Capitalizing Kinship Names and the Like
A kinship name is a name for a family member, whether close or distant. Such names include mom, dad, sister, brother, aunt, uncle, cousin, and so on.
Inside the Q&A: Tips and Tricks
The Chicago Manual of Style Q&A first went online in 1997. According to a page from June of that year at the Wayback Machine, one early question was about submitting manuscripts on disk, which back then usually meant the 3.5-inch “floppy” variety. Another question concerned the spelling of online (which was still hyphenated, though we had a hunch that the hyphen wouldn’t last).
When Commas Come in Pairs
Commas, like the two in this sentence, often come in pairs. When they do, they’re usually acting like miniature parentheses. In fact, whenever you’re tempted to omit the second of two commas, convert them both to parentheses; if your text still works as intended, keep that second comma.
Filmmaker Brandt Johnson and grammar guru Ellen Jovin chat about Rebel with a Clause, a new docu-comedy about Ellen’s pop-up grammar advice stand on a road trip across America
Rebel with a Clause follows the adventures of Ellen’s Grammar Table and will have its New York City premiere on March 4 at the SVA Theatre in Manhattan. A book with the same title was published in 2022.
Chicago Style Workouts Now Updated for the 18th Edition
As many of you know by now, the 18th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style was published last September. To find out what’s new, you can check out “What’s New in the 18th Edition?” But now there’s an even better way to learn what’s new—by taking our quizzes.
The Chicago Manual of Style for PerfectIt: 18th Edition Update
A little more than three years ago, we introduced The Chicago Manual of Style for PerfectIt, the proofreading software that works with Microsoft Word. That initial release was based on the 17th edition of the Manual, and it wasn’t too long before the teams at Chicago and PerfectIt began working on an update that would coincide with the publication of the 18th.
Compound Modifiers After a Noun: A Postpositive Dilemma
The convention of hyphenating a compound modifier before a noun but not after—as in a well-known author versus an author who is well known—has been Chicago style since the first edition (published in 1906).
What Can a Book from 1749 Teach Us About Chicago Style?
Anyone who’s familiar with contemporary English-language novels would have little trouble reading a novel published in the 1700s in an original edition. By the middle of that century, conventions related to printed text and punctuation were starting to look almost modern.
CMOS 18 Is Now Online!
As we announced back in April, the 18th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style will be published in September. That’s the official publication month for the printed book, and copies have already started rolling off the presses. But if you subscribe to CMOS Online, you don’t have to wait any longer.
Announcing The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th Edition
Have you heard the news? The 18th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style will be published in September! And . . . it’s YELLOW! It may seem hard to believe, but it’s been seven years since we published the 17th edition.
Hyphens and Dashes: A Refresher
Most readers know that hyphens connect groups of words or numbers whereas dashes set things off. But from there it tends to get a little fuzzy. For example, which key do you press to get the dash? Is there more than one kind of dash? . . . What about minus signs?
