Customer Reviews

The Associated Press Guide To Internet Research And Reporting

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was extremely disappointed with this book. This book is aimed either at people who have never used a computer, or at first-graders. The fact that most first graders have already used computers and the Internet probably won't help matters.

Coming from the Associated Press (who publishes other worthwhile books), one would guess that this is a fairly detailed guidebook on how to cite online resources, use of the Internet in the modern reporting environment, and also key information on online copyright and publishing in the digital age. Not even close.

Instead, this book proceeds to explain what the Internet is. Then it delves into what the "www" means, why there's a "." or "dot" between that and what's known as a "domain". It continues in this vein for the entire book.

The chapters entitled "Searching the Web", "Spreadsheets" and "Databases" aren't focused on how these can be leveraged with online reporting, they're primers. "Searching the Web" explains the concept of a "search engine" and why and how anyone would use one (such as the concept of "keywords" and "search results"), and provides examples of valuable resources called "Google" and "AltaVista". The same for the Spreadsheet and Database chapters.

The only value this book has is that chapter one has an interesting summarization of the personal computer and internet industries in about six pages. It sheds absolutely no new light, but as a quick read, it can get you up to speed (browser wars explained in twenty-five words or less). Chapter 12, which deals with online copyright, also explains at a first-grade level what a copyright is, etc. There's about four interesting paragraphs on "fair use", and the rest is filler.

Bottom line - you're reading this online, so you have already mastered 10 out of the 12 chapters without ordering the book. The other two chapters can be skimmed in about 4 minutes, and mostly are common sense. Avoid.

This is not a remedial book or a dense, scholarly book. It's an in-between kind of practical book that offers a lot of useful examples that you can quickly skim.

The chapter on commas alone is worth the price of the book. I'm not exaggerating when I say that this chapter alone will change your professional life.

Here's why: Many of us learned in first or second grade that a comma is a pause. The teacher told us this because we were new to the written word and, while scrawling our first sentences in unsteady handwriting, we had to be reminded incessantly to apply a period, a space and then a capital letter. I volunteer in elementary schools, so it's fresh in my mind how much children struggle to remember those seemingly arbitrary details.

Then, after we get that down, the teacher throws a new form of punctuation at us, the comma. We recoil and freak out a bit. The teacher says, "The period is a full stop and the comma is a pause." We relax a little and begin to apply the new punctuation mark.

Unfortunately, that's the last time anyone tells most of us anything about commas. Consequently, as grownups who now write professional documents, we apply commas willy-nilly whenever the voice inside our own head hears what could be identified as a pause.

Nooooo!

Every comma has a reason for being. Commas are not subjective. They are not pauses.

This book will clarify that for you, primarily through examples. (Hooray! *Finally*, your ambivalence and errors can be put to rest.)

I create and give writing and critical-thinking workshops, including a few different kinds related to copy editing. I use this book with my top students.

Cappon is simply the best. Would love to see his book 'Guide to Newswriting' on Kindle this work is the essence of the craft.