Briefly...
Book review by
Carl Sessions Stepp
Carl Sessions Stepp (cstepp@umd.edu) began writing for his hometown paper, the Marlboro Herald-Advocate in Bennettsville, South Carolina, in 1963, after his freshman year in high school. He studied journalism at the University of South Carolina, where he edited The Gamecock. After college, he worked for the St. Petersburg Times and the Charlotte Observer before becoming the first national editor at USA Today in 1982. In 1983, he joined the University of Maryland journalism faculty full time. In the ensuing 30 years, he also has served as senior editor and book reviewer for AJR, writing dozens of pieces. He has been a visiting writing and editing coach for news organizations in more than 30 states.
Lapsing Into a Comma: A Curmudgeon's Guide to the Many Things That Can Go Wrong in Print--and How to Avoid Them
By Bill Walsh
Contemporary Books
256 pages; $14.95
Here's a copy editor's delight, a mother lode for language lovers. Walsh, a copy desk chief at the Washington Post, offers readable and (generally) sound advice on stylistic matters from political correctness to hyphen correctness.
Best Practices for Newspaper Journalists
By Robert J. Haiman
Freedom Forum
74 pages; free in limited quantities
A top editor offers some useful, specific ideas, based on extensive conversations with readers and journalists, to help newspapers "embrace both the spirit of fairness and the values of good journalism." A similar book by Av Westin covers broadcast practices. ###
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