Your guides to AP style

Christine Steele, Andy Bechtel and Lisa McLendon at the ACES conference in Columbus, Ohio. The annual conference of ACES: The Society for Editing is in full swing in Columbus, Ohio. More than 500 editors from news, government, academia, corporations and freelance are attending — and yes, we are nerding out on everything editing. Here's what I…

How I will spend my summer

The spring term at UNC-Chapel Hill is over. Thanks to my students for their hard work this semester. We made it! Here is my agenda for the summer: Lead a week-long residency for our online master’s program in digital communication. About 20 students will get training in video production from my colleague Chad Heartwood and…

Doctors of style

For many years, I've done an exercise in my editing class at UNC-Chapel Hill in which students debate a style choice. Past examples have included mic or mike as a short form for microphone, and whether to use the offensive nickname of Washington's NFL team. This semester, I asked the students to consider whether the…

Swearing in a new style

The good people at ACES: The Society for Editing invited me to write a guest post for their website. The topic: style guidelines and the Biden-Harris administration, which will take office this week. Here's the nut graph: The transfer of power requires editors to make decisions on word choices. That’s especially necessary given the historic…

A North Carolina town’s wise choice

A new government recently took power in Carrboro, North Carolina — at least in name. The town, which is home to about 20,000 people, is now ruled by a Town Council instead of a Board of Aldermen. The Carrboro council is typical of local governments in North Carolina, consisting of six members and the mayor.…

Student guest post: What to do when AP style fails on coverage of mental illness

Students in MEJO 557, Advanced Editing, are writing guest posts for this site this semester. This is the 13th of those posts. Meredith Radford is a junior in the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media, with a double major in journalism and political science. She is a writer for the City, State and National…

Student guest post: Post-pandemic, AP should release in-depth coronavirus style guide

Students in MEJO 557, Advanced Editing, are writing guest posts for this site this semester. This is the 12th of those posts. Ashley Mills is a senior broadcast and electronic journalism major at UNC-Chapel Hill. She is a copy editor with UNC’s Media Hub and script editor at Carolina Week. In her free time, Mills…

Student guest post: When AP style meets geopolitics, a world of troubles emerges

Students in MEJO 557, Advanced Editing, are writing guest posts for this site this semester. This is the eighth of those posts. Stephen Kenney is a junior double majoring in journalism and political science at UNC-Chapel Hill. He works as an editor for The Daily Tar Heel. In his free time, Stephen enjoys reading, long-distance…

Student guest post: AP Stylebook neglects terminology for sex work

Students in MEJO 557, Advanced Editing, are writing guest posts for this site this semester. This is the fifth of those posts. Anna Farmer is a junior majoring in journalism and minoring in Hispanic studies. She is a waitress and bartender at Sup Dogs in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. In her free time, she enjoys…

A new name and a new style

  In early September, I woke to big news about where I teach. The School of Media and Journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill had a new name: the Hussman School of Journalism and Media. The change came with a $25 million donation from alumnus Walter Hussman Jr. and his family. My first thought: "Wow, what a great…