Oh, gosh, I love John McIntyre! His humor, his knowledge, his writing voice. Enjoy!
The Old Editor Says … The AP Stylebook is a set of guidelines, not dictation from Jehovah to Moses or a substitute for editorial judgment.
Stylebooks are useful things for accomplishing consistency of practice, to minimize distractions for the reader. But neither The Associated Press Stylebook nor the even more formidable 1,026-page Chicago Manual of Style, or, for that matter, anyone else’s stylebook boasts divine provenance. You’d best be acquainted with the strengths and limitations of each.
Stylebooks present guidelines, and any publication has, or ought to have, discretion in applying those guidelines. So long as you maintain an internally consistent practice, there is nothing to prevent the establishment of local variances, which is in fact the case at many publications. Let a hundred flowers bloom. …
The Old Editor Says … If the AP Stylebook told you to jump off a bridge, would you?
There is an unfortunate tendency to extrapolate from the stylebook and make rules where no rules exist. … There are rules, and there are guidelines, and there are places where you just have to make your own decisions.
The Old Editor Says … Be suspicious of all one-sentence injunctions about writing and editing.
Those “rules” of grammar and usage you were taught were often misguided or flat wrong. (Split infinitives freely. Put prepositions at the end of sentences.) Those “rules” from whatever stylebook you use aren’t statutory; they’re guidelines. One-sentence exhortations, the ones in this little book included, are not adequate for the complexity of experience.
What you need is judgment. And for that, gentle reader, you are on your own.
—From THE OLD EDITOR SAYS: MAXIMS FOR WRITING AND EDITING © 2013 by John E. McIntyre. Transcription by me.
Tweet: Talking turkey about the difference between rules and guidelines.
Tweet: Your favorite stylebook is no substitute for sound editorial judgment. For realz!
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