Best Foot Forward!

This workout focuses on paragraphs 15.70–75 in CMOS 18. Advanced editors might tackle the questions cold; learners can study that section of the Manual before answering the questions.

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Note: Style guides sometimes disagree. These questions are designed to test knowledge of The Chicago Manual of Style.

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

Chicago Style Workout 30: General Rules of Alphabetizing

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1. When a person, a place, and a thing have the same name, they are arranged in normal alphabetical order:

hoe, garden
Hoe, Robert
London, England
London, Jack

True

False

2. When multiple persons, places, or things are listed and share the same name, the names of the people may be listed together:

London (England)
London, Amy
London, Jack

True

False

3. Initials used in place of a given name come before a spelled-out name beginning with the same letter:

Oppenheimer, K. T.
Oppenheimer, Katharine S.

True

False

4. Acronyms, initialisms, and most abbreviations are alphabetized according to their spelled-out versions:

NOW (National Organization for Women)
NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
North Pole

True

False

5. An at sign (@), which normally can be treated like the letter a, may be ignored as part of a screen name.

True

False

6. Isolated entries beginning with numerals are alphabetized as though spelled out:

1984 (Orwell) [alphabetized as nineteen eighty-four]
125th Street [alphabetized as one hundred twenty-fifth street]
10 Downing Street [alphabetized as ten downing street]

True

False

7. If many numerals occur in an index, they may be listed together in numerical order at the beginning of the index (before the A entries).

True

False

8. When two or more similar headings with numerals occur together, they are ordered as though they were spelled out:

section 44 [alphabetized as section forty-four]
section 9 [alphabetized as section nine]
section 77 [alphabetized as section seventy-seven]

True

False

9. Introductory articles, prepositions, and conjunctions are disregarded in alphabetizing subentries, whether the subentries are run in or indented:

Churchill, Winston: as anti-Fascist, 369; on Curzon line, 348, 379; and de Gaulle, 544n4

True

False

10. It’s acceptable to use numerical order for subentries in certain entries, even if other entries in the same index (but not the same entry) are alphabetized.

True

False

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Photo: Brig. Gen Garret Harencak, 509th Bomb Wing Commander, using an elliptical machine. US Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Stephen Linch.

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