The Chicago Manual of Style: 17th Edition

The cerulean-jacketed 17th edition of the venerable style guide responds to 2017’s pressing concerns. In addition to the buzzed-about lowercasing of internet and dehyphenation of email, it contains new guidelines for citing tweets and video games, retracting discredited journal articles, and managing notes appropriately for simultaneous print and electronic editions. Speaking of which, the manual itself has had its chapter and section titles restyled for keyword-based searchability. In a pair of nods to respect for transgender and nonbinary people, the new edition codifies the use of a singular they/themself as a personal pronoun and adds cis- to the prefixes discussed in the hyphenation table. (The manual has not, however, changed its position that using the gender-neutral pronoun as a replacement for “he or she” should be avoided in formal writing.) The most significant addition to the text comes in the chapter on grammar and usage, with a new 15-page section on syntax that nicely complements older sections discussing the parts of speech and the correct usage of particular words; it will be especially useful for those whose grasp of English syntax is primarily by ear, rather than formally taught. As ever, this manual stands as an indispensable and thoughtfully constructed English language and style resource for those compelled, by enthusiasm or responsibility, to attend to the minutiae of written expression. (Sept.)