Q. Does your manual include the standard format for business letters? That is, alignment on page, where date and address appear,
spacing, signature line, etc. I’m having trouble locating the format that is used in the industry today.
Thanks.
A. Manuals that are specifically devoted to business writing can cover such topics much more thoroughly than CMOS. You might check the reference section of your local bookstore or library for books on business writing or business etiquette.
The latest edition of The Gregg Reference Manual is a good resource to consult first.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Are there any books that assist in web content (APA style)?
Q. Somewhere I picked up the “fact” that the numbering system used in the Chicago Manual of Style was modeled after that of Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Is this “fact” a fact or have I slipped a cog? Is it mentioned in the CMOS?
A. Holy metaphysics—we aren’t that fancy. CMOS simply numbers each paragraph, starting over in each chapter; section 7.88 is the eighty-eighth paragraph of chapter 7. Wittgenstein’s
system provides a complex nesting of his statements about his seven propositions. In the Tractatus, proposition 6 is elaborated in section 6.1, which is further elaborated in 6.11, and even further in 6.111. Thus you can
read across levels for surface understanding, or down into them for greater detail.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Dear CMOS Editors, I once had an editing professor tell me, “Read through your style guides a few times. You
won’t remember every rule that’s in there, but hopefully when you see something
peculiar, a bell will go off in your head and you can look it up.” Her advice has worked like a charm
with the AP guide (a mere 400 pages). Problem is, CMOS is a pretty hefty manual to read through a few times start to finish! Can you SuperEditors offer a little advice on memorizing
CMOS enough to get those little bells to go off in my head?
A. Sadly, no. Even we are capable of completely forgetting whole sections of CMOS at a time. And I’m sure few of us have read at full brainpower the chapters on mathematics and illustrations
and tables rather than dip in when we need to know something specific. It’s simply not efficient to
memorize CMOS when so much of it is needed infrequently, especially now that we can search it electronically. Your professor’s
advice was excellent. Every time I browse through CMOS I see things that didn’t register on previous readings, and I’m fairly certain
that increasing numbers of bells clang during editing.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Our department’s editorial manual includes a list of cities in the United States and other countries
that can be referred to in display type or running text without giving the state or country designation. This list has apparently
been in use for many years, but none of our current staff can be sure of its source! Does CMOS include an authoritative list of these cities?
A. We don’t have such a list; rather, we rely entirely on editorial judgment. Can Paris stand alone? Usually,
but not in an article about Paris, Texas. Can Rome stand alone? Usually. Chicago? Of course: nobody even knows for certain
what “Chicago” means, and few have been tempted to copy it. But your departmental
list is a great idea. Whereas we do not feel that our manual can speak definitively to the entire English-speaking world on
this issue, a single department or publication can gain efficiency by agreeing on specific guidelines.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Which manual of style is the oldest in the world? Is it The Chicago Manual of Style? I’m a Brazilian teacher, and I am doing a paper about style books.
A. The Chicago Manual of Style is not the oldest style manual in the world. In 1848, B. H. Smart’s Manual of rhetoric: with exercises for the improvement of style or diction, subjects for narratives, familiar letters, school
orations, &c.: being one of two sequels to “Grammar on its true basis” was published by Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans. Smart wrote manuals about elocution, logic, thesis writing, and grammar.
In 1892, William Minto’s Manual of English Prose Literature was published in Boston. The United States Government Printing Office has been publishing a manual since 1900 that is very
similar to Chicago’s: Manual of style governing composition and proof reading in the Government printing office, together with decisions of the
Board on geographic names. This information is based on a search of OCLC’s FirstSearch database and is probably the tip of the
iceberg, though this date-restricted search seems to indicate that the first truly broad style manuals aimed at publishers
began to be popular starting about 1900. The first Chicago “manual of style” was
published in 1906. It was called A Manual of Style and included type specimens.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]