The Chicago Manual of Style (Hardcover)

by University of Chicago Press Staff (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Countless publishing professionals have learned the details of their business from this classic guide for publishers, editors and writers. It's updated every 10 years or so, and the 15th edition is the most extensive revision in decades. The Internet's influence is pervasive, with substantial sections on preparing manuscripts for electronic publishing, editing for online publications and citing electronic sources. The "Rights and Permissions" chapter is by attorney William S. Strong (The trace the publication process for books and journals, both print and electronic, from manuscript development to distribution and marketing. For the first time, the manual includes a chapter on grammar and usage, by Bryan A. Garner (A Dictionary of Modern Usage). Gone is the 13-page table showing when to hyphenate compound words of all sorts, but it's replaced by a six-plus-page list and a narrative overview, which will be simpler for the overworked manuscript editor ("copyeditor" has vanished, and the index relegates "copyediting" to a cross-reference to manuscript editing) to use. Traditionalists may be bothered by the new edition's preference for ZIP Code state abbreviations and dropping periods from such abbreviations as Ph.D. and even U.S. Some things do remain the same. The style guide still endorses the serial comma (which PW does not) and numerals are still spelled out from one through one hundred and at the beginning of a sentence. Those in the publishing industry will need this edition, both for what's new and for what they will want to argue about.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
The Chicago Manual of Style maintains its vitality by adapting to its ever-changing environment. None of the changes from one edition to the next are capricious; that which remains vital carries over, and that which must change, changes.

From the 1906 first edition's limited focus as "a compilation of typographical rules" for books, it has evolved to provide guidance to authors and editors working in other forms and media such as journals, newsletters, Web sites, and even, with the fifteenth edition, American Sign Language. The editors now "assume throughout that most writers and editors, whether preparing print or nonprint works, use computer software." That assumption is most visible in the chapter dealing with presentation in type of mathematical expressions and formulas. Software has collapsed the division of labor between author and typesetter, giving the author the power to fulfill both roles simultaneously. Mathematicians have faced that special challenge; all scholars have been vexed by uncertainty about citing electronic resources.

Various specialized manuals from other publishers have attempted to codify practices for citing electronic publications, but none has enjoyed the authority Chicago has earned over nearly a century. The fifteenth offers deeper guidance for citing electronic books, articles in e-journals, electronic editions of older works, and online newspapers and magazines. The clear, practical, and easily applied rules for citing these sources recognize the problem an author must solve when a URL is subject to change; they also offer advice on matters such as when to provide the date a cited e-work was accessed. U.S. copyright law, driven by the same technologies the fifteenth edition addresses, has also experienced significant changes. An expanded section on copyright offers clear albeit not exhaustive coverage of the current complexities of copyright. All authors would do well to study this primer.

Chicago's mantra throughout is consistency in support of clarity. Helping authors and editors achieve consistency in practice when creating or editing a manuscript and presenting it to readers is Chicago's raison d'etre. The prescriptive tone of some entries serves consistency, but usage is determined by users of the language. Chicago acknowledges variants in practice, often noting that an author may use a variant even though its entry first describes preferred practice. Bowing to popular influence, the editors concede that they "no longer urge deletion of the d in 2nd or the r in 3rd" and they "now recommend the month-day-year form of dates" prevalent in the U.S. The editors also have the wisdom and the experience to uphold rules that, if ignored, can create confusion in readers' minds. All of the rules and recommendations are easily accessible through the thorough index, a hallmark of every recent edition.

New to the fifteenth is a lively chapter on grammar and usage contributed by Bryan A. Garner, author of Garner's Modern American Usage (2d ed., Oxford, 2003; formerly A Dictionary of Modern American Usage). Its first part reviews basic rules of English grammar, and the second offers succinct explanations of words easily misused (decimate, precondition) or confused (e.g., healthy and healthful; purposely and purposefully). Added features discuss bias-free language and prepositional idioms.

Evolution is never a lockstep uniform process. Although the heart of Chicago embraces changes wrought by digital publishing, its concluding bibliography lags. Only the print editions of general-purpose encyclopedias and several English-language dictionaries are noted. Even though the entry for the Oxford English Dictionary indicates its availability on CD-ROM, it neglects to mention its online incarnation. But one must not miss the forest for these few trees. As it has done again and again, Chicago offers sensible, clearly articulated, and defensible advice to authors and editors who want to do their best to present an author's text to readers. Every library that serves authors, especially those producing scholarly works, simply must have the current edition of chicago. RBB
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 984 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 15th edition (August 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226104036
• ISBN-13: 978-0226104034
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (112 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #781 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

182 of 194 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Still a classic, July 25, 2003

By	Jonathan E. Bruner (Chicago) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The Chicago Manual of Style has always been a steady companion. It discusses every imaginable style question to the point of exhaustion and speaks with the authority of the nation's largest academic press and the country's most academically serious university. The University of Chicago Press is not burdened by the scholarly dubiousness that plagues the MLA, which happens to publish a competing style guide.

