Editors need tools, just like anyone else who tries to learn and practise a craft. Some tools look more like tools than others: pens, pencils, business machines, and so on. Other tools are physical but not all that tool-like: books and other reference materials. The most important tools we can’t see at all: our accumulated thinking about various aspects of language. The links following this page describe and try to develop some of the tools I use, in each of these three general categories.

Mechanics   

This section describes the physical objects I work with: my office set-up, my business machines, and what steps I take to keep everything in order.

Reference Works   

An annotated bibliography of the books and other reference materials I work with and recommend.

Style Points   

My evolving and expanding personal style guide. The brief texts collected here cover various decisions I make about the material I work with. Some points are common, others arcane.

Date posted: 2003-09-15