Alphabetizing ✳ In the Weeds of Editing ✳ Special Characters ✳ URLs ✳ You Could Look It Up ✳ Things That Freak Us Out
A style manual—even one as big as CMOS—can’t cover everything. If you encounter an oddball issue such as the ones we receive via the Q&A, try not to panic. Our hope is that you’ll navigate your way to the most relevant section of the Manual and extrapolate from what you read there. Look it up in the index, the tables of contents, or the online search box, and once you’ve read our advice and devised your own solution, make a note of it so you can do the same thing if the issue arises again in that document.
Q. In letter-by-letter alphabetization, is it correct to assume that articles, prepositions, and conjunctions are not alphabetized? E.g., would Albert the Great precede Albert of Saxony?
A. Every letter is taken into account in letter-by-letter alphabetizing. Please see the examples at CMOS 16.61. E.g.,
Q. As the editor of my workplace magazine, I have to alphabetize lists of donors and members. I can find no references to the following situation in the Manual: a man and woman donate as a couple (and thus will be included as one entry on the list) but have different last names. This seems to be an etiquette question, but exploring those references has not helped either. Should the names be alphabetized by whichever partner’s name is listed first on the form submitted by the donors or by the man’s last name? Please share your insight.
A. By the man’s last name? That would be one way to do it. (How eager are you for the women who wrote the checks to donate again?) But it would be more politic to follow the order listed on the form.
Q. I have a disagreement with a coworker about how to alphabetize street names with foreign words in them. I live in San Diego, so there are a lot of Spanish street names. I, for example, would file Via Hacienda under V. She argues that because Via means “Street,” it should be under H instead. She reasons that if it were House Street, we would file it under H. My argument is that since we are not speaking Spanish, we should follow standard English alphabetizing rules.
A. You are right; there could be any number of foreign-language terms among the street names in San Diego, and unless all readers knew all the languages, the list would be useless. You can see that the city government of San Francisco puts Via Bufano under V in its street guide (https://data.sfgov.org/, under Geographic Locations and Boundaries: Street Names). Another solution is to list such names in both locations, or to put in blind entries:
Via Hacienda. See Hacienda, Via
or
Hacienda, Via. See Via Hacienda
Q. I have an author with (let’s say) the last name St. James and am having a hard time figuring out the correct form for her bibliography entry. Is it correct to alphabetize under St. James, Bertha? Or James, St. Bertha? HELP!!
A. Having the surname St. James doesn’t make one Saint James—or Saint Bertha; Bertha’s surname starts with S.
Q. Dear CMOS: In a business directory, each company’s page has a section for office locations. It just lists the place-names, not addresses. For example, the places where one company has offices are
My concern as a copyeditor is that the locations are a mix of states, cities, and business districts. Is it being persnickety to edit to
—Illinois
—Madison Avenue, New York City, New York
—Nevada
—San Diego, California
—Silicon Valley, California
—Wall Street, New York City, New York
My problem with the second list is that non-Americans wouldn’t know, and maybe wouldn’t care, what “level” of geography Illinois and Nevada are (the directory is to be marketed outside the country). I could list the states first and put the specific area in parentheses: California (Silicon Valley), but for an IT company, the important detail is Silicon Valley and not California. Thanks for your advice!
A. I agree with you that the list makes a copyeditor blink, but unless the main client base for this company is copyeditors, it’s probably best not to insult anyone’s intelligence with too much information. You might add “NYC” to the street names, if you think anyone will be puzzled.
Q. I enjoy reading the monthly Q&A. The answers often seem to tell the questioners to use some common sense, that there isn’t one right answer necessarily for every situation, and that comprehensibility trumps consistency and being a stickler. Certainly, though, there are times when there is a right answer. Do you have a philosophy or recommendations for how to distinguish those situations from the rest?
A. We’re working on an app for that; meanwhile, you’ll have to trust your judgment.
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. (Of course, you must be very, very certain that it’s actually a typo before you change it.) 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.
Q. We are editing a scientific book. We have to follow UK spelling. Per the dictionary, sulfur is the US spelling and sulphur is the UK spelling. But in one chapter the author has used sulfur and in another chapter sulphur. Since we are following UK spelling, can we change sulfur to sulphur? Or, per CMOS, since the IUPAC-recommended spelling is sulfur irrespective of UK or US spelling, can we change sulphur to sulfur?
