Best Foot Forward!
This month’s workout, “Abbreviation of Names and Titles,” centers on CMOS 17, paragraphs 10.11–27. Advanced editors might tackle the questions cold; learners can study paragraphs 10.11–27 of the Manual before answering.
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Notes:
- These questions are designed to test knowledge of The Chicago Manual of Style, which prefers Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. Other style guides may follow a different dictionary.
- Although this workout is based on the 17th edition of the Manual, the styles covered in this quiz either are the same as in the 16th edition or were not previously addressed.
Chicago Style Workout 20: Plurals (CMOS 10.11–27)
Photo: George Arents Collection, New York Public Library, Exercises for Men: Falling Astride, New York Public Library Digital Collections, accessed October 24, 2017, http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/5e66b3e9-1d41-d471-e040-e00a180654d7.
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Number 8, “Spelled-out terms are lowercase unless they designate the proper name of an organization {CNM; certified nurse midwife} {JP; justice of the peace} {FAIA; fellow of the American Institute of Architects},” is too specific to be correct. Had it been, “Spelled-out terms are lowercase unless they designate a proper noun,” I would not have thought twice about marking the bubble next to “True.” But I work for a government agency, and many of the abbreviations we use are for government programs {CHIP; Children’s Health Insurance Program}, not organizations. Those programs should also be capitalized when spelled out, as should any proper noun.
We see your point, BP. The title of section 10.22 (Abbreviations for professional, religious, and other designations) contains context that we took for granted in drafting the question. In future we’ll take more care to consider whether essential context is missing from a question. Meanwhile, you can add 10 percent to your score!
I think your computer is having math problems. I missed 2 out of 10 problems, which should be 80 percent, but the computer gave me a 70 percent!
Oh, dear! That’s no fair. We think we uncovered the problem and fixed it. Would you like to try again and see what happens?