As a writer or editor, how many times have you heard “The main thing is to be consistent”? When it comes to hyphenating, capitalizing, italicizing, and other style choices, the best way to carry through on consistency is to keep a style sheet.
Merriam-Webster.com defines “work-to-rule” as “the practice by workers of refusing to do any work that is not strictly required as a part of their jobs in order to protest something (such as unfair working conditions).” Well, that’s too harsh for my purposes. But it hints
CMOS: When it comes to word processing, CMOS users probably represent every level of expertise (or nonexpertise), but regardless of skill level, we all experience frustration at times when we don’t know how to accomplish a task on our computers. Often we do something the way we’ve always done it—the slow way—because it just seems too difficult or scary to try to automate it. Is there a cure?
There is a part of CMOS 7.75 that continues to trouble readers, probably because it is an exception to the general rule (stated at 6.9) that “periods and commas precede closing quotation marks, whether double or single.”
Those of us who use social media are used to seeing comments from sticklers who object to the slightest deviation from the grammar rules they learned. The following sentences would not likely pass their inspection. Can you tell why?
Writers and editors are used to keeping reference books close at hand or bookmarked online: dictionaries, search engines, style manuals. Even so, there are times we’re simply at a loss. How do you find a grammar or usage rule when you don’t know what it’s called or where to look it up?
“The full names of administrative bodies are capitalized. Adjectives derived from them are usually lowercased, as are many of the generic names for such bodies when used alone . . .
In writing and editing, consistency is assumed to be a good thing. . . . But at some level, consistency should cease to be a goal. First,
Mary Norris is a copy editor at the New Yorker, where she has worked since 1978. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, she attended Rutgers University, in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and earned a master’s in English from the University of Vermont. Her book Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen was published by W. W. Norton on April 6.
Copyeditors read copy before it is in final form in order to fix anything that’s wrong with its grammar, spelling, logic, structure, accuracy, consistency, or coherence. They make corrections, ask questions, and make suggestions. They might rewrite. They usually defer to a style guide (like . . .
