=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- SFEP-ED-L Vol. 1, no. 1 8 September 1996 SFEP Editorial mailing list =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Contents: [1] Editorial Q & A [2a] A phrase to describe on-screen work [2b] American English / punctuation [2c] Symbols and abbreviations [2d] Hyphenation [2e] Bibliographic styles for citing URLs [2f] Styling UK telephone numbers FYI [3a] Madras is renamed [3b] Little Black Sambo is given PC twist [3c] Conference: Specialist or Polymath? Skills for the 21st Century [4] Administration =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- --[1] Editorial ----------------------------------------------- Welcome to the first issue of SFEP Editorial! We do hope you will enjoy this new mailing list and/or find it useful. We will try to make it as informative as possible, so that it does not become just another piece of e-mail that clogs up your mailbox. However, it is not *our* personal list: it is *yours*. Your contributions comprise the substance; we are the packagers. The SFEP Computing Online mailing list has been the stage for a discussion on the question of the spelling of "homepage". Starting with the next issue, the discussion will move to this list. Also moving lists will be the discussion about screen dumps and copyright clearance. For those who have not kept up with the two discussions, they are concerned with two questions: (i) Is it "homepage" or "home page"? (ii) "If a book contains screen dumps taken from standard commercial software packages, do you need to obtain copyright permission from the publisher of the software?" A good number of replies to both questions have already been published, but there must be a lot more to be discussed. Keep the replies coming in. Also included in this first issue are two articles taken from "The Times" which will be of interest. Article [3b] is included deliberately, to stimulate discussion on political correctness and censorship. We would like to see a section develop whereby such contentious issues that face publishers and ourselves can be aired---and maybe even resolved. As with any start-up, it will take a few issues to find our feet and to introduce all the sections that we wish to include. For example, we would like to start a "Net resource" (or Web Watch) section, where details of interesting and useful Web sites can be publicised. There must be *loads* of useful information out there, if we only knew where to look. We encourage you to e-mail us with your top URLs. The contents of SFEP-ED-L are organised and numbered in such a way to allow you to search this mailing for that which interests you, using the appropriate article number ("[2b]", "[2e]", "[3b]" or whatever). Furthermore, the list has been given a volume and issue number as well. The issue number will change each week (obviously), whilst the volume number will change at the beginning of each year. This has been done so that it is easy for you to refer to discussions or points raised in specific issues. All that is left for us to do is say, "Happy reading!" Jane Kerr Iain Brown --[2] Q & A --------------------------------------------------- [2a] Date: Wed, 21 Aug 1996 From: Darlene Davidovic, md2013ail.eclipse.co.uk Subject: A phrase to describe on-screen work Congratulations on the start of the list. I'm writing a paper about publishing-industry freelances who edit (proofread, index, etc) on computer files rather than on paper. The most condensed phrase I can come up with is "on-screen editorial freelances" but that sounds as if the freelances are on-screen, rather than their work. Any suggestions for something all-encompassing but not too long? The paper will be long enough as it is. +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ [2b] Date: Wed, 21 Aug 1996 From: Lionel Browne, lionel_browneand-con.demon.co.uk Subject: Symbols and abbreviations Does anyone know where I can go on the Net for an up-to-date and authoritative list of accepted abbreviations, terminology and symbols for use in the field of electro-optics? On a related point, should there be an acute accent on the 'e' in Fabry-Perot (of interferometer fame)? Authorities differ: the Hutchinson Dictionary of Scientific Biography has an accent, as does Chambers Science and Technology Dictionary, but Chambers Biographical Dictionary has no accent. Both Chambers volumes agree on a hyphen connecting the two namnes, but as Fabry and Perot were two individuals, I go along with the Hutchinson use of an