TheChicago Manual of Style is due to appear in its 16th edition later this summer, and a close friend of mine went into what I will affectionately label a tizzy when she got her mitts on a copy, even though she was not so much nervous as incalculably excited about the newly blue-covered grammar and style bible. She even lugged it to a gathering of editor friends–sort of like toting around a small dog in a purse, except a small dog isn’t always that heavy (or useful). Writing at The Front Table, Mary E. Laur, who works on the Manual, talks a bit about the particular devotion readers feel for the venerable University of Chicago guide. She describes debating people who prefer two spaces after a period rather than the standard one space. She talks about the confusion some readers felt over past flexibility on the rules for the use of ellipses. She talks, in other words, about my friend and the people like her who devote their considerable intellect and skill to the English language and all its mysterious intricacies.
(Thanks, The Second Pass.)
Source: The Front Table
