Q. How do you globally change all the underlining in a manuscript to italic? On page 112 of The Subversive Copy Editor is a story of a colleague who did it all by hand. I am doing that now, but I’d love to know the quick
way . . .
A. In MS Word, use the Replace box (Ctrl+H). (1) In the Find box, hit Ctrl+U for Underline. (2) In the Replace box, hit Ctrl+U
for Underline, and then type it again to get No Underline, and then hit Ctrl+I for Italics. (3) Click Replace All. There are
many things you can search and replace: in the Replace box, click on More and then Special to see a list.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. How do you create a bibliographic entry for a visit to a museum?
A. Bibliographies normally list citations of published works. If you want to refer to a museum in your paper (or a pizza or
a tattoo or any of the other items that writers like to cite these days), just describe it in the text along with a place
and date (if you know them) and resist forcing the information into citation style.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. What is a callout?
A. A callout tells a typesetter where to place a figure. The callout itself is not meant to appear in type, so it has to be flagged somehow as a nonprinting instruction—for instance, <!Fig. 1 near here!>. You will find this in CMOS by typing “callout” into the Search box or looking under “callout” in the index.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I know that endnotes are indexed. But which page number is listed—the page where the callout occurs,
or the page where the actual endnote appears? If the latter, all subjects in endnotes on that page will have the same page
number . . . the endnote page. Is that correct?
A. That’s right. The idea of an index is to tell the reader where to locate the information. If you point
her to the page of the callout, she will find nothing there but a callout, and she won’t know the page
number of the corresponding endnote, so she’ll have to browse through the endnotes to find the right
one. It’s much more efficient (and kinder) to send her directly to the page where the note appears (along
with the note number, of course).
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. My company publishes curricula in the form of modules, which are stand-alone chapters, each with its own page number range.
These modules are compiled into perfect-bound volumes and then indexed. The question is how to best indicate that topic X
can be found in module 26207, page 4; module 26210, page 20; module 26213, page 4; etc., as clearly and concisely as possible.
Is there an alternative to repeating the module numbers and/or perhaps modifying the page numbers to make the index less clunky?
A. Do those numbers mean that there are actually more than 25,000 modules to date? I’m trying to imagine
why the numbers are so large. If that’s what you’re dealing with, then the clearest
method is to use all the numbers, however clunky. You could use a period instead of “page”
or “p.” (26207.4, 26210.20, 26213.4) as long as you explain what you’re
doing in a headnote or footnote.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I have translated a recent German-language publication and am almost ready to publish. In collaborating with the German author,
I have learned that she updated the original work to include one- and two-sentence passages that reflect current political
conditions. She wishes for me to incorporate into my translation these updates and other minor modifications. I can agree
to that, but how do I handle the matter of attribution?
A. A section titled “Translator’s Note” in the front or back
of the book could explain, much as you have here, that the author updated the work in places. Or the author could write her
own explanation, in either a footnote or a preface to the new translation.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I am editing a history of our university that is divided into thirteen chapters delineated by time frames. Three of the chapters
are divided into parts (not to be confused with subheads, which exist in all chapters), the idea being that they would be
too long as single chapters. How should these parts be treated within each chapter (if at all)? Should endnotes stream from
one part to the next or begin with 1 for each part? Or should the parts simply become new chapters? Or should we dissolve
the parts and accept very long chapters for those three cases?
A. In a book, “parts” are normally groups of chapters; it’s
unusual to divide chapters into “parts.” Parts of chapters (“sections”)
are normally set off with subheadings—what makes your “parts”
different from “sections”? Consider using subheads and sub-subheads for your long
chapters. Regardless, begin the notes at 1 for each chapter. As for chapter length, the content determines this. Writers and
editors use their judgment to decide whether the organization makes sense. If you are not able to do this yourself, you might
hire a developmental editor who specializes in this larger-picture kind of editing.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I’m copyediting Plato’s Republic and I’m wondering if I should put the dialogue in quotations or not.
A. Conventionally Plato’s dialogues are not put in quotation marks. If you are faced with copyediting
this great work with no knowledge of it, it’s essential that you find other versions of it to use as
prompts for your queries. There are many online editions; try typing “plato republic online”
into your search engine.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. How do you number the pages in the appendix when you have multiple appendixes? Do you continue the same numbering that you
have in the text, or do you use A-1, for example?
A. You can do it either way, but it’s not a good idea to put a hyphen in a page number, because when you
refer to ranges, it gets ugly: A-1–A-5? A-1–5? Periods work better: A.1–A.5.
If there’s any chance that the appendix will appear independently of the main text, avoid numbering
that continues from it.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. CMOS suggests that non-English terms be italicized on first use, a practice I follow when editing nonfiction. I am currently editing
a novel set in Caesar’s time, featuring Roman weapons and other Latin terms. Does this practice also
apply to novels? I find the italics interrupt the flow in fiction.
A. Many rules that work well in nonfiction are better forgotten in novels. Readers of fiction are used to encountering words
that at first sight may be nonsensical. Your job is to make sure that readers don’t have to wait too
long for the context to make the meaning clear.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]