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I have already done this at length, but I couldn't find the save button and I lost it.  I was feeling guilty enough though to come back and rewrite it,  because I want my fellow freelance writers to know about these few books.  This will be the condensed version.  My original review was a bit carried away.  The book everybody who grew up writing for print media needs to get to get digitalized for the current century is "The Yahoo Style Guide:  The Ultimate Sourcebook for Writing, Editing, and Creating Content for the Digital World."  It's got everything including some things I could criticize, and I know I will so I might as well leap in and start whining. 

It's a good reference book, and it doesn't have a bunch of b.s. you already know. I studied English for all four years of college as an honors student, and later became a high school English teacher, and I tell you I got a real education on things like punctuation marks, writing cleaner copy and getting rid of the deadwood, using their word list and adding to it--although I refuse to believe that Web site is "website."  I stand by the dictionary and the sources I have seen who write it "my" way.  I can agree with "email."   That's one less question I wonder about.

I really need to get to know this book because I have been writing for print for nearly all my life.  I have volunteered to edit a book for teens that my brother just finished because it was obvious that he didn't know the importance of having this big open, white spaces on the webpage and making navigation simple, etc.  Time to come into the modern age.  This is the book to do it. It covers everything you need to know. 

My criticism is that reading this book in print makes me dizzy and confuses me.  It's hard to concentrate when the editors and writers only seem to know how to write for digital publications and not print.  The damn book is constantly in the middle of explaining something or giving examples, when they start constantly trying to give you whiplash by suggesting that you now leave off where you are in the book in Chapter 3 and go up to Chapter 14 and look at something. So dutifully you go.  When you come back and try to start reading again, damned if they don't give you another goose in the very next sentence that demands you go look at something in Chapters 15, snf 16.  If the book were online, which it isn't, it would be nothing to click on those links and go look and come right back.  But in print it's just time to get out the Dramamine. 

The other thing I want to recommend for everyone who writes anything is that they get a free pdf file copy of this wonderful book I came across serendipitiously:  "The Principles of Readability," by William H. DuBay.  There is also a newsletter that he puts out on the subject that will floor you with statistics about how many people cannot read what you wrote because it's at too high of an index for readability according to the various utilities that test for it, or because a writer just violates the basic concepts of readability which are simple, plain  and clear.  For example, here are the "golden rules of documentation writing" that I never learned in all my years of studying English and specializing in writing: 1) Use short, simple, familiar words.  2) Avoid jargon.  3) Use culture- and gender-neutral language.  4) Use correct spelling, punctuation and grammar. 5) Use simple sentences, active voice, and present tense.  And it goes on for many pages that tear the gauze from your eyes and help you see what you need to do to write clearly.  To get this freebie that might help your writing take off the way you always hoped it would, go to the newsletter the author puts out, "Plain Language," at http://www.impact-information.com/impactinfo/newsletter/plwork46.htm.  You can download "The Principles of Readability" by going to the second box down on the right front of the newsletter which says "Readability." 

I hope this was helpful. 

Maryellen