Style Sheet and List of Common Errors

We have three standards. In order of precedence from highest to lowest, they are: 1) this sheet, 2) Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th edition (only with regard to spelling and hyphenation), 3) Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition. Although the author is in control of the style (as long as it is consistently maintained throughout the book), we recommend using The Chicago Manual of Style. This is the standard for book publishers. It may differ significantly from styles that you are accustomed to. However, there are good reasons for all of its guidelines, developed over many decades and updated frequently. Moreover, the use of this standard allows our freelance editors and proofers to work more quickly and accurately, having become very familiar with CMS during their years of experience. References, however, (footnotes and endnotes) may utilize any style desired by the author as long as consistency is maintained.

You do not need to comply with all of this when you submit your manuscript. Our copyeditors will automatically bring your work into conformance. If you desire to differ from any of these style items, please return a copy of this sheet with the differences clearly noted. We will attach it to your manuscript so that we don't have to undo the copyeditor's corrections at each stage.

On the other hand, if you can maintain conformity with any or all of these, it will speed up the processing of your book.

Abbreviations

For the Common Era and Before Common Era, use CE and BCE all caps, no periods. AD and BC are also acceptable.

AM and PM for time of day.

Most abbreviations that formerly had multiple periods are now written without periods, thus US, not U.S.

Other abbreviations (except books of the Bible) are followed by periods.

Academic and professional degrees

Academic and professional degrees do not appear on the title page of a book except for M.D. Do not combine Dr. and Ph.D. Thus Dr. John Smith or John Smith, Ph.D., but not Dr. John Smith, Ph.D.

Article before h

Use "a" before a voiced h and "an" before unvoiced h; e.g., an honor, a history.

Capitalization of professional titles and organizations

Titles of positions are never capitalized except when used with a proper name; thus: president of the United States, President Clinton. "He is associate professor of international studies."

Capitalization of proper nouns

Names of individuals and organizations are capitalized, but generic words referring to a specific organization are not, even when referring to a specific organization. "He was chairman of the Board of Directors." "The board met yesterday." "He is in the United States Army." He is in the army.

Comma in a series

A comma precedes the "and" before the final element of a series. "He ran, threw, and kicked."

f and ff

Please avoid the use of   f and ff to indicate next page(s), verse(s), etc..

Footnote/endnote markers

Note markers are typed after all punctuation except dashes.

Hyphenated and compounded words

We will set these according to the form specified in Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th edition.

Initials

The initials before a person's last name are separated by a space. A. B. Smith, not A.B. Smith.

Italics or quotation marks

Never use italics and quotation marks together. Items that are italicized include: titles of books, titles of movies, titles of plays, titles of television series. Items that get quotation marks include: titles of poems, titles of songs, titles of individual television shows, articles in books or journals. Series names are capitalized without quotation marks or italics.

Commonly used Latin words and phrases are not italicized (per se, passim, prima facie, etc.)

It's

This is a contraction for it is. The possessive form of it is “its.”

Numerals or spelled-out numbers

The rules determining when numbers are spelled out and when numerals used are too complicated to explain here, and there are too many exceptions. Just use what seems good to you and our copyeditors will correct it to CMS style. These may seem inconsistent to you, but they have been developed over the course of decades to make for ease of reading. You'll have to trust that we know what we're doing.

Percent

Except in tables, percentages are expressed by numerals followed by a space and the word percent, e.g.,
6 percent.

Possessives of singular names

The form is the name + 's. Thus Hillers's, Sanders's, etc. There are three exceptions to this rule: Jesus', Moses', and Greek names ending in eze sound, thus Thucydides'.

Quotation marks and punctuation (see also "Single Quotation Marks")

Periods and commas always precede the closing quotation mark. Semicolons and colons always follow the closing quotation mark. Question marks and exclamations marks may either precede or follow, depending upon whether they apply to the entire quotation or just an element inside the quotation.

References to parts of a book

These are always written with small case and numerals are used (even when the actual item referred to uses Roman numerals, etc.). Examples: see chapter 2, page 167, part 3, refer to the bibliography, see the appendix, etc.

Single quotation marks

Do not use the reverse mark `. Use an apostrophe for all single quotation marks. Our software will convert these to typographic marks automatically.

Which and that

The word which introduces a clause that is not essential to the meaning of the sentence. In this usage, it is always preceded by a comma. The word that introduces a clause that is essential to the meaning of the sentence and is not preceded by a comma. Examples: I threw the ball, which was red. I threw the ball that I found.