Today, This Blog Is Just (Turabian) Stylin'

This blogger had decided earlier to choose an item to post that had nothing whatsoever to do with the AssHat-in-Chief's insane rants against North Korea and its leader. But then, the AssHat attacked the NFL, NBA, and African American citizens/players in both leagues. However, this blogger has assuaged his anger and outrage enough to turn to today's essay in a review of The Chicago Manual Of Style, 17^th Edition (2017) by The University of Chicago Press Editorial Staff. Tis manual was the guide for this blogger in both his undergraduate and graduate studies. However, the blogger used a drivative of the manual: Kate L. Turabian's Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (1955, 2007) which is its 8^th edition. Laura Larimore Turabian (1893-1987) was a Chicago secretary who — after marriage to Stephen Turabian — began working at the University of Chicago as a departmental secretary. She moved to the Graduate School and served as the dissertations secretary to ensure that all theses and dissertations written by University of Chicago graduate students conformed to what became the Chicago Manual of Style. Turabian was known to the students as "The Czarina" even though she was not Russian for her close reading of all manuscripts submitted in partial fulfillment of graduate degrees at the university. Those who wonder at the pickiness of this blogger in matters of writing can blame it all on Kate L. Turabian. If this is a (Fair & balanced) defense of academic integrity, so be it.

[x Washington Fishwrap]
Who Cares About Hyphens, Commas And Capital Letters? (You Should)
By Scott Huler


TagCrowd cloud of the following piece of writing

adopt ap authority better book capital changes chicago commas copy earth ecclesiastes edition editors express final foundation god guide help house hyphen includes learn letters lowercase making manual mark matters names omit press publication publishers punctuation quotation reason remain remind rules section style takes tells think university words work writing

created at TagCrowd.com

“Of making many books there is no end,” we learn in Ecclesiastes, and in the Chicago Manual of Style, we learn that if you begin that quotation with a drop cap, you’ll probably omit the opening quotation mark.

That self-deprecating quotation moves around, but in edition after edition of the Chicago Manual of Style, the ancient wisdom of Ecclesiastes remains. Chicago is like Dr. Who: it periodically assumes a new form yet retains its essence.

For those of us for whom the making of many books is a lifetime job, a new edition of Chicago — this is the 17^th — represents a feast day, a celebration. The first edition came out in 1906 when the University of Chicago Press decided that its Manual of Style ought to make the leap from pamphlet to book. In its earliest editions, Chicago focused almost entirely on matters of style, punctuation and typography, though starting with its 15^th edition, Chicago finally joined the fray and included sections on grammar and usage.

But don’t think of style in the E.B. White sense. Chicago does not weigh in on omitting needless words. It has, though, a great deal to say on the order and punctuation and capitalization of the words you use. Think, that is, about what publishers call house style. Chicago addresses whether to use a colon after “namely” (nope) or “as follows” (yep), about how to set off a phrase in apposition to a noun (commas, and there had better be two), about how to alphabetize names with “Saint” in an index.

Each publication or publishing house has a style regarding such matters, and its editors rely on one guide or another as its foundation. Chicago has become so widely adopted that it functions as the foundation for virtually all book publishers and a good many magazine publishers. Newspapers tend to adopt the Associated Press Stylebook. Chicago and AP supporters get along no better than any other rivals in these divided times; they don’t even agree on whether the feuding parties are copyeditors (Chicago) or copy editors (AP), to say nothing of the serial comma, which is something of a holy war (Chicago says yes; AP says no).

Copy editors, as the final bulwark between errant writing and defenseless readers, do God’s work here on earth. For instance, Chicago Section 8.91 tells us that God takes the capital G; per 8.140, earth takes lowercase “e” (though if you’re naming planets’ proper names, it’s Earth and Mars; sun and moon take lowercase). As I said, God’s work here on earth. Section 8.109 is entitled “Heaven, hell, and so on,” which tells you all you need to know.

Each new edition of Chicago includes some changes. The 17^th recommends “email” without a hyphen (copy editors at a convention actually cheered when they learned this) and “internet” without a capital I. It even — mildly, haltingly — now approves of singular “they,” at least in informal writing or when a writer thinks they should avoid gendered pronouns.

But Chicago concerns itself foremost with more formal language. It is a university press style guide, and it has university press rectitude in its DNA. Its ownership is a mark of honor. In the movie “Roxanne,” Steve Martin displays a copy on his desk as he writes those love letters to suggest the level of erudition we can expect from his character.

In an era when all rules seem to be forgotten, Chicago reemerges to remind us: There are ways to express yourself responsibly. Are you trying to express ideas so that others can understand them? Certain rules and principles help you do so; here they are.

Chicago is the rule of reason made flesh. It is belief in sensible authority and reasonable application thereof. After all, each house adapts rules to its own purposes; Chicago propounds rules with a soft authority, a gentle firmness. Even its publication as an actual book — of more than 1,000 pages — reminds us that everything is changing, but some truths remain steadfast, and they should be not merely online but at your fingertips.

As for what to do about people resolutely resisting those rules? For help on that, you will have to return to Ecclesiastes. # # #

[Scott Huler has written seven books of nonfiction. See those books here. Huler is a senior writer at Duke Magazine. He received a BA, Phi Beta Kappa (English literature) From Washington University in St. Louis (MO).]

Copyright © 2017 The Washington Post




This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License..

Copyright © 2017 Sapper's (Fair & Balanced) Rants & Raves