Its comprehensive discussion of endnotes, em dashes, indexes, and the like spans 956 pages, but there are some issues the 15th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style just doesn’t get into. That’s where its chicagomanualofstyle.org comes in: each month the staff posts a new batch of Q and A’s addressing readers’ questions on style and usage. For instance:
A. As a style guide for writers, CMOS must resist the temptation to weigh in on an issue of pronunciation. We are editors, absorbed in our manuscripts. We can go for days without even speaking. I suggest you consult the linguists who write dictionaries for this purpose. (I’m sorry this won’t give you anything to put in your column, but thanks for your help with mine.)”
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Fisher, also a mother of two kids who’s written five children’s books, got her start in publishing 28 years ago as a researcher and copy editor at TV Guide. She joined the U. of C. Press in 1991, then left after ten years to work as a children’s book editor at Carus Publishing Company. While she was gone another editor managed the Q and A, doing his best to maintain the tone she’d established. “There are times when I look at the archive and I can’t tell if he wrote it or I wrote it,” Fisher says. In 2003 she rejoined the press and resumed the job.
