Category Archives: style guide

The 16th Edition Is Here! The 16th Edition Is Here!

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When the new edition of The Chicago Manual of Style arrived in the mail recently, my reaction was akin to Navin Johnson’s in The Jerk when the new phone book arrives (hence the title of this post). Upon seeing the soothing baby blue cover, the first words out of my mouth were “It’s beautiful.” After a quick flip through, my next words were “This is as overwhelming as it is exciting.”

As any editor can attest, the release of a new version of your style guide of choice brings mixed emotions: On the one hand, you’re happy to get an updated manual, which often elaborates upon or resolves issues that have been plaguing the previous edition for years. On the other hand, there’s a lot to learn, particularly in a tome the size of the Chicago Manual, not to mention a price tag ($65 in this case, if you didn’t take advantage of one of the special offers beforehand).

Fortunately, Chicago has provided an overview of what’s new in this edition, which reflects “editorial style and publishing practices in the digital age.” Given how much of editing has moved away from paper, I was happy to see proofreading guidelines for web-based documents and an electronic-editing checklist among the new additions. There’s also a “new and improved hyphenation guide,” presented in a table. Make sure to check out the significant rule changes (e.g., “Web site” is now ”website”!), but don’t worry: ”the fundamental principles of ‘Chicago style’ remain the same.” It appears most changes were made with simplicity or popular usage in mind.

Chicago’s very own “subversive copy editor,” Carol Fisher Saller, has kindly posted tips for learning the sixteenth edition on her blog. She also conducted an insightful interview with the Manual‘s principal reviser, Russell David Harper, the second installment of a two-part behind-the-scenes look at the revision process.

I thank Chicago for trying to make the transition easy for us editors, but I plan to hold on to my fifteenth edition, at least for now. Speaking of earlier editions, in honor of this latest release, Chicago is making the first edition of the manual, published in 1906, available as their free e-book for September (a new e-book is offered every month through their Digital Editions program) and as a downloadable pdf. A quick perusal of its contents will turn any anxiety you feel about the sixteenth edition into gratitude.

Readers Respond

In the tradition of year-end roundups, I’m using the last post of 2009 to summarize the results of my recent poll asking readers which post topics are your favorites. With sixteen of the forty-nine total votes, “word usage” won out. I wasn’t too surprised, considering the most popular post written this year was about “a while” and “awhile.”

As The Chicago Manual of Style says, “the great mass of linguistic issues that writers and editors wrestle with don’t really concern grammar at all – they concern usage: the collective habits of a language’s native speakers.” (The Big Offenders series focuses on common – and controversial – usage issues, but there are more posts on this topic under the label “word usage.”)

Although “grammar” refers to the structure of language, it’s often used as a catchall to include related subjects, such as usage, punctuation, and spelling; therefore, it makes sense this topic would take second place with eleven votes. Coming in next are the profession-related posts, which appeal to a subset of readers: “style” ranked third with eight votes, and close behind, “copy editing” and “writing” tied for last place with seven votes each.

Thanks to those who voted – I’m looking forward to writing about all of these topics in the New Year!

Happy Birthday, Strunk and White!

The Elements of Style, by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White, is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary of publication today—there’s even a commemorative edition available. (I’ve written before about where you can find Strunk’s original version for free. Personally, I’d like to have the illustrated edition!) It’s one of the editing resources I recommend to the left, if only for its small size—at eighty-five pages, it’s not quite as intimidating as some of the other style guides out there.

There are differing opinions about whether the book is still relevant today, but I’m not going to get into that here; I’m trying to keep this post clear and concise, per their classic advice. If you’d like to read more about the book’s history, including letters between White and his editor at Macmillan, Jack Case, here’s a great article from NPR. (Thanks to Julie for sending me the link.)