en-rule! +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ [2c] Date: Thurs, 22 Aug 1996 From: Suzanne Gilbakian, 100602.2770ompuserve.com Subject: American English / punctuation Thank you so much for getting this list up and running. I'm sure it's going to take off in a big way. I do a lot of editing for one particular American publisher whose style for setting punctuation after bold or italicised text differs from the Chicago Manual of Style. I have started editing a book for another new American publisher who has given me the brief to establish a style for the book. But now I'm stuck as to what style to apply. The first publisher's style dictates that punctuation (other than ? or !) following italicised or enboldened text is to be set in italics or bold, and that quote marks are only italicised if they are part of an entire sentence or phrase that is in italics. But the Chicago Manual of Style (Section 6.60 of the 13th Edition) says that the rule is to set punctuation in the style of the immediately preceding word, and then it gives an example using a question mark set in italic. To me that looks really weird, perhaps because I've been accustomed so long to seeing it as roman type. Can anyone clarify this for me? Someone suggested I also consult an American book called "Words into Type", but I haven't got it yet. Perhaps someone out there does and would be kind enough to give me a hint. Many thanks. +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ [2d] Date: Sun, 1 Sept 1996 From: Ian Kingston, 100345.1764ompuserve.com Subject: Hyphenation How do members feel about the hyphenation of 'decision-making'? I think it's necessary when used adjectivally ('a decision-making body'), but the situation is less clear when it's used as a noun ('decision-making is carried out by...'). ---------------------- Date: Sun, 1 Sept 1996 From: Iain Brown, 100131.3564ompuserve.com Re: Hyphenation Further to Ian's question, and in parallel to the discussion on SFEP Computing Online about "homepage" or "home page", is there a preferred (read: correct) spelling of "e-mail"/"email"? Should it be hyphenated, or left as one word? Are publishers making any stipulation yet? Do they even care?! +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ [2e] Date: Sun, 1 Sept 1996 From: Iain Brown, 100131.3564ompuserve.com Subject: Bibliographic style for citing URLs I received a question about citing URLs from another mailing list, and cross-post a heavily edited version of it. Has anyone else been faced with the question of how to refer to online documents? How have you approached it? Xia Li and Nancy B. Crane, reference librarians at the University of Vermont, are two leaders in this field. Their _Electronic Styles: An Expanded Guide to Citing Electronic Information_ will appear in a new edition this year. Their concise Web page links to separate concise pages on MLA (humanities) and APA (scientific) "embellished" styles: < http://www.uvm.edu/~xli/reference/estyles.html > * MLA style Below are their examples to convey the flavor of MLA-style citations. This being an email, _underlining_ indicates the traditional underlining or italics. Note (1) "Available HTTP" and similar are always part of the citation style; (2) the entire URL or other electronic address is sometimes on a separate line, to help solve the problem of extra hyphens or spaces; (3) the access date is always given. [These example citation styles have been broken at convenient spots to accommodate this 60-character width message.] **FOR A BOOK ONLINE: Pritzker, Thomas J. _An Early Fragment from Central Nepal_. N.D. Online. Ingress Communications. Available HTTP: http://www.ingress.com/~astanart/pritzker/pritzker.html. 8 June 1995. **FOR PART OF A WORK ONLINE: Daniel, Ralph Thomas. "The History of Western Music." _Britannica Online: Macropaedia_. 1995. Online. Encyclopedia Britannica. Available HTTP: http://www.eb.com:180/cgi-bin/g:DocF=macro/5004/45/0.html. 14 June 1995. **FOR A JOURNAL ARTICLE ONLINE: Carriveau, Kenneth L., Jr. Rev. of _Environmental Hazards: Marine Pollution_, by Marth Gonnan. _Environmental Green Journal_ 2.1 (1995): 3 pars. Online. Available Gopher: gopher://gopher.uidaho.edu/11/UI_gopher/library/egj03/ carriv01.html. 21 June 1995. **FOR A MAGAZINE ARTICLE ONLINE: Viviano, Frank. "The New Mafia Order." _Mother Jones Magazine_ May-June 1995: 72 pars. Online. Available HTTP: http://www.mojones.com/MOTHER_JONES/MJ95/viviano.html. 17 July 1995. **FOR AN ARCHIVED DISCUSSION (MAILING) LIST MESSAGE: RRECOME. "Top Ten Rules of Film Criticism." 