This edition of the Manual of Style includes a number of improvements and additions. The Chicago manual has finally spoken on citing electronic publications, and even includes advice on assembling manuscripts for electronic journals. Flow charts in the back give broad overviews of the publishing process. The index seems easier to use than the index in the last edition, and the chapters are arranged more thoughtfully. Most striking upon first picking up the 15th edition is its stunning graphic design--not only is it beautiful, but it helps readability by highlighting examples and making sections easier to find. The manual includes some information on editing foreign-language publications. As always, the manual includes some very subtle humor in its sentence structure, verbiage, and choice of examples.

The Chicago Manual of Style is also equiped to be an arbiter of many a college dining hall argument on language, with extensive chapters on grammar and usage.

I heartily recommend the Chicago Manual of Style to anyone who ever finds himself with a question on some detail of English style.

40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very fine resource, May 18, 2004

By	sadhana444 "sadhana444" (Anchorage, AK United States) - See all my reviews

The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) is without question my favorite style manual. The fact that this manual is one of the best of its kind does not seem to be in question for most people. What does seem to be in question is whether or not the CMOS is a fit for an individual's needs. What also seems to be in question is whether or not the 15th edition is an improvement from the 14th edition.

In terms of fit, I would say that the CMOS is probably a good fit for advanced writers, editors, and publishers; however, most of these advanced professionals already know this. College students might be better served by a style manual specific to their discipline - for example, The Modern Language Association (MLA) Handbook for English students, or the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA) for psychology students. Beginning students might also be better served by a general handbook (such as The Little, Brown Handbook or The Holt Handbook). For office workers, administrative assistants, and secretaries, a better fit might be "The Gregg Reference Manual," which has an emphasis on business correspondence. In each of these cases; however, the CMOS would be a useful backup reference.

In regard to the editions, my overall opinion is that the 15th edition is a significant improvement in content to the 14th, and well worth the purchase. The 13th edition was published in 1982, the 14th in 1993, and this 15th in 2003, so the CMOS is updated approximately every 10 years, which feels like a good revision pace to me. The content revisions are summarized on the back cover, and I'll list them at the end of this review.

In addition to content, the layout of the new edition is also revised. There is a bit of risk and daring in using a light blue font to distinguish examples within paragraphs, and in using a new font for numbering. The light blue text is a bit hard to read at times, but for the main, it seems to add clarity. The daring numbering font is a bit less clear than the last edition, but probably only a keen font connoisseur would even notice.

Content revisions:

- Updated Materials throughout to reflect current style, technology, and professional practice

- New coverage of journals and electronic publications

- Comprehensive new chapter on American English grammar and usage by Bryan A. Garner (author of A Dictionary of Modern American Usage)

- Updated and rewritten chapter on preparing mathematical copy

- Reorganized and updated chapters on documentation, including guidance on citing electronic sources

- Streamlined coverage of current design and production processes, with a glossary of key terms

- New diagrams of the editing and production process4es for both books and journals, keyed to chapter discussions

- Descriptive headings on all numbered paragraphs for ease of reference

- New expanded Web site with special tools and features for Manual users - www.chicagomanualofstyle.org

49 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply the best; An absolute must for writers, September 17, 2003

By	R. Shaff "Velocipede" (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've been passionate about writing for some time now and situations always seem to arise-where to put the hyphen-that must be dealt with properly. The new edition (15th) of THE CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE is the Bible for writers (I can't speak for editors or publishers but since this prize solves most writing conundrums, it must work well for those reviewing the written word). As I've used the 14th edition for some time, I was somewhat dubious about giving up my well-oiled saftey blanket. Keep the safety blanket and buy the 15th also. The 15th implements a variety of changes befitting current wisdom; a must in today's literary world. As has been the modus operandi for some time now, the 15th edition of CMS is still in the relatively unattractive orange dust jacket but has been "brightened" inside with two ink tones. Contrary to another reviewer, I find the ink offset to be quite helpful.

One of the more useful additions to the 15th CMS is the paramenters addressed relative to citations from electronic publications. In the internet age, this is a must for technical and non-fiction writers. Additionally and as mandated by most interpretations of copyright law, whenever one draws from another's work, one must provide documentation. CMS follows a basic documentation style for either footnotes or endnotes. This documentation would include direct quotes, paraphrases or someone else's words or ideas, and facts and figures.

As a writer of technical articles, I use this manual as a guide through the morass of style. An article can be poorly written but sparkle with style and grammar. This article will, at the very least, garner some respect. A kick-bum article delving into the meat of a timely subject, yet penned with poor grammar and distasteful style, will be look upon with disdain.

If you're going to write, spend the bucks for CMS. It will be the best investment relative to broad acceptance of your published words.