Paul Mundy www.mamud.com

Style

Keeping the editor happy

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 Policeman Chairman Webmaster

Find another word Mail carrier Police officer Chair 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 American Practise (verb) Practice Defence Defense Labour, colour Labor, color Programme Program

Zs or Ss?

-ization or –isation? Zs USA, Oxford English Dictionary,

Oxford University Press Ss Most British & Indian publishers

In Word, UK spelling = Ss 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

(or F7)

Use a thesaurus

Roget’s thesaurus

Microsoft Word thesaurus Tools > Spelling and Grammar (or Shift+F7)

Create a style sheet

ABCDcross-cultural

EFGHGreen Revolution

extensionist

IJKLindigenous knowledge

MNOPpolicy makermicrocreditMillennium Development Goals

QRSTreappraisal

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 house style manual

http://tinyurl.com/ygm5uu3 The Economist style guide http://tinyurl.com/kq879 European Commission, Directorate-General for

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

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