1 Apr. 1995. Online posting. Discussions on All Forms of Cinema. Available E-mail: LISTSERVmerican.edu/Get cinema-l log9504A. 1 Aug. 1995. **FOR A PERSONAL ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION (EMAIL): Day, Martha (MDAYage.uvm.edu). "Review of film -- Bad Lieutenant." E-mail to Xia Li (XLIoose.uvm.edu). 30 July 1995. The MLA recent edition is quite flawed when it comes to electronic citations; it's a good start, but incomplete. * APA style The APA style is as follows: Author. (Year). Title. Journal Title [Type of medium], volume (issue), paging or indicator of length. Available Protocol (e.g., HTTP): Site/Path/File [Access date]. Discussion List Messages---basic forms: Author. (Year, Month day). Subject of message. Discussion List [Type of medium]. Available E-mail: DISCUSSION LIST-mail address [Access date]. Author. (Year, Month day). Subject of message. Discussion List [Type of medium]. Available E-mail: LISTSERV-mail address/Get [Access date]. * Some other possibilities 1. The medium name could be repeated, as in: " Available Gopher: gopher://... "). 2. Punctuation: a full stop could be used at the end of the URL, or as Tim Berners-Lee suggests, angle brackets (" < http://... > "). (As citations are starting to appear for electronic information in electronic texts, the ability to cut and paste, to easily identify a character string, and to be unconcerned with surrounding text becomes more important than in the print environment.) Also, a hyphen within a URL at the end of a line is to be ignored (without a blank being substituted for it). 3. Either of the phrases, " Available from ..." or " URL: < http://... > ", could be used to preface the URL in the reference. * Other sources of information Maurice Crouse at the University of Memphis has more commentary on electronic bibliography. His Web page URL is: < http://www.people.memphis.edu/~crousem/elcite.html > IAT InfoBits 10/95 included an index of sources on e-style: < http://www.cmns.mnegri.it/WWW_HTML_IT/extern_resources/ citing_internet_ref.html > The site run by people who are more interested in establishing standards for communication than in forcing the whole wide world to use their browser, is the WWW Consortium, at: < http://www.w3.org/ > [Source: Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 9, No. 767. Center for Electronic Texts in the Humanities, Princeton/Rutgers Information at < http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/ > ] +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ [2f] Date: Sun, 8 Sept 1996 From: Martyn Yeo, wordwiseix.compulink.co.uk Subject: Styling UK telephone numbers I have just read through a thread on CIX, which was prompted by a user asking about input masks for UK telephone numbers (to force them into the right format). This started me thinking about whether there is a definitive way of expressing UK phone numbers (one approved by BT or Oftel or whoever). Giving just two simple examples, should we write: 0181-688 4050 or 0181-688-4050 or 0181 688 4050 or (0181) 688 4050 Should we write: 01705-336909 or 01705 336909 or 01705 336 909 or (01705) 336909 or (01705) 336 909 or 01705-336-909 I have seen all these formats used. While it might be interesting to know people's *opinions* as to which is right, what I really want is to find out if there is an *official* style. It is pertinent because I am about to start editing a classified directory for one of my customers! Do some publishers incorporate styling of telephone numbers in their house style instructions? (I have never seen this done.) Does anyone have any related comments or copy-editing queries? --[3] FYI ----------------------------------------------------- [3a] Madras is renamed The following is an excerpt from "The Times", Sat, 31 Aug 1996: "After Bombay, Poona, Baroda, Trivandrum and Benares, it is the turn of Madras for a change of name. The principal city of southern India is now called Chennai ... "Name-changing is an Indian obsession. The names of buildings, streets, towns, villages, neighbourhoods and entire states--- Karnataka used to by Mysore, Tamil Nadu was Madras State---are revised, either to rid them of their colonial character or as a sycophantic gesture to a powerful politician or family. In the case of Madras, it is simply to appeal to voters. ..." (Bombay was renamed Mumbai last year.) +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ [3b] Little Black Sambo's tale is given politically correct