A. Good grief. You can’t lose—just pick one.
Q. I’m currently editing a manuscript for a children’s fiction book that has been written in present tense. A few months back, when Americanizing another manuscript, I changed it from present tense to past tense. Although I have no citable rule to back up my decision, I feel as if these books should be written in past tense. Present tense just sounds odd for children’s fiction. Is this a paradigm that I should be willing to ignore, or is there an arguable reason that I have this tendency? I would appreciate any rationale you have to offer.
A. The choice of tense is so personal, and so critical to a fiction writer’s purpose, that it would be rash to restrict an entire genre like children’s books to a single tense. Many excellent children’s books have been written in the present tense. If you feel that the past tense would improve the book, however, rewrite a paragraph or two and send it to the author for discussion.
Q. How do you spell out the sound of a scream? I’ve seen everything from “aaagh!” to “argh!” to “aahhh!” Please tell me there’s a limit to the number of times one can repeat letters!
A. There is a limit to the number of times one can repeat letters! Unfortunately, the limit is different in almost every case.
Q. My copyeditor has changed “as described below” to “as described following” and has changed “as noted above” to “as noted before.” Is my usage correct, or at least acceptable? I have never seen the usage the copyeditor has suggested. Is this usage becoming a trend, and what does CMOS think about it? Thank you.
A. Your usage is correct and acceptable; your editor’s changes are awkward and unidiomatic. Some overeager editors remove directions like above and below in the fear that once the text in question is typeset it might end up directly across on a facing page or at the top of a page overleaf, in which case the terms above and below will not be literally true. If your pointers refer to illustrations (whose positioning is beyond your control), such precautions are reasonable. Otherwise, it’s silly to think that readers don’t understand that above means “before” and below means “after.” One way to negotiate this might be to consider whether phrases like “as described below” or “as noted above” are truly needed. They suggest a writer who doesn’t trust his readers to keep reading or remember what they’ve read.
Q. I see the word that in constructions where clarity would not be diminished without it. An example in the Q&A was “He thinks that, if he asks for directions, his membership in the brotherhood of men will be revoked.” I consider “He thinks if he . . .” correct.
A. Both constructions are correct, but leaving out that can lead to confusion whenever the next noun can be mistaken for an object of the verb (I judged for thirty years the county fair pickling contest was rigged). It’s safer to include that. You can always reconsider if it is awkward for any reason.
Q. Is there a standard for replacing an expletive with special $%!# characters?
A. Although there isn’t a steady demand for masked expletives in scholarly prose, this is weirdly one of our frequently asked questions. (I have to wonder who is reading the Q&A—and what they are writing.) The symbols are fine for cartoons and e-mail messages, where you may arrange them in whatever order pleases you. In formal prose, however, we find that a 2-em dash makes a d——d fine replacement device.
Q. I wonder what your ruling is on using Latin-based (but non-Latin) characters as part of a person’s name. At my job, I am often required to write about Turkish Prime Minister Erdoğan. English publications usually write it as Erdogan, but this has the side effect of people pronouncing it “Er-do-gan” and looking foolish. I would argue we should write it Erdoğan, as this more closely reflects the name’s pronunciation (as well as its actual spelling), and the alphabet is still comprehensible to an English speaker. However, what is your take?
A. If your typesetters can set the correct letter, by all means use it. Although writers who quote you may type a plain g, not knowing how to reproduce the special character, there’s nothing you can do about that. Whenever it’s appropriate, help your readers out by providing the pronunciation in parentheses or in a note.
Q. I notice confusion in publications in regard to whether a space should precede and/or follow relation signs. My suspicion is that it is <10 km but p < .001.
A. That’s right: there is no space after a relation sign when it acts as a modifier (e.g., Results hold for all quantities <10 km), but there is space on both sides when it acts as a verb (e.g., Results hold for all quantities such that p < .001).
Q. In running text, is it necessary to include a website’s domain extension? “The video on YouTube.com showed a cat,” for example, looks incredibly stilted. The publication I’m working on is scholarly—but not intended specifically for grandmothers. Can I get rid of the “.com” if it’s clear that a website is being referred to?
A. Hey, there are grandmas who could tell you that you should be careful about shortening your references, because not all sites end in .com. If the exact site (like YouTube) can be located reliably in an online search, fine, but if you’re referring to a more commonly used name like Best Foods, there could be any number of websites with the same name that end in .net, .org, .biz, or other extension.
