CMS 16

Next month, The University of Chicago Press is coming out with the 16th edition of its famed (and infamous) Chicago Manual of Style. The 15th edition is a common site on the desktops of many a production editor. Kumarian has been using the guide as its house style for years, so I’ve grown familiar with its innards. It seems intimidating at first glance – the section headers, the tangled citation rules – but it’s proven a comforting authority on many occasions. There are, of course, too many rules to memorize. When an author comes to me with a question about formatting, I usually reach for the orange behemoth and flip through its pages to find the satisfying, solid answer. For word people, who tend to dwell in ambiguity and intuition, the reference provides a helpful frame to stick everything in. Here’s a list of changes to the new edition.