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Topic: AP Stylebook or Chicago Manual of Style
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| Author | Message |
| amyo | Posted – 8/12/2005 6:13:04 PM | show profile | email poster I've always used the AP, but I recently applied for a position where they only use the Chicago. Does one have an advantage? Thanks. |
| Marie | Posted – 8/12/2005 6:36:51 PM | show profile Switching styles is not a big deal...Chicago is a more literary style, and is used by many magazines and most book publishers. The grammar is obviously the same. The differences are more in what you spell out. Before your interview, peruse Chicago (spend a few hours in Barnes and Noble, check it out of the library, or God forbid, buy it). But please, dont' memorize it. Just show a nodding acquaintance with it, and you'll be fine. I use both styles all the time, and I'm not even sure what the differences are. If you're following strict Chicago style, you'd spell out numers under 100, and while book publishers might do that, I can't think of any magazine that does. The serial comma is a hot issue, as is hyphenation and abbreviations. If you have a vague idea of how the two guides differ on these points, you'll be able to BS your way through any interview or job. The key to being a good editor or copy editor is knowing what to look up. |
| mattefinish | Posted – 8/12/2005 6:38:57 PM | show profile it's not really a matter of advantage. they're just different styles. there was a post on this board ages ago where someone did a crashcourse in the ''big differences'' between the two -- things like serial commas, numbering, abbreviations... lord knows where it is now. i always distrust people who say ''sit down with the manual in the library and go through it'' because... uh... no one really knows style manuals by heart, aside from things they run across a lot. that's why editors always keep the manuals close at hand. |
| mattefinish | Posted – 8/12/2005 6:39:20 PM | show profile damn, i gotta move faster. |
| Marie | Posted – 8/12/2005 6:42:40 PM | show profile Actually, AP and Chicago are very similar in what each chooses to cap (another hot issure in copyediting), and both go with a mostly ''down'' style (ex. south of France, southerner, but the South), which I completely endorse. Again, you just need a nodding acquaintance with thse differences and a good instinct for what to look up or what to query the copy editor about (I don't know what level of position you're going for), and you'll have no problems. It's not as if one style takes over your brain and you' can't adapt to another. |
| gdobush | Posted – 8/12/2005 10:23:42 PM | show profile does the new yorker use chicago style? i believe they spell out their numbers. |
| Lotus665 | Posted – 8/13/2005 10:07:56 AM | show profile I've worked with both and you can tell by looking at the books what the difference is: one is slim and specific, the other is fat and more about general principles. Chicago is the most anal thing you will ever encounter, but it is also the most thorough. It goes into much more detail about every little thing. Rather than read them both (impossible, unless you're in solitary confinement for 20 years and have nothing better to do) just compare some of the major linguistic areas. ------ Lotus665 |
| amyo | Posted – 8/17/2005 1:57:54 PM | show profile Thank you! |
| amyo | Posted – 8/17/2005 2:02:58 PM | show profile Online Style - Question I use AP when doing Web content and the like. I'm just wondering if there is a popular style guide for online content (or if most people use the same guides as in print)... |
| catlondon | Posted – 8/17/2005 4:11:18 PM | show profile Be grateful you haven't yet been introduced to the full range of style guides. I have to work with Chicago, AP, APA, and MLA each of which has some sort of subtle difference that incites vigorous debate among the staff (as you can tell, this is not media firm, but we do frequent publications). Hell, we're still trying to decide if copyediting is a compound word or not. |
| clairezulkey | Posted – 8/17/2005 4:24:07 PM | show profile | email poster Has anybody here had problems figuring out how to USE the Chicago manual? I pull mine out from time to time and then have no idea how to look up what I'm trying to look up. I'm also not very smart. ------ Editor of MBToolBox |
| The BPM | Posted – 8/17/2005 5:16:28 PM | show profile Amy, I was in your situation before, where I wrote for a daily paper in AP style and switched to a company using Chicago. It was a seamless transition. In fact the issue wasn't one in the end. ------ www.wordnbass.com book and music news |
| amyo | Posted – 8/25/2005 12:18:07 PM | show profile Last Question! If I'm working on corporate communications, marketing communications, Web content or employee communications, is one better...or more used (not at a magazine or newspaper)? It seems I have seen more references to the AP in the corporate world (but that could simply be coincidence). |
| westsidestory | Posted – 8/25/2005 12:36:35 PM | show profile I think it's better to go with AP for starters, since that means press materials sent out will be less marked up. Old school organizations sometimes prefer the more orderly Chicago mode. And I just want to thank Marie for her very concise description of how the two differ! That was brilliant. Somedays I wish we could just have the serial comma camps mud-wrestle each other and finalize it once and for all. |
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| The BPM | Posted – 8/25/2005 9:46:09 PM | show profile STFU you're spamming a thread about the AP Style which has nothing to do with freaking phony Hermes crap. ------ www.wordnbass.com book and music news |
| Marie | Posted – 8/26/2005 10:18:43 AM | show profile That person saw the word ''style'' and only interprets it one way. I hope MB deletes that post. |
| GrammarRodeoQueen | Posted – 9/13/2005 2:59:12 AM | show profile As an example, iuliana_tudor uses neither Chicago or AP style. |
| commawonk | Posted – 9/16/2005 1:04:18 PM | show profile Here's my cheat sheet from another thread. (Agree that the best skill to develop re: stylebooks is to know when to look things up rather than memorize; hopefully, though, this will help folks not have to look things up as much.) * First and foremost, Chicago calls for the serial comma (''apples, oranges, and bananas'') where AP doesn't. * Where AP abbreviates, Chicago likes to spell things out (''St. Paul, Minn.'' vs. ''Saint Paul, Minnesota''). * In general, AP uses numerals for numbers above 10 and for most measurements. Chicago generally spells out numbers up to 100 and round numbers over 100 (for space reasons, most magazines prefer AP rules here). Also—and this is a fine distinction—Chicago uses all numerals for like numbers within the same sentence or graf when the numbers are a mix of those that are normally spelled out and those that aren't (''One room contained 8 chairs, and the other one contained 101''). * When a person goes by his or her initials, Chicago puts a space between them where AP doesn't (''E. M. Forster'' vs. ''E.M. Forster''). * Chicago prefers apostrophe + ''s'' to form possessives of proper names ending with ''s''; AP just uses an apostrophe (''Dickens's novels'' vs. ''Dickens' novels''). * AP caps prepositions of four or more letters in heds and titles; Chicago lowercases prepositions (''Life With Lucy'' vs. ''Life with Lucy''). * AP styles most titles of works (books, movies, TV shows) in roman type and enclosed in quotation marks; Chicago uses italic and no quotation marks. * AP puts spaces before and after ellipses, but not between the dots ( ... ); Chicago puts spaces before and after as well as between ( . . . ). * Chicago uses en dashes between numerical ranges (1914–1918) and in modifers containing open, or nonhyphenated, compounds (''New York–based writer''); AP uses hyphens. * Chicago leaves many compound adjectives unhyphenated when they follow nouns (''the book was well known''); AP generally keeps the hyphen before and after the noun in such cases. |
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