Monday, March 24, 2008

Another week of repeats

It seems I'll always have repeat style mistakes to write about, so here goes.

Example one:
Raw copy, wrong--"well-represented at the capitol"
It should be--"well-represented at the Capitol"
AP Stylebook: Capitalize U.S. Capitol and the Capitol when referring to the building in Washington. Follow the same practice when referring to state capitols. Capital is the city where a seat of government is located. Do not capitalize.

Example two:
Raw copy, wrong--"Fargo-based financial advisor"
It should be--"Fargo-based financial adviser"

Example three:
Raw copy, wrong--"county-wide economic development sales tax"
It should be--"countywide economic development sales tax"
AP Stylebook: -wide No hyphen. Some examples: citywide, nationwide, continentwide, statewide, worldwide, industrywide, countrywide.

Example four:
Raw copy, wrong--"take care of our Guardsmen"
It should be--"take care of our guardsmen"
AP Stylebook: Capitalize when referring to U.S or state-level forces, or foreign forces when that is the formal name: the National Guard, the Guard, the Iowa National Guard, Iowa's National Guard, National Guard troops. When referring to an individual in a National Guard unit, use national Guardsman: He is a National Guardsman. Lowercase guardsman when it stands alone.

Example five:
Raw copy, wrong--"a group of Fargo and Cass County citizens"
It should be--"a group of Fargo and Cass County residents"
AP Stylebook: A citizen is a person who has acquired the full civil rights of a nation either by birth or naturalization. Cities and states do not confer citizenship. To avoid confusion, use resident, not citizen, in referring to inhabitants of states and cities.

Example six:
Raw copy, wrong--"colony north of Hawley, Minn.," referring to action taken by the Clay County Board.
It should be--"colony north of Hawley"
We don't use Minnesota with Clay County. Therefore, we shouldn't use Hawley, Minn., because it's understood that the Clay County board would only take action affecting entities in Clay County.

No comments: