Main description:

Appropriate for media writing courses as either a primary or a supplemental text, Media Writer's Handbook is a primer for anyone who really wants to understand the grammatical and stylistic elements of good writing. Useful as a teaching tool in the classroom, this book also becomes a trusted reference resource for students and professionals. The sixth edition continues to identify and offer simple solutions for the most common language errors committed every day by mass media writers and broadcasters.

Contents:

Preface Part 1. IMPROVING IMMEDIATELYChapter 1. 25 Ways to Improve Writing ImmediatelyChapter 2. Are These Distinctions Worth Making? Chapter 3. Language LapsesChapter 4. It's Nobody's GuessChapter 5. The Trouble with "Only"Chapter 6. One Potato, Two PotatoesChapter 7. Excising the ExcessiveChapter 8. "I Don't Sound like a Vice President"

Part 2. BUILDING SENTENCESChapter 9. NounsChapter 10. PronounsChapter 11. Noun-Pronoun AgreementChapter 12. Verbs and VerbalsChapter 13. Subject-Verb AgreementChapter 14. Adjectives Chapter 15. Adverbs Chapter 16. Comparison of Adjectives and Adverbs Chapter 17. Prepositions Chapter 18. Conjunctions Chapter 19. Interjections Chapter 20. Sentences and Syntax

Part 3. PUNCTUATINGChapter 21. Periods Chapter 22. Question Marks Chapter 23. Exclamation Marks Chapter 24. Commas Chapter 25. Semicolons Chapter 26. Colons and Dashes Chapter 27. Parentheses and Brackets Chapter 28. Slashes and Hyphens Chapter 29. Apostrophes Chapter 30. Quotation Marks Chapter 31. Sensitivity In Language

Part 4. QUICK REFERENCEReference 1. Words Frequently Confused Reference 2. Words Frequently Misspelled Reference 3. Irregular Verbs Reference 4. Wordiness and Trite Expressions Reference 5. When to Use a Hyphen, One Word, or Two Words Index