My editing bookshelf and my CD-ROM rack contain these resources and others. Nobody expects you to have the equivalent of this collection when you begin work as a copyeditor, but you should work on building your resource library as you develop your editing knowledge, capability, and earning power.

English dictionaries — The Oxford English Dictionary (2nd), Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (11th), The American Heritage Dictionary (4th), The Oxford Canadian Dictionary, The Chambers Dictionary, The Random House Unabridged Dictionary (2nd), and Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged

Style guides — The New York Public Library Writer's Guide to Style and Usage, The Chicago Manual of Style (15th), The MLA Style Manual (current), The AP Stylebook and Libel Manual (current), and The Publication Manual of the APA (current)

Usage books — Bernstein's Miss Thistlebottom's Hobgoblins and The Careful Writer, Johnson's Handbook of Good English, Bremner's Words on Words, the Evanses' Dictionary of Contemporary American Usage, Garner's Dictionary of Modern American Usage and Modern American Usage, and Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage

English-grammar-reference books — The Canadian Writer's Handbook, The Random House Handbook, The Gregg Reference Manual, and Anne Stilman's Grammatically Correct

CD-ROM resources — AHD4, M-W11, The Microsoft Computer Dictionary (4th), and The MS Manual of Style (3rd). You should load CD resources onto your computer's hard drive for rapid access.

Background and basic-practice resources — Einsohn's The Copyeditor's Handbook, Judd's Copyediting: A Practical Guide, Rogers's Editorial Freelancing, Skillin and Gay's Words into Type, and Stainton's Author and Editor at Work. All of these include excellent advice about professional editing procedure and technique.

Indispensable are a good thesaurus, a good dictionary of quotations, and a good desk encyclopedia, all preferably on CD for loading onto a hard drive. Good resources in these categories can be found by using the Amazon search control at the bottom of this page.