January 2011 Program:
Editing by the Book
Here in Chicagoland, we find ourselves submersed in so many rivalries that it's become ingrained into our culture. Cubs vs. White Sox. Northwestern vs. Illinois. Bears vs. Packers. Chicago Manual of Style vs. AP Stylebook?
Hold the phone. Does such a rivalry really exist amongst the writing and publishing scene? Are there loyal sympathizers taking to the streets with their posters and banners, willing to fight to the death to see their beloved source book rise to the top of Citation Mountain?
Not quite. But at CWIP's January event, “Editing by the Book,” members were treated to two presentations, one from Carol Fisher Saller, Senior Manuscript Editor from the University of Chicago Press, and one from George Garties, Bureau Chief of the Associated Press in Chicago. Each provided an overview for their respective style guide and highlighted changes made to each as new editions have hit physical and digital bookshelves.
Carol Fisher Saller started off the seminar by talking about some of the reasons why the University of Chicago Press decided to put out an updated edition to The Chicago Manual of Style after seven years. After fielding many queries from readers of the 15th Edition, the editors felt like the need for a revision was strongest in two areas:
1. Writers were asking for more detailed and varied examples for citing electronic sources that were not well known in the previous editions, such as blogs, library databases, and social media that involved URLs, and
2. The increasing sophistication in electronic preparation of manuscripts needed to be addressed, as the roles of copyeditors in preproduction, cleaning, and coding of e-files became more complex.
Since The Chicago Manual of Style is geared more toward an academic audience, it was important that these areas were addressed, especially since the Social Media Boom came about in-between the 15th and the (current) 16th Editions. Readers of CMOS will find that the 16th Edition wanted to strike a balance between the 14th Edition (“too authoritarian and arbitrary,” says Saller) and the 15th Edition (“gave readers too many options”). There is a huge amount of content in CMOS 's Online Edition for nonsubscribers, and it also makes a complementary companion tool for readers who own the print edition. In addition to a Quick Guide and a full search capacity of both the 15th and 16th Editions, there are tables of proofreader marks, archive of monthly Style Q&A, and a free 30-Day Trial is also offered.
George Garties smoothly transitioned into the AP Stylebook by discussing how the AP Style audience is much different from the Chicago Manual of Style's. Where CMOS is more academically inclined, the AP Stylebook started as an in-house style guide and was later adopted by both the newspaper industry and nonacademic lines of publishing. The AP Stylebook is much more of a “colloquial document,” said George, and readers wouldn't be given much help on how to cite sources or construct bibliographies. Also, unlike CMOS, there are no major revisions to the AP Stylebook—rather, there are annual updates (usually taking place in June) that reflect changes that have taken place both in language and in the news. The AP Stylebook is edited and produced by editors in the New York office and the changes that are decided on are drawn from conversations the editors have among each other and with people in the news industry and in the business sector. Recently, there has been a big move to an electronic version of the AP Stylebook, which has also seen the availability of an iPhone/iPod/iPad application that users can purchase and download.
For those interested in purchasing either the Chicago Manual of Style or the AP Stylebook, you can visit the following websites: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html, http://www.apstylebook.com/, http://www.amazon.com, or your local bookstore.
CWIP members can log in and download Ms. Seller’s and Mr. Garties’s handouts that illustrate the changes in CMOS and AP, respectively.