Old House Chronicle
Philosophy and Guidelines
to Article Editing

The approach taken by Old House Chronicle's editorial staff to editing articles submitted for publication is to change them as little as possible. Our desire is to retain, to the greatest extent possible, the personality of the author as it is reflected in his or her writing style. However, keeping in mind that this is a professional publication, the editorial staff does need to ensure that each article meets certain criteria.

  1. Correct grammar. We strive to make our articles easy to understand, and since the usual grammatical conventions greatly facilitate reader comprehension, with readability in mind we may change the grammatical structure of some sentences.

  2. Clarity. Since many of our articles tell people how to do things, we must be particularly careful that there is little room for misunderstanding what is said. We may make some changes to be sure readers don't somehow inadvertantly miss a step or misread a direction.

  3. Continuity. We may add transitions or some subheadings to help articles flow better from one idea to another.

  4. Spelling and Punctuation. We think standard spelling and punctuation help readers understand our articles more easily than if we were haphazard about these things.

  5. Special Notations. Help us help our readers by making sure the trademark symbol (tm) is used whenever you mention protected products. And please try to give complete publishing information (including ISBN) for books mentioned so that readers can find copies of books mentioned in the library or bookstore.

  6. Slang. Slang and the common internet signs for body language (such as :) for humor) are not understood by everyone. On the other hand, there is sometimes jargon specific to a trade (such as "mud" for drywall compound) which should be used, but be sure to define the term. Some of our readers are experienced fixer-uppers and some are not.

Once accepted, your article will be submitted to our editors, and they will make changes based upon these general guidelines and return your article for your review. It's really a very friendly process. We hope you'll consider joining us.

Peter O'Shea, Managing Editor

Jeff Levine, Associate Editor

Dan Patnode, Associate Editor

Kari Whittenberger-Keith, Associate Editor

Suzanne Halloran, Copy Editor

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