Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Updated Mechanics Rules

Thanks to DE for sending along the Chicago Manual's updated rules. US, not U.S., a single rule for ellipses, capped Internet but lowercased website, etc., etc. Only two of them irk me--breaking URLs before the slash rather than after, and using apostrophe and s after Xerxes to show possession. Is nothing sacred?

4 comments:

mlutwak said...

I give up on possessive apostrophes on names ending in "s". I was informed by our marketing person yesterday that ALL names ending in "s" do NOT get a possessive "s".

Here I was thinking it was just Greeks and Biblical characters....

Elizabeth said...

In my grad program and at school, we are confined to MLA rules. While browsing for their latest edition (7th) I came across all the others. A bit confusing to have so many authorities, no?

KAZ said...

M--Your marketing person is following a rule that exists only in his or her mind.

E--That's what authorities do--set themselves up to counter existing authorities.

Elizabeth said...

Robert and I always relied on Strunk and White. I find it a morass - Chicago, Terrabian, MLA . . . I feel badly for students trying to find an answer.