It may not be possible to go to a café or a boîte right now for pie à la mode, but there is an alternative. You can take this month’s quiz and test your knowledge of accents and other diacritical marks.
With this month’s workout, you get another chance to test your knowledge of Chicago style versus AP. Whether you know both styles or only one of them, a comparison is a good way to sharpen your skills.
Switching to italics for the occasional word or phrase borrowed from another language—and not listed in a standard English-language dictionary—can be helpful to readers.
Some editors spend most of their time following a single style. But many of us, especially if we freelance, are required to know more than one.
Its generic name is the serial (or series) comma, but a lot of people refer to it by a fancier name: Oxford comma.
Chicago style doesn’t require commas when “Jr.” or “Sr.” follows a name. Until just a few decades ago, however, commas were the norm.
The other day, I ran across this line in a recent novel by a best-selling American writer (key words are disguised): “His disposition warmed faster than did the gradually dawning day.”
The Chicago Manual of Style Q&A has been featuring answers to your questions for more than twenty years. During that time our searchable Q&A archive has grown to encompass a huge range of questions about Chicago style.
A few months ago in a conference session, a group of novelists digressed into good-natured complaints about being copyedited. One writer drew a lot of laughs saying, “I mean, I got A’s in English! I know where the freaking commas go!”
It’s time for another editing and proofreading quiz! Once again, we test your knowledge of some of the finer points of Chicago style.
