Regardless of whether you consider yourself a writer, editor, avid reader, or some combination of the above, depending on how attentive you are to the publishing industry in general, you may have been waiting for the release of the eighteenth edition of The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) with baited breath—or you may have no idea what I’m talking about.
I won’t go into an in-depth description of CMOS in this post because I’ve provided background information on it previously (see “A Quick Introduction to The Chicago Manual of Style”). This post is for highlighting what’s new in the latest edition, released this month.
These are a few highlights that I find most interesting.
As you might expect—there’s a lot of info about AI.
Also not surprising is the endorsement of the singular “they” as a gender nonspecific pronoun. For example:
A busy writer might not have time to research the guidelines of CMOS. They may rather leave that to their editor.
The editors at CMOS state in this edition (in section 5.254: Problematic Words and Phrases) that they are not overly concerned about the word “overly” (no, that’s not a direct quote).
Guidance regarding comma splices is now less rigid, instructing the editor to consider carefully whether altering the wording or punctuation would truly result in a clearer and more effective sentence. (A comma splice is a specific type of run-on sentence where a comma joins two complete sentences instead of a period or semicolon.)
Another probably particularly controversial change is the guidance regarding relationship commas. Previously, many of us who have studied CMOS have trained ourselves to use relationship commas based on specific information about the relationship. Spousal relationships had commas when that was a one of a kind relationship (as is typically the case in Western culture):
Maya’s husband, Jim, sat near her.
With sibling relationships, there’s more likely to be a relationship that isn’t one of a kind (people often have more than one brother or sister). Commas weren’t used in that case.
Maya’s sister Elinor sat a few seats away. (Maya has at least one other sister).
Maya’s sister, Elinor, sat a few seats away. (Elinor is Maya’s only sister).
This guidance has also become less rigid. CMOS now says the commas, regardless of number of spouses, siblings, pets, friends, and so on, can be omitted if that number isn’t important or isn’t known (there are still a few exceptions where commas should be used).
There are also a few alterations to citation guidance. Publisher location is no longer required in book citations. Page range isn’t necessary for book chapter citations, and months and seasons don’t necessarily need to be included when citing journal issues. Self-published books do not need to list a commercial distribution platform. (I’m for almost anything that simplifies citations if it’s still effective.)
This is nowhere near a comprehensive list of changes. If you are interested to know what else CMOS 18 has changed or clarified, visit their “What’s New” page.
By the way, do you know how to punctuate with emoji per CMOS? (And is the plural form emoji or emojis?) 👉 See CMOS 6.137. 👀 Or ask your editor. 😅