Chicago grammar manual

The result is a landmark resource that will offer clear guidelines to students, writers, and editors alike. The conservatism of his advice pushes you to consider audience and occasion, so that you will understand when to follow convention and when you can safely break it. When someone offers you good advice, you would do well to take it. It stays with you. Therefore, this work is highly recommended.

This book will be an instant classic. Back to top. Table of Contents. Introduction 1 The field of grammar 2 Who killed grammar? Using Semicolons To unite two short, closely connected sentences To separate items in a complex series In old style, to set off explanation or elaboration Preventing Misused Semicolons Not where a colon is needed, as after a formal salutation Not where a comma suffices, as in a simple list.

Using Colons To link matter and indicate explanation or elaboration To introduce an enumerated or otherwise itemized list To introduce a question Use a colon to introduce a question After the salutation in business correspondence To separate hours from minutes and in some citations Without capitalizing the following matter needlessly Preventing Misused Colons Not to introduce matter that blends into your sentence.

Using Parentheses To set off inserted matter that you want to minimize To clarify appositives or attributions To introduce shorthand or familiar names Around numbers or letters when listing items in text To denote subparts in a citation Correctly in relation to terminal punctuation To enclose a brief aside Preventing Misused Parentheses Not before an opening parenthesis.

Using Em-Dashes To set off matter inserted in midsentence To set off but emphasize parenthetical matter To tack on an important afterthought To introduce a specification or list To show hesitation, faltering, or interruption Preventing Misused Em-Dashes Not using more than two in a sentence Not after a comma, colon, semicolon, or terminal period. Using En-Dashes In a range, to show tension, or to join equivalents Preventing Misused En-Dashes Not in place of a hyphen or em-dash Not with the wording it replaces.

Using Apostrophes To indicate the possessive case To mark a contraction or to signal dialectal speech To form plurals of letters, digits, and some abbreviations Preventing Misused Apostrophes Not to form other plurals, especially of names Not to omit obligatory apostrophes. Using Exclamation Marks After exclamatory matter, especially when quoting others Preventing Misused Exclamation Marks Not to express your own surprise or amazement. Using Periods To end a typical sentence, not a question or exclamation To indicate an abbreviated name or title Placed properly with parentheses and brackets To show a decimal place in a numeral Preventing Misused Periods Not with an abbreviation at sentence end.

Using Brackets In a quotation, to enclose matter not in the original In parenthetical matter, to enclose another parenthetical To enclose the citation of a source, as in a footnote Preventing Misused Brackets Not in place of ellipsis dots when matter is deleted.

The Chicago Notes and Bibliography NB system is often used in the humanities to provide writers with a system for referencing their sources through the use of footnotes, endnotes, and through the use of a bibliography.

This offers writers a flexible option for citation and provides an outlet for commenting on those sources, if needed. In addition, it can protect writers from accusations of plagiarism, which is the intentional or accidental uncredited use of source material created by others. In the Notes and Bibliography system, you should include a note endnote or footnote each time you use a source, whether through a direct quote, paraphrase, or summary.

Footnotes are added at the end of the page on which the source is referenced, while endnotes are compiled at the end of each chapter or at the end of the entire document. In either case, a superscript number corresponding to a note, along with the bibliographic information for that source, should be placed in the text following the end of the sentence or clause in which the source is referenced. If a work includes a bibliography, which is typically preferred, then it is not necessary to provide full publication details in notes.

If you cite the same source again, or if a bibliography is included in the work, the note only needs to include the surname of the author, a shortened form of the title if more than four words , and the page number s. However, in a work that does not include a bibliography, it is recommended that the full citation be repeated when it is first used in a new chapter.

In the NB system, the footnote or endnote itself begins with the appropriate full-sized number, followed by a period and then a space.

In the NB system, the bibliography provides an alphabetical list of all sources used in a given work. This page, most often titled Bibliography, is usually placed at the end of the work preceding the index. It should include all sources cited within the work and may sometimes include other relevant sources that were not cited but provide further reading.

Although bibliographic entries for various sources may be formatted differently, all included sources books, articles, websites, etc. If no author or editor is listed, the title or, as a last resort, a descriptive phrase may be used.

Though useful, a bibliography is not required in works that provide full bibliographic information in the notes. All entries in the bibliography will include the author or editor, compiler, translator , title, and publication information.