Author Archives: erinkm

When writing an italicized title, word, or phrase, some authors are in the habit of not hitting Ctrl+I again until the beginning of the next non-italicized word, even if there’s punctuation in between that doesn’t “belong to” the italicized term. This follows what the Chicago Manual (6.4) calls “a more traditional system . . .Continue reading “Pro Tip Tuesday #13: Italics and punctuation”

The chart below (extracted from my free resource on switching between bibliography and footnote formats in Chicago Style) indicates when and where to include page numbers in different types of citations.   Book Book Chapter Journal Article Bibliography no page numbers full page range (following the editor’s name and a comma) full page range (followingContinue reading “Pro Tip Tuesday #12: Page numbers in citations”

In Chicago-style footnotes and bibliographies, I often see authors mixing up the different ways of indicating that someone is the editor of a book. Here are two rules to help sort this out. Footnote, one editor: Timothy J. Cooley, ed., Cultural Sustainabilities: Music, Media, Language, Advocacy (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2019). Bibliography, one editor:Continue reading “Pro Tip Tuesday #11: ed. / eds. / edited by”

When I’m line editing a manuscript, one of the things I pay attention to is the placement of paragraph breaks—breaking up overly long paragraphs, combining short ones that don’t really stand on their own, and making sure paragraphs start and end in places that will help the reader follow the threads of the author’s argument.Continue reading “Pro Tip Tuesday #10: Avoid changing topics at the end of a paragraph”

(Okay, maybe I’m especially sensitive to this one because I haven’t had R1-level library database access since 2016…) When you’re citing a source you found through a database your institution’s library subscribes to, copying and pasting the URL from your address bar might result in a link your readers won’t be able to use. ThereContinue reading “Pro Tip Tuesday #9: Unfortunately, your readers can’t use your library proxy”

A few tips from chapters 6 and 14 of the Chicago Manual on question marks and exclamation points with other punctuation. These two basic rules apply both in running text (including dialogue) and in citations: Here’s a third rule that only applies to work titles:

Unlike APA and MLA, the Chicago Manual of Style still requires the place of publication, not just the publisher’s name, in citations for books. However, if multiple cities are listed, you only need to include the first one (14.129). Some common instances of this: When I’m editing citations, I typically take out extra cities, bothContinue reading “Pro Tip Tuesday #7: Just use the first place of publication”

I often see manuscripts where the author is following the US style of double quotation marks around quotes from the sources they’re citing, but using single quotation marks as “scare quotes” or to refer to a word or phrase. Formal US English doesn’t make such a distinction—single quotation marks are only used for a quoteContinue reading “Pro Tip Tuesday #6: It’s “always” “double quotes” (in the US, anyway)”

When I started using macros in Word, one of the first ones I installed was Paul Beverley’s CaseNextWord, which changes the case of the next word after the cursor. I use it a lot, mostly to fix mistakes with title case in chapter titles, subheadings, and citations. More often than not, this means capitalizing wordsContinue reading “Pro Tip Tuesday #5: Title Case Capitalizes More Words Than You Think”

With a handful of exceptions that I’ll get to in later posts (or you can just read section 13.7 in the Chicago Manual), quotations should stick to the original wording, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation of the source. When I find mistakes in quotations, often it’s just a case of incorrect copying on the author’s part,Continue reading “Pro Tip Tuesday #4: Be careful with quotations and spellcheck/find-and-replace”