Section 6.119 in the Spotlight
Many quotations end with a period or comma:
“He’s gone.” She turned away.
“Indeed,” he said.
Others end with a question mark or exclamation point, in which case
Sections 5.212–15 in the Spotlight
Can you spy anything wrong with the following sentences?
Section 10.3 in the Spotlight
Frequently, writers to the “Chicago Style Q&A” express the belief that when an abbreviation is introduced in a document, it must be introduced once and once only (when the term first appears) and that thereafter the spelled-out term must never be used again.
Sections 2.116–29 in the Spotlight
Readers might well wonder what use people have today for handwritten proofreading marks, but in publishing, the marks are still widely used. Although writers and editors checking typeset pages sometimes use PDF markup tools, there are plenty of times when it’s faster and easier to mark with a pencil.
Section 7.85 in the Spotlight
How many times have you wavered over putting hyphens into an expression that combines numbers with some kind of measure? Is the child six-years-old or six years old?
Sections 5.112–13 in the Spotlight
“Oozing slowly across the floor, Marvin watched the salad dressing.” “I smelled the oysters coming down the stairs for dinner.” Most of us don’t have to worry about overlooking gaffes as obvious as these, but more subtle danglers—or misplaced modifiers—sometimes sneak by even the most careful
Sections 16.58–61 in the Spotlight
When putting items into alphabetical order, which comes first: Albert the Great or Albert of Saxony? HMD or H&N?
Section 6.38 in the Spotlight
CMOS receives regular queries from readers asking whether greetings like “Hi, Elsa” really need that comma. Especially in e-mail messages, we hear, it looks fussy. And it takes so long to type!
Section 13.7 in the Spotlight
A good rule of thumb is that changes to quotations are not permitted, period. So much is at stake when we present the words of someone else, whether spoken or written, and responsibility lies with the quoter to render what was said accurately and in a fair context. The actual wording of the quotation must be reproduced exactly. Yet CMOS 13.7 lists half a dozen things that are OK to change when quoting.
Sections 6.124–26 in the Spotlight
Many writers to The Chicago Manual of Style Online Q&A ask how to format lists, and two questions are especially popular: