A tribute to the Chicago Manual of Style (while mostly mentioning the AP Stylebook)

I’m not a Chicago Manual of Style editor, though I could be.

Coming up in the world of journalism, the bible is the AP Stylebook, and I probably used it 20 times a day at one point. Eventually you remember what’s in there and can quote passages from memory. This was in the days before the Web took over, and we had reference books, physical clips of old newspapers and a telephone. (When we couldn’t figure something out, we’d make a call.)

I have never owned a copy of CMOS, though I should. I have an AP Stylebook and a Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (though AP recommends the Webster’s New World), and I never open them. It’s all on the Web now. And my employer has a subscription to the online AP Stylebook.

The thing to remember is that style means here is one way to do a thing, and there is more than one way you could do it. But we are picking one. For consistency’s sake.

When AP changes a style — and they do this fairly often — I’m almost always slightly offended. It’s like the King James Version vs. the New International Version. (Admittedly I’m shaky on modern bible versions, so feel free to insert New Revised Standard Version, or something I’ve never heard of. Notice how I can end a sentence with a preposition and not give a fuck? You can do it too!)

I should pick up a Chicago Manual of Style. I use plenty of em dashes but no en dashes. I could be persuaded.

What brought this up? This nice article from LitHub.