Q. In a story where the last text provides a URL, website, or e-mail address, should it not have a period at the end? I find sometimes clicking on the URL does not take one directly to the displayed location if a period follows.
A. Yes, you must put a period at the end of a sentence, even if the sentence ends with a URL (or e-mail address). If it’s essential that the link be clickable, make sure that the code that determines the hyperlink destination does not include the final period. (Most word-processing programs allow you to edit hyperlinks, even if they’ve been created automatically.) If you don’t have that option, then consider moving the URL so that it doesn’t fall at the end of a sentence or anywhere else that punctuation might be required.
Q. An online course I am building has many references to external websites. How should these be presented? I have been told to use both the name of the website and the URL but neither one should be hyperlinked. This sounds a little weird to me. Is there an official “right” way to do this?
A. There is no official right way to do this. Sometimes URLs are spelled out online because the material is meant to be printed out—perhaps by teachers, to hand out in class—and the readers won’t necessarily have access to the Internet while they’re reading. Sometimes URLs are spelled out because they serve as examples (such as at our website) and aren’t meant to be accessed. Try to find out the purpose of the material you’re working with. If it’s purely online content, then you might point out that using URLs instead of links is going to look amateurish.
Q. Have you established any rules for breaking web addresses at ends of lines? I would be inclined to break at the slash where possible, with no hyphen (keeping the address intact), but what about the “dots”? Example: eic.edu.gov.on.ca/html/dsbmaps.html (I’ve got another one that’s a line and a quarter long!).
A. In printed publications, we recommend breaking before a period and most other marks of punctuation—including a slash (but not a double slash; always break after “http://”). This helps make it clear that the URL has not come to an end. Never add a hyphen to break a URL. For more detailed information, including examples, see paragraph 14.12 in CMOS 16.
Q. Please help me! I am arguing with my publisher. I say that back seat is correct, and she says it’s backseat. Please tell me which is correct, and thank you.
A. A publisher and a writer who between them can’t find a dictionary? Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (11th ed.) says backseat.
Q. I don’t see anything in your online guide about how to cite art exhibition catalogs. I frequently need to cite them. Did I miss it in the guide? If not, would you consider adding it to your guide? It would be helpful. Thanks.
A. Exhibition catalogs are cited like books. Please see CMOS 14.250. You can find this in the index under both exhibitions and catalogs or by typing either of those words into the Search box. (We’re teaching how to fish today.)
Q. In the latest Q&A on your website, I noted that an answer contained the word lowercased. Is this really a verb or another example of a noun erroneously transformed into a verb? I cannot imagine that you would make such an error, but I have never heard that verb before!
A. Lowercase is a fine verb; you can look it up in a dictionary. And in any case, I don’t know any rule against making a noun into a verb. Writers and speakers of good English have been verbifying for a long time, and sometimes it works out well. I understand your resistance, though. I winced recently when I heard someone say, “Let’s see if we can solution that.”
Q. I wonder which you think is best: Key Lime pie, Key lime pie, or key lime pie?
A. I’m actually partial to pecan, but if you’re asking about spelling, consult a dictionary: Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate (11th ed.) prefers lowercasing, noting that Key is often capped.
Q. In two different writers’ group meetings, two writers told me that OK should be spelled okay. Both said it was because that’s what Chicago Manual of Style calls for, but I can’t find this in CMOS. My training (newspaper, mind you, so AP style) is to use first-listed spelling, and OK is first-listed in every dictionary I checked. Has Chicago ever specified okay, or are these ladies confusing their publishers’ house styles with that of CMOS?
A. CMOS doesn’t specify, but as it happens, the manual uses OK twice (at 2.66 and 7.48; 2.113 doesn’t count) and does not use okay at all. The Q&A uses both spellings. (You can learn all this by typing the words into the Search box at CMOS Online.) We follow Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate (11th ed.), which puts OK as the first spelling—but that does not mean it is preferred. Rather, okay is an equal variant (also standard). Your writer friends are misguided, in any case. It’s rarely wrong to use an accepted spelling. Consistency within a document can be assured by using a style sheet.
