When Everything Old is New

Just when you get used to the way things used to be, something happens to shake everything up again. Case in point: news has hit that the 17th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style will be published in September. And we’re in for big changes.

Now this might only be really big news in editing circles. But still: the fact that internet will no longer take an uppercase “I” and the en-dash in email is gone for good with take some getting used to. For some of us.

Some other specific changes in the 17th edition of CMOS will be to:

  • make provisions for genderless grammar
  • add guidelines for retracting a journal article.
  • advise against the use of “ibid.”
  • promote the use of alternative-text metadata to improve access for the visually impaired.
  • acknowledge the importance of Creative Commons licenses.
  • offer a citation style for Twitter.

More on the changes along with an interview with Chicago Manual of Style Online Q&A editor Carol Fisher Saller are on the Copydesk blog.

1 Comment

  1. It was a hyphen in email not en dash, and it’s been gone awhile pretty much everywhere. The genderless grammar thing is not for formal writing from what I read so still, if you want to sound proper in scientific or other formal stuff you’ll probably not want to use it. Much more leeway to not follow rules in fiction, as we all know. Good riddance, ibid.!

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