at the University of Chicago Press. Useful and often downright funny answers to queries from editors and writers.

Copyediting
Workshops, newsletter and job opportunities in the USA.

Copyediting-l Resources
A collection of useful editing resources, made available by the Copyediting-l mailing list (an American mailing list for editors).

Eats, Shoots and Leaves
How has a book on punctuation become a bestseller? John Mullan talks to Eats, Shoots and Leaves author Lynne Truss in the Guardian about commas, hyphens and the importance of correct colon usage.

Editorium
Editorium deals specifically with using Microsoft Word for editing. Visit the site to subscribe to the weekly newsletter.

Electric Editors
'If you're a professional editor (or anyone with an interest in preparing the written word for publication), the Electric Editors are here to help. On these pages you'll find a comprehensive collection of resources to help you in your work.' (From the website.)
Among its many attractions, this site offers (free) subscriptions to three electronic mailing lists, allowing you to discuss matters of interest with other editors.

Guide to Grammar and Style
'These notes are a miscellany of grammatical rules and explanations, comments on style, and suggestions on usage I put together for my classes. Nothing here is carved in stone, and many comments are matters of personal preference — feel free to psychoanalyze me by examining my particular hangups and bêtes noires.'

Macquarie University Style Council
The Style Council Centre builds databases of spoken and written Australian English, of Aboriginal English, and conducts surveys on points of language where Australians diverge from Britains and Americans. It conducts regular conferences on the state of the language (known as Style Councils) and publishes their proceedings.

Merriam-Webster Online
A useful resource if you happen to be editing something written in American English. As well as being able to search the WWWebster Dictionary and WWWebster Thesaurus, there are lots of other goodies for linguaphiles, including: Word of the Day and Word Game (both of which can be subscribed to as mailing lists), How a Word Gets in the Dictionary, and a Brief Look at the History of English.

Motivated Grammar: Prescriptivism must die!
The author, a 4th year linguistics student, says: 'A lot of people make claims about what "good English" is. Much of what they say is flim-flam, and this blog aims to set the record straight. Its goal is to explain the motivations behind the real grammar of English and to debunk ill-founded claims about what is grammatical and what isn't.'

National Library of Australia
A good starting point for finding reliable information on the web. The offerings fall into two main categories:

links to other Internet resources on a wide range of topics ('Electronic Australiana'; Australian electronic publications; official sites hosted by Australian governments and governments around the world)
access to the entire library catalogue of more than 2.2 million records.

ReferenceChecker is a sophisticated reference-checking program for name + date style (Harvard and APA) references in Word files. The site contains a download section where users can download a free, fully functional 30-day trial version.

The Slot and the BlogSlot
Bill Walsh, author of Lapsing into a Comma and The Elephants of Style, began this website in 1995 and the blog in 2001. It is packed with interesting and amusing tidbits and personal observations that are well worth a read.

Technical Editors' Eyrie
An informative blog designed for technical editors. It is produced by Jean Hollis Weber, a Queensland editor with more than 20 years experience. It includes many useful links to editing resources and tips and tricks.

Web Style Guide
A style guide for websites that includes sections on Interface Design, Site Design, Page Design, Web Graphics, and Web Multimedia and Animation. There is only one chapter on editorial matters, but this is a useful guide for those in the field of website editing to understand the millieu in which they are working.

World Wide Words
This site has been going for years and takes you on a wonderful journey through the English language, especially its quirks and oddities.

Australian societies of editors
Other organisations | Useful editing resources