Q. I’m in search of a good solid reference work for style in books in the sciences. Thanks.
A. We recommend Scientific Style and Format: The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers, 7th ed., compiled by the Style Manual Committee of the Council of Science Editors (Reston, VA: Council of Science Editors
in cooperation with the Rockefeller University Press, 2006).
Q. When submitting a pitch package (my first novel, copyrighted) to a literary agent (query letter/synopsis/first three chapters)
I have heard that it is bad manners or insulting to use the copyright symbol. Why? Is it true? Is there correct behavior?
A. Your work is protected by law from plagiarism regardless of whether you copyright it, and professional writers know this.
They also know that reputable publishers wouldn’t dream of ripping off their work—it’s
a bit insulting to suggest that you fear this. So your use of the copyright symbol will not impress an editor favorably. Good
luck with your pitch.
Q. A styling trend lately that is keeping me up at night is a failure to identify new paragraphs by either a line break or an
indent.
This new line of text, for example, is the sort of thing I mean. Is this a new paragraph or not? How can one tell? Does it
matter?
I first spotted this ambiguous formatting in ad copy (which at the time I presumed to be bulleted points without the bullets),
and then in corporate communications. But tragically, yesterday I read a review on the back of a novel that did the same thing:
a new line for every sentence without letting me know if it was a new paragraph or not.
I’m already annoyed by the look of this e-mail! Please help!
A. I suspect that this style began to appear unintentionally as a result of inept word processing and has by now become a fad.
A styled paragraph indent (instead of a typed tab) can get lost when the electronic file is converted to another application
on its way to typesetting. In some display contexts (like book jackets) it might succeed as a hip design tactic, but in text
it’s difficult to read. Although I’m not sure the trend qualifies as “tragic,”
it’s certainly unhelpful to those of us who need our sleep.
Q. I’m compiling footnotes for a history book, and in several instances a newspaper is cited. Is it proper
to list the city of origin in parentheses and italics for each newspaper? The paper is located in Virginia, Minnesota. The
name of the paper is Mesabi Daily News. The author of the book is listing this newspaper in the footnotes as (Virginia) Mesabi Daily News. Should all the words be in italics, or just the name of the paper and not the city? Thanks for your help.
A. CMOS 17.195 says, “A city name, even if not part of the name of an American newspaper, should be added,
italicized along with the official title.”
Chicago Tribune
Hackensack (NJ) Record
Ottawa (IL) Daily Times
Saint Paul (Alberta or AB) Journal
Based on the examples, your newspaper would be the Virginia (MN) Mesabi Daily News. (Eliminate the state abbreviation when the city is well known.)
Q. In the references section of a paper I’m editing, I found a misspelled word. I checked the original
journal and found that it was published with this mistake. Should I correct the typo or leave it as is? My colleague says
the typo should stay because this is how it appeared in print originally. Thanks a lot!
A. You may correct the typo. If an error has important implications that you want to point out, you can reproduce the error
and write [sic] after it, but it’s not nice to do this just to point out that someone made a mistake. (Of course,
you must be very, very certain that it’s actually a typo before you change it.)
Q. Where should illustrations and the lines of text that refer to them be placed with respect to one another? Should the illustration
be allowed to interrupt the text, say with the last line of text aligned with the bottom of the illustration and saying “as
in the figure to the right”? Or should the illustration always go below an unbroken paragraph?
A. In a manuscript prepared for publication, figure callouts should go between paragraphs so the typesetter will see them. The
typesetter will place the figure; rarely will it fall neatly between paragraphs. Look at any illustrated book and you’ll
see that if paragraphs weren’t allowed to be broken, there would be a lot of white space on pages with
figures. It’s unwise to use words like “above” or “to
the right” in your manuscript unless you are certain where the figure will end up in the typeset book.
Sometimes it’s best to number the figures and refer to them by number.
Q. As a trial attorney, I do many pleadings and briefs, which I think look better in “full justify”
(fj) alignment. This troubles my new secretary, who dislikes fj as too “rote and mechanical,”
and less reader-friendly. Though I highly value her opinion, am I being too hawkish on this?
A. Chicago doesn’t recommend full justification for typed documents (see CMOS 2.10). Short lines are stretched, creating awkward spaces between words, and full lines are squished. The result is difficult
to read. The remedy is hyphenation, but that has its own problems, and I would imagine that legal writers would want to avoid
confusion over spelling technicalities. Full justification is practical only when documents are typeset, since sophisticated
typesetting applications are able to adjust spacing in ways that more basic word processors cannot. It sounds as though your
new secretary knows what she’s doing.
Q. I recently began working as a reporter and copy editor at a small weekly newspaper. My editor tells me to correct grammar
and style errors in letters to the editor. This seems strange to me. I think those errors characterize the persons writing
them and we should leave them as is. Who is right?
A. It’s a kindness to save a writer from being characterized as sloppy or ignorant when a letter appears
in print under his or her name. Your inclination not to meddle is well founded, however, since insensitive editing can also
embarrass the writer. It’s best to be conservative with changes. Many newspapers and magazines print
a notice that letters have been edited.
Q. Can you tell me the indentation for typing endnotes?
A. In Chicago style, we type them the same way we type the rest of the manuscript, double-spaced, with a half-inch indent for
the first line.
Q. The paper I am editing has five tables in the main body (which I am numbering 1 to 5) and one table in appendix 3. How should
the table in the appendix be numbered?
A. You could call it table A.1 or A1, or you might consider leaving it unnumbered.
Chicago Style Q&A: New Questions and Answers
