About Editing and Writing

How AP Stylebook’s Editors Decide How to Change Their Guidance

May 16, 2022

From Colleen Newvine – product manager, AP Stylebook:

If you have ever wondered how the AP Stylebook’s editors decide how to add or change their guidance, a new section now available on AP Stylebook Online offers insight.

Below is an excerpt from the new section, which will also appear in the AP Stylebook, 56th Edition, coming on June 1.

“The English language is fluid and changes incessantly. What last year may have been very formal, next year may be loosely informal. Word combinations, slogans and phrases are being added and becoming part of the language. …

What Washington Post Reporters Were Slacking About on Sunday

May 16, 2022

From a story on politico.com headlined “What Washington Post reporters were slacking about on Sunday”:

“Jeff Bezos Criticizes Joe Biden in Twitter Spat Over Inflation,” by WSJ’s Tarini Parti and Bradley Olson.

Exchange No. 1:

Biden’s original tweet: “You want to bring down inflation? Let’s make sure the wealthiest corporations pay their fair share.”
Bezos’ response: “The newly created Disinformation Board should review this tweet, or maybe they need to form a new Non Sequitur Board instead. Raising corp taxes is fine to discuss. Taming inflation is critical to discuss. Mushing them together is just misdirection.”

Judy Woodruff to Step Down as PBS NewsHour Anchor

May 16, 2022

From an AP story headlined “PBS’ Judy Woodruff plans to step down as NewsHour anchor”:

Judy Woodruff says she’ll be stepping down as anchor of PBS’ nightly “NewsHour” program at the end of the year.

Woodruff, 75, said she will report longer pieces for “NewsHour” and do other projects and specials for public television, at least through the 2024 presidential election.

She was part of the “NewsHour” rotating anchor team from 2009 until 2013, when she and Gwen Ifill were named co-anchors of the program. Since Ifill’s death in 2016, Woodruff has been the show’s sole anchor.

From the AP: Small Wins Buoy Ukraine; West Says Russians Losing Momentum

May 15, 2022

From an AP story headlined “Small wins buoy Ukraine; West Says Russians losing momentum”:

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Almost three months after Russia shocked the world by invading Ukraine, its military faces a bogged-down war, the prospect of a bigger NATO, and an opponent buoyed Sunday by wins on and off the battlefield.

Top diplomats from NATO met in Berlin with the alliance’s chief, who declared that the war “is not going as Moscow had planned.”

“Ukraine can win this war,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said, adding that the alliance must continue to offer military support to Kyiv. He spoke by video link to the meeting as he recovers from a COVID-19 infection.

Rita Braver on Her 50 Years at CBS News

May 15, 2022

From a story on cbsnews.com headlined “Rita Braver on her 50 years at CBS News”:

It is exactly 50 years ago today that I started working for CBS News.

It also happened to be the day that Alabama Governor George Wallace, segregationist candidate for president, was the victim of an assassination attempt. CBS turned out to be the only network to get that footage, thanks to the intuition of one of our veteran cameramen, and I watched in awe as the best news organization in the business sprang into action.

Larry Woiwode: Author of Novels, Short Stories, Poems and Essays, Mostly Set in the American West

May 15, 2022

From a New York Times obit by Penelope Green headlined “Larry Woiwode, Who Wrote of Family, Faith, and Rural Life, Dies at 80”:

Larry Woiwode, the author of lyrical, expansive novels, short stories, poems and essays, mostly planted in the American West, that explored the power of place, family ties and faith, spiritual and otherwise, died on April 28 in Bismarck, N.D.

Mr. Woiwode’s 1975 novel, “Beyond the Bedroom Wall,” a 600-page saga about four generations of a North Dakota farming clan, established his place in American letters. For its epic sweep, elegant language and essential themes, he was compared to Dickens, Melville and Tolstoy.

Asian-Americans Are the Nation’s Fastest-Growing Group

May 15, 2022

From a story on axios.com by Erica Pandey, Jacque Schrag, and Thomas Olde headlined “Redefining Asian America”:

Asian Americans hail from dozens of countries — and their experiences in America are starkly different depending on their origins.

Why it matters: This vast, diverse group is often lumped together under the “model minority myth” — the stereotype that all Asian Americans are well-educated, wealthy and successful.

If you look at averages, Asian Americans appear to be richer and better educated than the average American.
If you disaggregate the data, the model minority myth crumbles. We see high levels of poverty and below-average levels of educational attainment.

How the Reagan Presidency Transformed America

May 15, 2022

From a New York Times review by Kevin Boyle of the book by Gary Gerstle titled “The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order”:

Ronald Reagan devoted his Labor Day in 1980 to two marvelous photo ops. The first captured him delivering a major speech on freedom and opportunity in Jersey City, N.J., the Statue of Liberty standing in the haze behind him. Then he flew to Allen Park, Mich., one of Detroit’s ubiquitous blue-collar suburbs, for an afternoon cookout at the modest home of a laid-off steelworker. There he got his second shot: the soon-to-be president of the United States standing over a grill packed with kielbasa, barbecue tongs in one hand, a beer in the other. The free market revolutionary as an average Joe, chatting up the workingman.

Typos Have Been Around as Long as Writing Itself

May 15, 2022

From a Wall Street Journal story by Amanda Foreman headlined “Typos Have Been Around as Long as Writing Itself”:

The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., is 100 years old this month. The beloved national monument is no less perfect for having one slight flaw: The word “future” in the Second Inaugural Address was mistakenly carved as “Euture.” It is believed that the artist, Ernest C. Bairstow, accidentally picked up the “e” stencil instead of the “f.” He tried to fix it by filling in the bottom line, but the smudged outline is still visible….

About Editing and Writing

How AP Stylebook’s Editors Decide How to Change Their Guidance

What Washington Post Reporters Were Slacking About on Sunday

Judy Woodruff to Step Down as PBS NewsHour Anchor

From the AP: Small Wins Buoy Ukraine; West Says Russians Losing Momentum

Rita Braver on Her 50 Years at CBS News

Larry Woiwode: Author of Novels, Short Stories, Poems and Essays, Mostly Set in the American West

Asian-Americans Are the Nation’s Fastest-Growing Group

How the Reagan Presidency Transformed America

Typos Have Been Around as Long as Writing Itself

About Editing

What Editors Should Look for in Writers

About Writing

Writing That Is of Marginal Interest