Do You Overstep When Editing Fiction? Three Easy Cures
The other day, I ran across this line in a recent novel by a best-selling American writer (key words are disguised): “His disposition warmed faster than did the gradually dawning day.”
Sure, You Got A’s in English—But Do You Know Where Commas Go?
A few months ago in a conference session, a group of novelists digressed into good-natured complaints about being copyedited. One writer drew a lot of laughs saying, “I mean, I got A’s in English! I know where the freaking commas go!”
Dot Dot Dot: A Closer Look at the Ellipsis
If you follow Chicago style, it’s a safe bet you know that a Chicago-style ellipsis consists of three spaced periods. You probably also know . . .
Chicago Style Workout 38: Word Usage, Part 8
This month’s workout, “Word Usage, Part 8,” returns to our “Glossary of Problematic Words and Phrases” in section 5.250 of CMOS 17. This time we’re focusing on words beginning with the letters r as in “rack” through s as in “straight.”
How Do I Format a Reference List in Turabian/Chicago Style?
If you cite your sources in your thesis or dissertation (or class paper) using the author-date system, you will need to include a reference list. . . .
When Characters Speak: Formatting Dialogue
In novels and stories and other creative works, words spoken by a character are normally set off from the narrative with quotation marks, and the speaker is identified in the run of text by tags like “she said.”
The Chicago Manual of Style Q&A for July
Q. Engineers think “CMOS” stands for “complementary metal-oxide semiconductor,” so how should we refer to The Chicago Manual of Style?
Q. Is it OK to hyphenate a hashtag at the end of a line?
Q. Is “student teacher” hyphenated?
Let’s Talk about Plagiarism
Many of us would benefit from frank conversations with other scholars about improper borrowing, otherwise known as plagiarism, but the topic is so hot that most professors avoid discussing it, except in warnings to their undergraduates.
Commas and Independent Clauses: A Creative Opening
A comma is normally placed before a coordinating conjunction (and, but, or, so, yet) that joins two independent subject-verb clauses—that is, clauses that could stand on their own as complete sentences. . . .
How Do I Format Parenthetical Author-Date Citations in Turabian/Chicago Style?
If you cite your sources in your thesis or dissertation (or class paper) using the author-date system, you will signal each source in the text in parentheses. . . .
“Hazel and I’s puppy”? When Fiction Meets Bad Grammar
In editing formal prose, we fix nonstandard English without hesitation. But in editing creative works, we often need to throw out the stylebook so a narrator or character in a novel or play can abuse grammar to good effect. . . .