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Editing Manual

Editing Manual for Dateliners

Whether you are a writer or editor, editing is a very important part of journalistic writing.

Editing is more than correcting things like grammatical errors and AP Style slip ups. While editing, you should strive to make your article as concise and clear as possible by removing unnecessary words like modifiers, jargon, and filler words, for example. Ensure that each sentence and paragraph serve a purpose. All your elements should contribute to telling your points in the most logical order and in a narrative, engaging way.

Tips for overall resources for when you edit your stories

Journalist's Toolbox by the Society of Professional Journalists

The SPJ’s Journalist Toolbox compiles links to tools and websites to facilitate research and covers guidelines on a wide range of topics for young journalists like you.

Journalist's Toolbox - Presented by the Society of Professional Journalists

Organizations for Students in Media

The organizations below empower college and university students like you in your journey to becoming a media professional. Workshops, discussions, and guidance by current or retired media professionals, scholarships, and networking opportunities are some of the benefits you can expect from joining these organizations.

The Associated Press Stylebook

The Dateline stories follow the Associated Press Style, the gold standard for news writing. We want you to become equipped, so we have listed on our Write in the Associated Press Stylebook page the AP guidelines that we use the most in Dateline stories with examples.

For further guidelines and examples, The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing in Media Law, or AP Stylebook for short, is the best resource available for students wanting to learn more about news writing. The AP Stylebook is available as a print hard copy (updated biennially) and a searchable online format (updated regularly).

Free Access to Newspapers

UHD students get free access to an array of local to major newspapers through the UHD Library.

Current Newspapers - News and Newspapers - Research Guides at University of Houston-Downtown

Student Newspapers in Houston

Non-exhaustive list of the links to some of the student newspapers representing the voice of students in universities in Houston.

Databases

Writing stories requires research. You are welcome to use these links to databases that will get you closer to finding information for your stories.

Library

Government

Law Enforcement

Transit

Weather

Education

Economy

Code of Ethics

To ensure you maintain journalistic integrity, please familiarize yourself with the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics​ (PDF).