Kirby Mountain


Eric Rosenbloom’s Concise Style Guide
for Technical Editors & Proofreaders


Go to Style Standards, Grammar Issues, Typography in QuarkXPress, A Proper Drop Cap

Note that these concise style directives generally follow American usage. These are personal preferences; house standards are likely to vary. Only issues that arise frequently or benefit from concise description are treated here. For issues not covered here, and for different opinions, refer to larger guides such as Chicago Manual of Style, Words Into Type, AMA Manual of Style, Fowler's English Usage, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, and American Heritage Dictionary.

Suggested proofreading phrases for editorial queries:
     • Sense OK? (to query phrasing)
     • As meant? (to query word choice)
     • ... as meant? (to query change)
     • OK? or ...? (to suggest alternative)
     • OK as set? (to query change by compositor)
     • Change OK? (to query editorial change)

Ask yes-or-no questions or provide alternatives, so the editor can quickly indicate an answer. Circle queries and other marks and notes that are not for the compositor. Leave uncircled any mark or instruction for the compositor.


Style Standards
Go to Grammar Issues, Typography in QuarkXPress

Title capitalization
• Capitalize the first and last word, all words of 5 or more letters, and all nouns, verbs (but not to in infinitives), adjectives, and adverbs.
• Capitalize the second part of a hyphenated word only if the first part can stand alone, i.e., it isn’t a prefix.
As is uncapitalized only when it means “in the role of.”

Serial comma
Yes.

Widows and orphans
Avoid if possible. Query Design to decide if it is OK (“Design: widow OK?”).

Split infinitives and Compound verbs
OK for clarity or readability.

Introductory phrases
Do not follow with a comma unless it is helpful to the sense or readability.

Word division
Words should be broken in a way that does not mislead the reader away from the expected end of the word, i.e., follow pronunciation, not necessarily strict syllabification.

Numbers
• Spell out single-digit numbers and ten, except when they represent measured values or appear with larger numbers.
• Include a 0 before decimal values less than one.

Fractions
• Set stacked (also called case).
• In math and science, the digits often are not reduced in size; in other programs the digits are reduced so that the fraction fits on a regular text line.
• If slash fractions are used: Use a fraction slash (virgule) if the numbers are reduced in size; Insert a space between the integer and the fraction if the numbers are not reduced (4 3/8).

Units of measurement
• Abbreviate without a period all SI (metric) units.
• Abbreviate with a period all time and non-SI units.
• Spell out the unit when the number is spelled out.
• Use singular verb (“25 mL was poured”).

Race
• Capitalize national and regional designations (“Oriental,” “North European”)
• Don’t capitalize black or white.

Sexism
Avoid; query all instances.

A.M./P.M./B.C./A.D.” etc.
Set in small caps, with periods.

Abbreviations
• Don’t use periods in acronyms or other all-cap abbreviations (e.g., NATO, CPR, AIDS, USA, TV).
• Set acronyms that are pronounced as a word in small caps.
• For all-cap abbreviations use a small s (without an apostrophe) to form the plural (e.g., TVs).

En dash
• Joins inclusive numbers and other ranges (“11–18” means “11 through 18”).
• Joins compound modifiers (“New York–born artist”; compare with “Brooklyn-born writer”).
• Used as a hyphen in all-cap settings.
• Used to indicate a subcategory (“§14–C”).
• In some styles used in a compound adjective created from two nouns (“time–space continuum.”).

Italic/Bold punctuation
• Except quotation marks and parentheses, punctuation immediately following a complete italic or bold phrase is also italic or bold.
• Set opening and closing quotation marks and parentheses in the same style, which is generally that of the surrounding text.
• Set a possessive ’s in roman (or whatever the surrounding text is).

Asterisks/Footnotes
• Asterisks, daggers, etc. set inside a colon or a semicolon.
• Footnote and other reference numbers set inside a semicolon but may set outside a colon.

Colon
• Capitalize after a colon when a complete sentence follows.
• Before any list—bulleted, numbered, in-line, whatever—do not use a colon unless it makes sense grammatically; in most cases a full stop would be more clear. Don’t use any punctuation at all if it is not necessary grammatically.
Examples:
Choose an activity from the following.
     1. Find a leaf.
     2. Dance a jig.
     3. Take a nap.
You may
     • dance
     • sing
     • leave.
There are three phases of national history: (1) genital fantasy, (2) anal fixation, (3) oral confusion.
Compound adjectives
• They are generally hyphenated when appearing before the noun they modify, but unhyphenated when they follow (“job-related skills,” “skills that are job related”).
• Don’t hyphenate proper nouns or established compound nouns (“Sixth Avenue subway,” “high school library”).
• Some compound adjectives are always hyphenated, particularly adjective + noun-ed (“old-fashioned,” “cost-effective”).
• Don’t hyphenate compounds with an adverb (“well received speech,” “weirdly hung drapery”).


Grammar Issues
Go to Style Standards, Typography in QuarkXPress

A/An
• Before an initial, choose according to the sound of the letter, not what it stands for (“an NEA decision”).
• Before h..., use a if the stress is on the first syllable, an if not (“a hospital,” “an harmonica”). In the U.S., however, it is usual to always use a before h....

Compare to/with
Use to to assert likeness or a single unanalyzed likeness or difference, with to analyze difference as well as similarity especially in detail.

Comprise etc.
• A whole consists of, is composed of, or comprises its parts.
• The parts constitute or compose the whole.

Continuous/Continual
continuous is without break from beginning to end.
continual is without end and may recur at short intervals.

Different from
Preferred; different than is more colloquial.

Due to/Owing to
due to ... can be used only as an adjectival phrase.
owing to ... can be used either adverbally or adjectivally; it is preferred also when the referent is not immediately preceding the phrase.

Identical with
Correct; identical to is incorrect.

Independent from
Correct; independent of is incorrect.

Lie/Lay
Lie is intransitive; lay is transitive. “The chicken lays/is laying/laid/has laid an egg, then lies/is lying/lay/had lain in the dust.”

Modifying noun phrase
Don’t set off with commas unless it is restrictive.
Examples: “The painter Mary Cassatt lived ...” (Mary Cassatt is not the only painter); “Jane’s math teacher, Mrs. Bennett, said ...” (Mrs. Bennett and no one else is Jane’s math teacher).

None
Can be plural (“not any”) or singular (“not one”).

“number”
The number is singular; a number is plural. The same is true for variety, majority, range, series, fraction, proportion, etc.

-ologic, -ologically
The adverbial form of -ology nouns is -ologically, and the adjectival form is -ologic.

On/Onto, In/Into
Onto and into indicate motion.

Since, While
Don’t use since when because is meant; don’t use while when whereas or although is meant.

Singular verb
• A singular noun followed by with ..., besides ..., including ..., plus ..., as well as ..., in addition to ..., together with ..., or along with ... keeps a singular verb.
• Single-notion noun pairs take a singular verb (“pain and swelling results”).

That/Which
that is restrictive, i.e., it introduces a necessary phrase (“the cow that ate sheep”).
which is nonrestrictive (“cows, which normally eat grass, were eating sheep”), i.e., the sentence can stand without the phrase in question.

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