The Chicago Manual of Style

From Free net encyclopedia

The Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) is a highly regarded style guide for American English, dealing with questions of style, manuscript preparation, and, to a lesser degree, usage. (Note that in the publications world, style means punctuation, italicizing, bolding, capitalization, tables, and so forth; not prose style.) Indeed, because of its sharp analyses of extremely intricate matters of punctuation and usage, it is used by publishing houses all over the English-speaking world, and is increasingly regarded as authoritative for the English publishing community in general.

The CMS is commonly used by publishers and editors as a last resort for questions of proper presentation of text.

It is published by the University of Chicago Press. The first edition was published by the University in 1906, under the title A Manual of Style; it was officially retitled The Chicago Manual of Style upon publication of the 13th edition in 1982, a name that was already in widespread informal use by the book's audience. In recent years the publishers have released a new edition every decade or so. The most recent edition is the 15th, published in 2003. Retailing for $55 (USD), the 15th edition has been revised throughout to reflect the increasing prominence of computer technology and the Internet in the publishing world, and offers guidance for citing electronic works. Other changes include a new chapter on American English grammar and usage, and a revised treatment of mathematical copy.

The CMS is currently published in hardcover, with a digital edition planned for release in 2006, however it still is pending (link). The CMS web site features a question-and-answer column and a full manual text search (members only).

[edit]