Q. In the word-by-word alphabetizing example in CMOS 15.69, why are “New, Zoe” and “News, Networks, and the Arts” before “New Deal” and “news conference,” respectively? Thanks.
A. As explained there, in the text introducing a comparison of the two basic systems of alphabetization—letter by letter and word by word—a comma “interrupts” alphabetizing in both systems. This means that any words that follow a comma are ignored unless what comes before the comma is identical in two or more entries:
New, Arthur [alphabetized under “New”]
New, Zoe [also alphabetized under “New”; “Zoe” follows “Arthur”]
New Deal [alphabetized under “New Deal” (which follows “New”)]
news, lamentable [alphabetized under “news”]
News, Networks, and the Arts [also alphabetized under “News”; “Networks” follows “lamentable”]
news conference [alphabetized under “news conference” (which follows “news”)]
The order of the terms above would be the same in the letter-by-letter system. But in letter-by-letter order, a space between words is ignored. So, for example, “newborn” would come before the phrase “New Deal” in the letter-by-letter system (because “newb” comes before “New D”), whereas the opposite would be true in a list arranged word by word, in which alphabetizing stops after the first word in each entry (the word “New” comes before “newborn”). Note that Chicago now prefers the word-by-word system (as of the 18th edition; see CMOS 15.66).