Documentation
Q. I am editing a nonfiction trade book for an author who wants to use endnotes that begin with specific words in the text but that have no note numbers in the text. We are in rather strong disagreement about this. First, what do you call this style? Second, is this the new standard in trade publishing? Answer »
Q. What do you do about reproducing a table found in a work you are citing? Can it be used and cited the same way text can be? Answer »
Q. When I am citing a periodical in text that does not provide the page number, but does provide the volume and issue, is it necessary to cite the issue number (e.g., Hameed 2009, 3:1)? Or how should this be cited? Answer »
Q. Our (I believe overzealous) rights manager has decreed that when trademarked terms are used in running text in our fiction and nonfiction books, they must be written in all caps, since this is what the International Trademark Association recommends. I argue that Chicago allows trademarks (used only when a generic term cannot be substituted) to be initial-capped only. Answer »
Q. I am doing some developmental editing on a book about Elvis and East Tupelo, Mississippi. The author has gathered her information from a variety of sources, including firsthand interviews. Footnotes and a bibliography will not work with the format. How do we acknowledge sources such as websites or newspapers? Answer »
Q. Why do you continue to support the nonpossessive apostrophe, as in CD’s, MBA’s? It serves no function whatsoever. Answer »
Q. I need help on how it would be easier to make a bibliography easier. Answer »
Q. The first time an author is cited in text it would appear thus: (Brown 1999, 34). The way I have been citing this author thereafter is (Brown, 56). Is that okay, or must I always put the year in the citation? If there is an author who has two works, I assume the year must always be reproduced. And if an author is cited with others, e.g., (Brown 1999; Harris 2002), should the year be put in the next time I cite only Brown? Answer »
Q. I am preparing an author-date-style reference list for a forthcoming book by my professor. She would like to include a paper that I wrote for her class in the fall. How do I do this? I have no intention of publishing the paper in the near future. Answer »
Q. I have a question about citing journal articles that are in print but have only been accessed online, where the online version is a PDF identical to the print version. CMOS states that you need to cite the stable URL or the database you used. What is wrong with citing the page number of the print version as it appears on the PDF, if all things are identical? Answer »
Q. Is there text in CMOS that explains that placing a footnote number or symbol at the nearest point of punctuation—rather than at the precise point of reference—will not mislead the reader? I know I have seen such an explanation, but I cannot find it in CMOS 15th ed. If it no longer appears in CMOS, can you point me to a source? Answer »
Q. Please, please settle this question about questions for me! A colleague insists that the following construction does not require a question mark: “I had to consult an authority. What would The Chicago Manual of Style say.” Another example: “I got a new bike. How cool is that.” CMOS 15 indicates that a question mark is not required for indirect or courtesy questions, but a question, even if it is not being asked of someone in dialogue, is still a question. Who’s right? Answer »
Q. Dear CMS staff: We are editing a multiauthor scientific book. One of the authors is dedicating his chapter to someone. Generally, a dedication is part of prelims and belongs to the entire book. I could not find any style for this kind of case. Could you please suggest how to set this line? Answer »
Q. Are there any conventions yet for citing a text on Kindle? That is, because the type size is variable, there are no page numbers in a Kindle edition; instead, there is a running locator at the bottom of each screen. I’m wondering whether it would be permissible to cite these location numbers rather than look up my quotes in a hard copy of the text. Answer »
Q. How would I format an endnote citing a table published in an online census report? Is it necessary to include the table title, and would all of this go after the access date, or after the title and before the website? Answer »
Q. Dear Manual of Style : My friend and I are having a disagreement about whether or not “smoking gun” must be hyphenated when used as an adjective (i.e., smoking-gun evidence vs. smoking gun evidence). He believes that it is appropriate to hyphenate, citing rule 7.90 of CMOS 15. I believe that when the hyphen is unnecessary to help a reader differentiate a compound adjective from two adjacent adjectives that each independently modify the noun, it is unnecessary to hyphenate (e.g., chocolate chip cookie, high school teacher). Which one of us is correct? Answer »
Q. I recently mailed a flyer to my tour group and used the phrase “The Pavilion houses the museum’s collection of Japanese works dating from around 3000 b.c. to the twentieth century,” which I had copied from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art web page. After I clicked the Send button I realized the b.c. was in lowercase. Should I email a correction to the museum staff? Answer »
Q. When doing footnotes, do you put a footnote after every sentence, even if two or more consecutive sentences are from the same source and same page? Or can it be assumed that, regardless of the punctuation (as long as it is in the same paragraph), all that came after the last citation and before the footnote you just inserted is part of the same source and same page? Answer »
Q. Our students often use primary source documents, and now that there are many online archives, we have a wide variety of sources from which to choose. I am trying to create a style sheet for some of the more difficult citations, and I have discovered one that does not seem to fit cleanly into any example. The website is actually an HTML version of a periodical/journal article from 1924. The periodical is part of a special collection archive housed at a university archive. Do I cite it as a periodical and leave out the university archive connection? Do I cite it as a website and leave out the periodical/journal information? There does not seem to be an example that would let me include both the archive connection and the journal information. Answer »
Q. If one wished to refer to a particular published article a number of times in one’s own writing, how would one abbreviate the title, since titles can be lengthy? For example, I see an article: “To Dissect or Not: Student Choice-in-Dissection Laws Ensure the Freedom to Choose,” published in volume 37, number 2, of the April 2008 edition of Journal of Law & Education, from the University of South Carolina. How would one concisely refer to said title? Answer »
Q. I am assisting with the editing of a book. Several sources have been used, and the author would like to include others as suggested reading. For the sake of space, he would like to have just one bibliographic list. Is that acceptable? If so, should any type of notation be made indicating which books were actually used for research? Answer »
Q. If a book I am citing is in its second edition but was originally translated from German, do I combine all the editions in the bibliography, or do I list all three separately? Answer »
Q. In a self-published novel, do you need the permission of a certain company to mention a product name/brand or other trademarked title? Answer »
Q. I am editing a nonfiction manuscript of interviews with several fiction writers. The author uses ellipses (fairly often) to indicate a long pause in speech or thought. Is this a correct use of ellipses? How do you differentiate between long pauses and omissions of some lines within the transcribed conversation? Answer »
Q. I want to cite one of George Orwell’s books in my bibliography. Given that we are dealing with a pseudonym, does the citation go under “Orwell, George” or “Blair, Eric Arthur [George Orwell]”? Answer »
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