Reference Books for Editors

Posted in Local Editor Resources on June 26, 2002

These reference books were recently listed on the Editors e-list (to subscribe: e-mail majordomo@lists.us.mensa.org with the message: subscribe editors). The list of reference books includes dictionaries, stylebooks, design handbooks and many others you’ll find handy the night before deadline. Thanks to contributors Angie Richardson and Marie Mayer. Click ‘Read More’ below for the list.

Style Guides:


The Chicago Manual of Style: The Essential Guide for Writers, Editors, and Publishers (14th edition). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1993.


A Manual of Style prepared by the U.S. Government Printing Office. New York: Gramercy Publishing Co, 1986.


Wired Style: Principles of English Usage in the Digital Age by Constance Hale and Jessie Scanlon. New York: Broadway Books, 1999.

Newsletter and Design:


Editing Your Newsletter by Mark Beach. Portland, OR: Coast to Coast Books, 1988.


Graphic Design for the Electronic Age: The manual for traditional and desktop publishing by Jan V. White. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1988.


Looking Good in Print (Fourth Edition) by Roger C. Parker. Scottsdale, AZ: The Coriolis Group, Inc., 1998.


The Non-Designer’s Design Book: Design and Typographic Principles for the Visual Novice by Robin Williams. Berkeley, CA: Peachpit Press, 1994.


Publishing Newsletters by Howard Penn Hudson. New York: MacMillan Publishing Co, 1988.


Write to be Read: A Practical Guide to Feature Writing by Benton Rain Patterson. Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press, 1986.


Legal & Copyright references:


The Copyright Permission and Libel Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide for Writers, Editors, and Publishers, by Lloyd J. Jassin and Steven C. Schechter. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1998.


General references:


American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (fourth edition). Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000.


Harper Dictionary of Contemporary Usage, by William and Mary Morris. New York: Harper & Row, 1975.


Modern English Usage (second edition), by H.W. Fowler, revised and edited by Sir Ernest Fowers). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1965.


The New Fowler’s Modern English Usage (third edition) , edited by R.W. Burchfield. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996.


On Writing Well: An informal guide to writing nonfiction, by William Zinsser. New York: Harper & Row, 1985.


Rules for Writers: A Brief Handbook, by Diana Hacker. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985.


Roger’s Thesaurus. Many editions available.


Torn Wings and Faux Pas, by Karen Elizabeth Gordon


The Gregg Reference Manual, 7th Ed., William A. Sabin


The Elements of Editing, by Arthur Plotnik


Use The Right Word, by S.I. Hayakawa