Go for the sweep!

It’s time for another editing and proofreading quiz!

Once again, we test your knowledge of some of the finer points of Chicago style. Each question exemplifies (or restates) a rule or recommendation in The Chicago Manual of Style.

Does the example break the rule, or does it follow it? Take the quiz to find out.

Note that we are looking for answers that reflect Chicago style. In some cases, an incorrect answer would be considered correct according to another style (such as AP or MLA). See the disclaimer below.

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

Note: Style guides and dictionaries sometimes disagree. This quiz is designed to test your knowledge of The Chicago Manual of Style.

[Editor’s note: This quiz relies on and links to the 17th edition of CMOS.]

Chicago Style Workout 37: Editing and Proofreading Quiz No. 3

1. Game of Thrones’s first and last seasons bookend what some are calling a decade of disruption and controversy.

The possessive form (’s) is correct.

It should just be an apostrophe.

2. He’s Your Dog, Charlie Brown, first aired in 1968, on the CBS television network.

The comma at the end of the title is correct.

There should be no comma at the end of the title.

3. In the author’s fictional universe there is no selling and no buying: barter is the only acceptable mode of transaction.

Lowercase after the colon is correct here.

The word “barter” should be capitalized.

4. She double-majored in economics and computer science.

The hyphen in “double-majored” is correct.

The hyphen is contrary to Chicago style.

5. We were hoping the finale might offer some cool genre-bending twist; or at least some insights into the real world.

The semicolon is correct.

The semicolon is contrary to Chicago style.

6. Joan Crawford (190?–1977) was the subject of a tell-all memoir by her daughter Christina.

The question mark is ambiguous.

The question mark correctly indicates an unknown year from 1900 to 1909.

7. In the Hawaiian language, the name of the island from which the state gets its name is Hawai’i.

The apostrophe in “Hawai’i” is correct.

It should be a left single quotation mark.

8. For a direct quotation, it’s acceptable to translate a French translation of an English text back into English, because French is relatively close to English.

True.

False.

9. Victor Hugo’s novel Les Misérables has been translated into many languages.

The title should have a lowercase m: Les misérables.

The capital M is correct because Misérables is a proper noun in French.

The title can be correctly rendered as either Les misérables or Les Misérables.

10. When directly quoting from a source that uses en dashes or hyphens instead of em dashes, leave the hyphens or en dashes as is.

Correct.

They may be changed to em dashes.

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Cosette Sweeping, by Émile Bayard, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

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