"A friendly, practical guide for writers, students, business executives, bloggers, Web developers and anyone else who wants to write well"--Cover.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 108-109) and index.

Why learn editing? the benefits for you -- Lean and clean : what editors do -- The golden rules: for professional writing and editing -- Ruthless people : what makes a good editor? -- Be active : avoiding the passive voice -- Split personalities : beware the split infinitive -- Time for action : turning nouns into verbs -- Small and pesky : two words that slow the pace -- Nuisance value : more overused words -- Is that so? how to avoid that -- Every which way : the difference between which and that -- Short is beautiful : avoid long sentences -- Briefly speaking : a guide to shorter, simpler words -- Pronouns : how to avoid confusion -- Feeling single, seeing plural : more tricky pronouns -- Collective nouns : which verb form do I use? -- Clichés : avoid them like the plague -- The future that is to come : the tautology trap -- Stating the obvious : first cousin to the tautology -- There, there : a few little words we can do without -- Putting on the style : be consistent -- Punctuation : basic rules -- Contractions : when, and when not, to use them -- To quote or not to quote : direct and indirect speech -- Tricky, tricky : serial or cereal? -- The plurals trap : don't get caught -- Under a spell : a handy guide to difficult words -- Oops : the misplaced phrase -- If only : be careful to say what you mean -- Now, see here : look out for this common error -- Kid stuff : avoid slang -- Former, latter, last : how to keep order -- Get to the point : how to write a news story -- Heads, you win : how to write a headline -- Editing checklist : a last round-up -- Hot tips : things to remember -- And finally : set your standards high -- Resources : things to keep handy.