twist The following is an excerpt from "The Times", Mon, 2 Sept 1996: "The once popular British children's book, _The Story of Little Black Sambo_, now deemed offensive to blacks, is being rewritten by two American academics to make it politically correct. ... "Two black Americans who have won prizes for their previous children's books have now updated the story of the clever boy who outwits tigers and ends up eating 169 pancakes. _Sam and the Tigers_ by Julius Lester and Jerry Pinkney is to hit bookstores in America, filling the void left by the removal of the original from many libraries. "Mr Lester ... collaborated with Mr Pinkney, an illustrator, on what he calls a 'reconceptualisation' of the story. _Sam and the Tigers_ sets its main character---renamed Sam---in the American South of the 1920s and uses more contemporary language. "'For me this book is a natural step in finding stories that we can reclaim,' Mr Pinkney, an African-American, told _Publishers Weekly_." We would be interested in your views on such intervention in the text by authors and editors. Is such rewriting censorship in disguise? And how should people react to the change of the story's location? Say you were asked to copy-edit the story. Would you be willing to be party to the drastic alterations as mentioned in the article above? Would it matter if the altered version was an improvement on the original? Are you prepared to stick to your principles and refuse the job? +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ [3c] Specialist or Polymath? Skills for the 21st century Fifth ISTC Conference, 1--3 November, 1996 Old Windsor, Berkshire The fifth Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators conference, co-organised with the Information Design Association, is being held this November. The keynote speaker will be Prof. Peter Cochrane, BT's Director of Research and contributor to "Wired" and "Connected" (the "Daily Telegraph's" computing supplement). The programme includes presentations on: Information needs for the 21st century Will animation and virtual reality change the role of the illustrator? Multimedia: into the mainstream Professional education -- a help or a hindrance? Type & colour, flags & links for screen and paper documents Pro's and cons of the 'specialist' and 'polymath' approaches Java -- the whys and wherefores The transition from paper to online documentation: an Abbey National case history SGML editing and publishing -- the way forward National cultures in international communication Do fish see in colour? For up-to-date news about the conference, and abstracts of the papers being presented, visit the ISTC Web site: < http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/plaza/jk49/ > ... or the IDA Web site: < http://www.popcomm.co.uk/ida/IDA.html > Information is also available from Jane Teather: 100420.1021ompuservce.com --[4] Administration ------------------------------------------ SFEP Editorial provides the opportunity for a weekly online discussion of matters editorial. * Posting to the list All messages to be posted to the list should be sent to Iain Brown, at: 100131.3564ompuserve.com Include as the subject line, "SFEP-ED-L [topic]", where [topic] is the subject under discussion. Topics might include areas such as Grammar, Spelling, American English or Punctuation. Messages should be pertinent to the basic premise of the list; they may be withheld, or redirected if more pertinent to the Computing Online mailing list. The spelling and grammar of messages will *not* be corrected, but some editing of length may be undertaken. Quoting from previous messages: quote as much as you need to make the context of your reply clear, but no more. * Administration All messages of a subscription or administrative nature should be directed to Jane Kerr at: bywaterladdin.co.uk with SFEP EDITORIAL ADMIN in the subject line. * To subscribe to SFEP Computing Online To subscribe to SFEP Computing Online, please e-mail Ian Kingston at: 100345.1764ompuserve.com * SFEP Homepage < http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Ian_Kingston/sfep.htm > =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- END OF SFEP-ED-L 1.1 Next issue: 15 Sept 1996 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Administrator's Note: As a result of teething troubles, those of you who are with CompuServe may have received two copies of this issue. If this has happened, please accept my apologies. I will endeavour to ensure that this does not happen in future.