Proofreading The Beacon

By the time everything is laid out in pages and ready for proofreading, we're only looking for things that are absolutely mistakes. It's too late to be improving the wording, etc. We're only looking for errors in spelling, punctuation, layout, etc.

Things To Look For

Jumps – check all the "continued on..." and "continued from..." jumps to be sure they name the right pages, and to be sure the word or phrase they use is consistent. Also check that all the jumps in Last Month and in This Month point to the right pages.

Emphasis – We never use all capital letters for emphasis. In very rare circumstances, italicizing for emphasis is allowed, but only very rarely. Exclamation points should also be used extremely rarely.

Bottom line: If something needs emphasis, the writing should provide the emphasis, not the typography.

When we refer to the Beacon in the body of a story, it's always in italics. It's either
"...the Beacon..." or "...The Andover Beacon...," but never "...The Beacon..."

In headlines, etc. we don't use the italics.

Capitalizing "Town," "Board," etc. – When "town" is used as shorthand for "the government of the Town of Andover," then it should be capitalized, i.e. "...the Town grader..." When it refers to geography or to the townspeople as a whole, i.e. "...our beautiful town..." or "...the town will support recycling..." it should be lowercase.

Town Meeting is always capitalized. It is both an event ("...Town Meeting started at 7 PM...") and a body of Town government ("...Town Meeting voted to make ice cream mandatory...").

Townspeople - Be careful when speaking about the townspeople as a whole. A general statement like "...the town will support recycling..." is fine, but if you're referring to a specific action of Town Meeting, then say so, i.e. "...Town Meeting will support recycling..."

The Town Office is where Mark and Lorraine and Eileen sit. The Town Hall is the whole building, including the meeting room downstairs, the Library, and the Cable TV station.

Boards - The names of specific boards, committees, etc. are always capitalized. even when referring to them in shorthand, i.e. "...the Board reviewed..."

Board and Committee minutes should always start with a date, followed by a line that says either "Condensed from approved minutes" or "Condensed from draft minutes." 

Names of books, plays, poems, TV shows, movies, etc. are always in italics, never in quotes. 

Acronyms and Abbreviations – USA, US, MVHS, IBM, ZBA, AM, PM, LLC, etc. don't have periods between the letters. AE/MS always has the slash in it. "Inc." or "Corp." are always followed by a period.

AE/MS should always have the slash in it – never AEMS.

The company is called RP Johnson and Son. (No periods, and Son, not Sons.) After the first reference, it's OK to say RP Johnson (but never "RP Johnsons").

Don't abbreviate state names unless it's in a postal address, in which case use the standard two-character postal abbreviation (all caps).

Never abbreviate Street, Road, Place, etc., even in postal addresses.

Don't follow a town name with New Hampshire if it's a nearby town or a well-known town.

Dates and Times - We never use the ordinal abbreviations "st," "nd," "rd," or "th." It's always "February 2," never "February 2nd." It's always "second place," never "2nd place."

Never abbreviate the name of the month.

Don't use the current year in dates unless it might be confusing if you leave it out.

Day of week (i.e. Tuesday, August 22) is handy for our readers when it's a date in the future, because it helps them quickly think about whether they're free. But it's not very useful for dates in the past, unless the story hinges on the day of the week (i.e. a series of events leading up to a crime or something). So in general, include day of week for dates in the future and not for dates in the past.

AM and PM are always all-caps, with no periods. Drop the minutes for on-the-hour times, i.e. 7 PM, not 7:00 PM.

Commas - We always use what's known as the Oxford (or "serial") comma. Therefore, it's always "...Andover, Danbury, and Wilmot..." and never "...Andover, Danbury and Wilmot..."

In general, there is a comma before the form of organization in a company name, i.e. RP Johnson and Son, Inc. or Andover Thompson, LLC.

Note the two commas around the date when including the day of week: "The board met on Tuesday, August 22, to discuss some stuff."

If a conjunction is followed by a dependent clause, there's no comma before the conjunction, i.e.: "I was tired but kept going." If it's followed by an independent clause, then there is a comma before the conjunction, i.e.: "It was my first time to the top of Mount Kearsarge, and it was beautiful."

A list of predicate clauses gets separated by semi-colons, i.e.: "The board advised Labonte that he needs to apply to the Zoning Board of Adjustment for non-conforming lot frontage; discuss fire protection with the fire chief of East Andover; and receive a state-approved subdivision and septic design."

...whereas a list of noun clauses gets separated by commas, i.e.: "The Board unanimously approved the subdivision plan contingent upon the easement, access permits, approved fire protection provision, and a bond."

But if any one of the noun clauses get very long or complex, then you could switch to semi-colons for the whole list, i.e.: "Present: Don Gould, Chair; Eric Johnson, Vice-Chair; Paul Currier; Roger Godwin; Mark Cowdrey; Keith Pfeifer; Joe Stearns; and Wood Sutton, alternate."

In general, use semicolons to separate items in a list anytime you feel that commas aren't "strong" enough to avoid any possibility of confusion.

Numbers - In stories, a number less than 10 should be written as a word, and a number 10 or greater should be written as numerals (unless it appears as the first word in a sentence). In ads or in charts and tables, anything goes!

Prices and other dollar amounts should be written as numerals with a dollar sign preceding, i.e. "$7," not "seven dollars." Leave off the cents if it's just zeroes.

For round numbers over a million, use "$3.25 million" instead of "$3,250,000." And it's never "$3.25 million dollars," of course. Nor "3.25 million dollars."

Avoid Roman numerals if possible. If they're in the title of a play or something, we can't change it. But using them for something like road class designations (i.e. Class VI roads) is just silly and we should change those to Arabic numerals (i.e. Class 6).

Phone Numbers - Never include the 603 area code, unless leaving it out would be confusing. For numbers with area codes, never include the 1 that you have to dial before the area code.

Web Addresses - URLs always appear without the http://, and without the www (if leaving out the www still takes you to the correct page, which is true for most URLs, but not for all URLs). URLs always appear in a distinct, compact sans serif type face to make them easy to read and to help even a long URL fit on a single line.

It's always "Web site," never "website."

Format - One (and only one) paragraph break ("hard return") at the end of every paragraph. No breaks at the end of every line -- just let the paragraph "wrap" naturally.

Miscellaneous Things - The official name of the holiday, according to the enabling Federal legislation, is Veterans Day. While either Veteran's Day or Veterans' Day would be more logical and more grammatical, neither are the correct name of the holiday.

Need To Decide

How to refer to grown-ups in AE/MS articles by staff, by students.