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Northwest Independent Editors Guild Meeting, March 14, 2011Topic: Whip-smart copy editor Jesse Vernon of The Stranger (jvernon@thestranger.com) gave us a friendly introduction to some of the many changes in The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition, and pointed us to helpful resources that would further our knowledge. Meeting host/organizer: Board member Carrie Wicks Jesse first gave a brief history of The Chicago Manual of Style. It began in 1891 as a style sheet written by compositors at the U of Chicago Press, who had to decipher professors’ handwritten manuscripts. The first edition of the Manual of Style: Being a compilation of the typographical rules in force at the University of Chicago Press, to which are appended specimens of type in use was published in 1906. Fast forward. CMoS 16 was issued last August, in tandem with CMoS Online, of which Jesse is a big fan. She urged all to get the free 30-day trial: https://press-booksweb.uchicago.edu/CMS/FreeTrial.aspx Features of CMoS Online that Jesse particularly likes include ● the ability to search for keywords ● the ability to highlight/flag rules you refer to often ● style-sheet capability [Note: Through CMoS’s small-group discount program, the Guild is able to offer a discounted CMoS Online subscription ($29/year, as opposed to the $35/year price for individuals) to up to fifty of our members. As of 3.16.11, there are three discounted subscriptions left; if you’d like one, contact our administrator, Toddie Downs, at info@edsguild.org fairly promptly.] Jesse asked how many people didn’t have a copy/hadn’t seen CMoS 16 (the book). More than half of the audience members raised a hand. Much of Jesse’s presentation was based on the three-page list of “Significant Rule Changes in The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition” presented on the CMoS website, which she handed out to a lucky few; the rest of us can print it here: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/about16_rules.html Jesse recommended that we copy this list and highlight the items that trip us up, and keep that shorter list above our desks for a while. It’s a more manageable way to cope with the changes. Jesse mentioned that The Stranger’s blog, Slog, is sometimes copyedited. She then went over a list of the changes she had found most relevant in working at The Stranger: website - no longer Web site Cap the generic noun in phrases like “Lakes Union and Washington” and “Columbia and Willamette Rivers” [Jesse noted that this is a return to CMoS 14 style] In works following Chicago’s recommendation of using two-letter postal codes for states (MT, not Mont.), no more periods in the adjectives US, UK [still spell out “United States” as a noun] Jesse said The Stranger follows suit with similar constructions: LA, DC, etc. iPod, eBay, etc. - lowercase initial letter of such brand names even at beginning of sentence or heading [collective groan from audience] Hyphenated numbers in headlines: now cap the second word, i.e., “Twenty-Five” Ellipsis = three spaced periods preceded or followed by any other necessary mark of punctuation (including any period, which always precedes the three spaced periods). This is a simplification of CMoS 15’s three-dot vs. four-dot discussion. Put comma after titles ending with ! or ?, in series or
elsewhere when needed: The plural of a word in quotation marks takes the form “oh”s, whereas it used to be “oh’s.” All possessives of proper nouns ending in s are now formed the same way, regardless of how they are pronounced: Descartes’s dog (no longer Descartes’ dog) and Xerxes’s dog, just like Jones’s dog Color compounds now hyphenated as adjectives before (but still not after) a noun: blue-green lake CMoS 16 wants us to italicize titles of blogs, but Jesse noted that The Stranger disagrees, and just capitalizes them; will put the title of a specific post in quotation marks. For those who work with books containing citations, Chicago now recommends a uniform style for the main elements of citation in both its systems of citation—notes and bibliography (chapter 14) and author-date (chapter 15). Capitalization of titles and use of quotation marks and abbreviations is now consistent across the two systems. For the complete list of substantial changes (actually just three pages), see http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/about16_rules.html
Resources for Further Learning - compilation “Significant Rule Changes in The Chicago Manual of Style,
16th edition” CMoS Online free 30-day trial CMoS 16 “Grammar and Usage” section - Jesse recommended we take a few cozy nights on the sofa to curl up and read it, especially the “Glossary of Problematic Words and Phrases,” which she called “great” and said contained “all the things you never thought there’d be an answer for.” She also lauded CMoS 16’s expanded section on bias-free language and the return of the much-loved hyphenation table. Jesse’s article, “Hyphenate This,” in a September 2010
issue of The Stranger: Note: Those whose appetite has merely been whetted
may wish to check out the self-study program on CMoS 16 changes offered
through Editcetera by Amy Einsohn (author of The Copyeditor’s Handbook).
For $75, you receive a 22-page PDF of changes, podcasts totaling 45 minutes, and
access to a chat site where you can ask Amy any questions you have.
--notes submitted by Sherri Schultz, board member __________________ Meeting report: About 40 in attendance; enthusiastic Q&A after speaker’s talk. This was the first meeting at which we tried having a half hour of social time first, from 6:30 to 7 p.m. Big success: Much socializing took place, and a fair amount after the meeting as well. Room held 40 people pretty comfortably, in 4-5 rows of chairs (tables folded up). Munchies were contributed and appreciated: two bottles of cider, salmon/cream cheese on bread, sweet bars and gluten-free cookies. |