Q. On so many levels it seems true journalism is dead, but what required reporters to take out the English language with them? I refer to the constant phrasing similar to the following: “The defendant PLEADED not guilty at the arraignment.” Have these people never seen or heard the word “pled,” or did I miss a memo?
A. Sorry—you missed the memo. (You can also check usages like this in a good dictionary.)
Q. Why is it so hard to find things in CMOS?
A. It must be just one of those things. If only there were a search box, or an index . . .
Q. I am overwhelmed by the task of alphabetizing a list of book titles, as many of the titles have colons, commas, and in some cases, dashes separating the title and subtitle. It is all getting to be a bit much for me. Given the large number of titles I am working with, I would prefer to ignore all punctuation, but what to do in the following situation? Would I ignore the dash, the comma, and the colon and move on to the word following Band in the title? Believe it or not, these are actual examples: The Beatles—Rock Band; The Beatles, Rock Band; The Beatles: Rock Band; The Beatles Rock Band.
A. Normally the only punctuation marks that matter in alphabetizing are parentheses and commas, but in the case of titles with subtitles, it might make sense to promote the colon to primary importance. In that case, The Beatles: Rock Band would come first. After that, decide the order you like for other punctuation marks and note it in your style sheet. In titles, the dash and comma sometimes serve the same role as a colon (separating the title and subtitle), so you might put them next. Please note, too, that this issue does not fall into the category of stuff that is important to readers. However you order these nearly identical titles, they are all in one convenient location for the reader. It’s not worth your sanity to let it overwhelm you.
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. Oh, English-language gurus, is it ever proper to put a question mark and an exclamation mark at the end of a sentence in formal writing? This author is giving me a fit with some of her overkill emphases, and now there is this sentence that has both marks at the end. My everlasting gratitude for letting me know what I should tell this person.
A. In formal writing, we allow both marks only in the event that the author was being physically assaulted while writing. Otherwise, no.
Q. My joining your site was prompted by entry 8.40, “Centuries and Decades,” of your 14th edition. Your sample decades were 1800–1809 and 1910–19, and those examples make no sense to me. Decades must have ten years; decades can’t skip years; decades can span neither millennia nor centuries as you have them doing in your examples; e.g., 1800 is the last year of the 18th century, not the first year of the 19th century, and the second decade of the 20th century is 1911–20, not 1910–19. I don’t want to get off on the wrong foot, but isn’t precision an essential ingredient in all writing before style considerations? Also, should writing style be based on popular culture rather than logic? I’m troubled by this entry in your manual and I’d appreciate your letting me know how you justify it.
A. Welcome to CMOS 16 (and the twenty-first century)! As any linguist will confirm, in both grammar and style matters, convention often outweighs logic, and there is little to be done about it. If you decide to start a campaign to impose logic on the designation of decades and millennia, we wish you well. In the meantime, you’ll be happy to know that both the 15th and 16th editions of CMOS acknowledge your system: “Note also that some consider the first decade of, for example, the twenty-first century to consist of the years 2001–10; the second, 2011–20; and so on. Chicago defers to the preference of its authors in this matter” (9.37 and 9.34, respectively).
Q. I am writing a novel. How do I write a title of a song in the body of the work (caps, bold, underline, italics, etc.)? Example: The Zombies’ “She’s Not There” looped in his head.
A. Noooo! Now that song is looping in my head (“but it’s too late to say you’re sorry . . .”). Use quotation marks. Thanks a lot.
Q. Contracts often employ defined terms in quotes and parentheses, e.g., ABC Corp. (the “Seller”) shall sell ten widgets to XYZ Corp. (the “Buyer”). When drafting such a contract, I always put a period after the close parenthesis if it is the end of the sentence, such as in the above example. But it’s like listening to nails on a chalkboard to me to have a period essentially (ignoring the parenthetical) follow the period employed in an abbreviation. What do you recommend?
A. Yoga?
Q. How do you recover from a real proofreading blooper—the kind that has everyone in gales and is terribly embarrassing?
A. Naturally, we have very little experience with this. Is there absolutely no way to blame it on someone else? If not, you probably should keep a low profile until it blows over. Lucky for you, proofreaders automatically have a fairly low profile.
Q. My library shelves are full. I need to make some difficult decisions to make space for new arrivals. Is there any reason to keep my CMOS 14th and 15th editions?
A. What a question. If you had more children, would you give away your firstborn? Find a board and build another shelf.