See Ordering Information about receiving a complimentary examination copy or purchasing from Stipes, or phone 217/356-8391.

New!

Media Law in Illinois:     A Reporter's Handbook    by James Tidwell    Eastern Illinois University, 2005.    ISBN 1-58874-450-7    List Price: $12.80

College journalists in Illinois often need easy-to-understand information about legal issues such as libel, privacy, copyright, or access to information.   A new book written by James Tidwell, an attorney and professor of journalism at Eastern Illinois University, fills the bill.

Professor Tidwell has worked with college student media for more than 30 years, has conducted hundreds of legal workshops at college media conferences around the country, including meetings of the Illinois College Press Association and the Illinois Community College Press Association.

•   The book makes a great newsroom reference manual when legal questions arise.
•   The book is ideal as a supplementary textbook in classes on writing and reporting.

Table of Contents
Chapter 1:  Libel
Chapter 2:  Invasion of Privacy
Chapter 3:  Infliction of Emotional Distress, Trespass, Eavesdropping
Chapter 4:  Illinois Open Meetings Act
Chapter 5:  Illinois Freedom of Information Act and Other Access Statutes
Chapter 6:  Reporters’ Privilege: Protection of News Sources
Chapter 7:  Media and the Courts
Chapter 8:  Copyright

---

Copy Editing for Professionals
by Edward J. Rooney and Oliver R. Witte of Loyola University, Chicago, 2000.

ISBN 0-87563-896-1

List Price $64.95

Copy Editing for Professionals by Ed Rooney and Oliver Witte has established itself as the leading copy-editing textbook and resource for student newspapers.  According to the editor of Copy Editor newsletter,

What a relief!  Several times a week I'm asked to name the best current textbook for copy editors, and now I have just the book to recommend!

The book is packed with uniquely useful approaches.  For example, the book expresses a philosophy of copy editing based on coaching techniques and teamwork.  The authors argue that the day of the gruff, authoritarian copy editor is gone.  The next generation of copy editors must have excellent coaching skills.  By understanding the principles of grammar and succinct writing, modern copy editors help their reporters become better writers – and that is the essence of teamwork.

The authors also emphasize how copy editors reason.  If you want to be a lawyer, you have to learn to think like a lawyer; if you want to be a copy editor, you must learn to think like a copy editor.  And that's how this textbook starts out – by showing how professional copy editors make decisions.  One early chapter applies the classic five-step problem solving process to copy editing.

Perhaps because of the author's reporting experience (which includes a Pulitzer Prize), this textbook makes a uniquely useful tool for reporters who want to use copy-editing  techniques to improve their own writing.  One chapter goes into detail about when NOT to change copy.  Two explanations are forbidden:  "It didn't sound good to me" and "I wouldn't have said it that way."  Students are specifically cautioned against a "Jack-the-Ripper" style of editing.

The book has the usual exercises and drills, but it takes them to a new level.  Each section is introduced with a sample exercise that walks the student through the answers using programmed instruction techniques.  The student is shown how to analyze the problem being presented and where to find the reference that justifies the edit.

One of the strengths of this textbook is its strict adherence to AP style.  You won't have to explain to your students why the authors don't practice what they preach.  You'll also like the way the book used humor, examples and games to make its points.  And lest any student think that language is cut and dried, one chapter specifically addresses some of the "sticky issues" of editing, using the Declaration of Independence as one example.

Want a copy?  Just contact Stipes.  Or check a partial posting of the table of contents to the book on <luc.edu/faculty/owitte/copyedit/1Content.pdf>

---

Writing News for the Print Media
by Frank Thayer of New Mexico State University, 1999.

ISBN 0-87563-869-4

List Price $19.95

An ideal manual for any basic news writing course!  According to one professor who regularly uses the book in his classes:

Writing news for the Print Media is a welcome change from anything that is now available…and I've been teaching basic news writing for 15 years.

This book includes a basic text section which features a varied set of grammar, punctuation and AP style exercises.  Following the section are hundreds of fact sheets for in-class story writing.  The fact sheets range from beginning, to intermediate to complex.  Each exercise and fact sheet is the product of more than a decade of classroom use!

Instructors manual available upon adoption.