Friday, February 1, 2008

Addressing style problems

Here are four more style mistakes:

Example one:
Raw copy, wrong--"officials for the City of Fargo," "officials for the City of Moorhead," "officials for the City of West Fargo," "officials for the City of Dilworth" and "officials for the City of (fill in the blank)"
It should be--"city of Fargo," "city of Moorhead," etc.

Example two:
Raw copy, wrong--"seatbelts" and "seatbelt law"
It should be--"seat belts" and "seat-belt law"
Seat belt is two words.

Example three:
Raw copy, wrong--"mid 1990s"
It should be--"mid-1990s"
AP Stylebook says: Use a hyphen when mid- precedes a figure: mid-30s. No hyphen unless a capitalized word follows. For example: mid-America, mid-Atlantic, midsemester, midterm.

Example four:
Raw copy, wrong--"raises between 4 and 9 percent"
It should be--"raises between 4 percent and 9 percent"
AP Stylebook says: Repeat percent with each individual figure.

Examples of repeat mistakes:

Example one:
Wrong--"on 40th Ave. west of 45th St." and "19th Ave. N. and 18th St. N."
Correct--"on 40th Avenue west of 45th Street" and "19th Avenue and 18th Street North"

Example two:
Wrong--"3636 25th Street South"
Correct--"3636 25th St. S."

Example three:
Wrong--"He arrives at 7:30 a.m. most mornings."
Correct--"He arrives at 7:30 most mornings."

Example four:
Wrong--"three buildings with 386,000-square-feet"
Correct--"three buildings with 386,000 square feet"
Hyphenate when it modifies.

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