Chicago Style Workout 5:
How to Proofread

/ May 24, 2016

An illustration of an abdominal exercise

Let’s build some editorial muscle!

This workout centers on paragraphs 2.115–23 in CMOS 18. Advanced editors might tackle the questions cold; learners can study that section of the Manual before answering the questions.

Remember: The workouts are all about Chicago! If you’re an expert in MLA, AP, or New York Times style, you might be surprised to find that your instincts don’t quite match Chicago’s. That doesn’t mean your answer is necessarily “wrong”—it just means it isn’t Chicago style.

(Subscribers to The Chicago Manual of Style Online may click through to the linked sections of the Manual. We also offer a 30-day free trial of CMOS Online.)

Now updated to refer and link to the 18th edition.

Chicago Style Workout 5: How to Proofread

1. In proofreading parlance, copy refers to the edited manuscript.
2. Whether type has been set from electronic files or from paper, the proofreader must mark only the proofs, never the manuscript.
3. In a work that will be published in print, no more than three succeeding lines should end in a hyphen.
4. In a work that will be published in print, all full pages of text must align at the bottom.
5. For a systematic error—such as issues with font or special characters—it may be preferable to indicate a single, or “global,” instruction for making the change.
6. A change to the spelling of a particular term should never be indicated globally; instead, each change must be marked throughout the proofs.
7. Normally, where an illustration or a table occupies a full page, no running head or page number should appear.
8. A page may end with the first line of a new paragraph (an “orphan”).
9. A page may begin with the last line of a paragraph (a “widow”) if the line is full measure.
10. The last word in any paragraph should not be broken—that is, hyphenated, with the last part of the word beginning a new line.

 

Photo: Abdominaux, Sancho McCann, licensed under CC BY 2.0.

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