A Broadcaster’s Book List

Compiled Jan. 19, 2005

BROADCAST NEWSWRITING

  • Writing News for Broadcast, 3d ed., by Edward Bliss, Jr., and James L. Hoyt (Columbia University Press, 1994).
  • Broadcast Newswriting: The RTNDA Reference Guide by Mervin Block (Bonus Books and Radio-Television News Directors Assn., 1994).
  • Rewriting Network News: WordWatching Tips from 345 TV and Radio Scripts by Mervin Block (Bonus Books, 1990).
  • Writing Broadcast News–Shorter, Sharper, Stronger, 2d ed., by Mervin Block (Bonus Books, 1997).
  • Writing News for TV and Radio: The Interactive CD and Handbook by Mervin Block and Joe Durso, Jr. (Bonus Books, 1998).*
  • Broadcast Journalism: Techniques of Radio & Television News, 6th ed., by Andrew Boyd, Peter Stewart and Ray Alexander (Focal Press, 2008)
  • Broadcast News Writing and Reporting, 2d ed., by Peter E. Mayeux (Waveland Press, Inc., 2000).
  • Broadcast News, 3d ed., by Mitchell Stephens (Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1993).
  • Beginning Broadcast Newswriting, 3d ed., by Tim Wulfemeyer (Iowa State University Press, 1993).

WRITING (General)

  • The Practical Stylist, 8th ed., by Sheridan Baker (Longman, l997).

  • The Suspended Sentence: A Guide For Writers by Roscoe C. Born (Iowa State Press, 1997).

  • The Associated Press Guide to News Writing, 3d ed., by René Cappon (Arco, 2000).* Sold by the AP as The Word.

  • The Use and Abuse of the English Language, 2d ed., by Robert Graves and Alan Hodge (Pub Group West, 1995).

  • The Golden Book on Writing by David Lambuth (Viking Press, l996).

  • Championship Writing by Paula LaRocque (Marion Street Press, 2000).

  • The Elements of Style, 4th ed., by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White (Pearson Higher Education, 2000).

  • Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity & Grace, 7th ed., by Joseph M. Williams (Longman, 2002).

  • On Writing Well, 5th ed., by William Zinsser (HarperCollins, 2001).

EDITING

  • Getting the Words Right: How to Rewrite, Edit & Revise by Theodore A. Rees Cheney (Writer’s Digest Books, 1990).

  • Line by Line: How to Edit Your Own Writing by Claire Kehrwald Cook (Houghton Mifflin, 1986).

GRAMMAR/USAGE

  • The American Heritage Book of English Usage (Houghton Mifflin, 1996).

  • The Careful Writer by Theodore M. Bernstein (Free Press, 1995).

  • The Language of News: A Journalist’s Pocket Reference by Jack Botts (Iowa State University Press, 1994).

  • Working with Words: A Concise Handbook for Media Writers and Editors, 5th ed., by Brian S. Brooks, James L. Pinson, and Jean Gaddy Wilson (St. Martin’s Press, 2002).

  • American Usage and Style: The Consensus by Roy Copperud (Van Nostrand Reinhold, l982).

  • The Random House Handbook by Frederick Crews (McGraw-Hill, l992).

  • Modern American Usage: A Guide by Wilson Follett
    (Hill & Wang, 1998).

  • Modern English Usage, 3d ed., by H.W. Fowler, edited by R. W. Burchfield (Oxford University Press, 2000).

  • Harper Dictionary of Contemporary Usage, 2d ed., by William and Mary Morris (HarperCollins, 1992).

  • Woe is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English by Patricia T. O’Conner (Riverhead Books, 1998).

  • Webster’s New World Guide to Current American Usage by Bernice Randall (Macmillan Reference Books, 1988).

  • Mrs. Bluezette’s Grammar Guide: Writing Tips for Broadcast News by Mona Scott (Newsblues.com, 2002).

STYLEBOOKS

  • The BBC News Styleguide by John Allen (http://www.bbctraining.com/styleguide.asp, 2003)

  • A Broadcast News Manual of Style, 2d ed., by R. H. MacDonald (Pearson Education, 2002).

  • Broadcast News Writing Stylebook , 2d ed., by Robert A. Papper (Allyn & Bacon, 2001).

  • Reuters Handbook for Journalists by Ian Macdowell (Butterworth-Heinemann, 1992).

  • The Associated Press Broadcast News Handbook, compiled and edited by James R. Hood and Brad Kalbfeld (The Associated Press, 2001).

  • The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law, edited by Norm Goldstein (The Associated Press, 2003).

  • The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage by Allan M. Siegal and William G. Connolly (Crown Publishing Group, 2002).

  • The UPI Stylebook, 3d ed. (Viking Penguin, l999).

REFERENCE

  • American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed. (Houghton Mifflin, 2000).

  • Dictionary of Concise Writing by Robert Hartwell Fiske (Marion Street Press, 2002).

  • Roget’s International Thesaurus, 6th ed. (HarperCollins, 2001).

  • Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, 2d ed. (Random House, 2001).

  • Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed. (Merriam-Webster, 2003).

  • Webster’s New World Dictionary, 4th college ed. (Simon and Schuster, 2003).

REPORTING/WRITING

  • Reporting for Radio by Chuck Crouse (Bonus Books and Radio-Television News Directors Assn., 1992).

  • Basic Media Writing, 11th ed., by Melvin Mencher (McGraw-Hill, 2008).

  • News Reporting and Writing, 9th ed., by Melvin Mencher (McGraw-Hill, 2002).

HISTORY

  • Now the News: The Story of Broadcast Journalism by Edward Bliss, Jr. (Columbia University Press, 1991).


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