Chicaago, Chicaago, my kind of style

[robinturner]

Having experimented with various academic style guides (APA, MLA etc.), Chicago remains my favourite. It's partly because the CMS people realise that most academics these days write with computers, and so do not recommend a format which requires that authors painstakingly recreate the effect of a typewriter. It's also because their guidelines on language are generally sensible, and occasionally amusing. For example, the current edition of their Q&A page contains the following:

Q. The menu in our cafeteria shows that enchiladas are available “Tues.–Fri.” However, when I ordered one on a Wednesday, I was informed that enchiladas are available on Tuesday AND Friday, not Tuesday THROUGH Friday. When I informed the cafeteria manager that this was incorrect, she seemed shocked and refused to change the sign. Please help determine who is correct!

A. Although the sign was incorrect, I’m not sure you should annoy the person who provides the enchiladas.

Comments

[blorky.livejournal.com]

No, no, no...That's Tuesday *minus* Friday. You know...Thursval (the day after Wedsnick).

[vret.livejournal.com]

Enchilada is a strange word. I can never remember whether it refers to a foodstuff, an insect, or both.

[hfx-ben.livejournal.com]

*Cafeteria signage; what's with that?!*

What did you find the most significant difference? (I'm most familiar with APA and am guessing you'll say something about format for bibliography.)

[solri.livejournal.com]

APA uses author-date parenthetical citation, which is OK for social sciences where you have extensive literature reviews and the date of a study can be important. Chicago has an elegant footnote style, with full bibliographical information in the first footnote, and author-page info in subsequent ones).

There's also the fact that APA recommends a fixed-width font (and no right-indent for blockquotes). The aim is to produce a facsimile of something written on a typewriter (this may have changed in the 5th edition, which I haven't looked at).

[hfx-ben.livejournal.com]

Ummm ... what's the downside of fixed-font?

As for author:date, I'm actually fond of that. Ohh, I like footnotes well enough, but I find the a:d form helps flow. (You've id'd the material's key characteristic nicely ... it'd be good to have you on a W3C docs team!)

Right indent ... blockquote ... meh; an unambiguous left indent should suffice, no? Right indent as well, for me, is more than enough white-space. (I bet there's been research on optimal line width.)

[solri.livejournal.com]

Fixed width fonts are ugly, as are blockquotes that go up to the right margin. I'm a typographical conservative: things like fonts, kerning, justification and so forth have been developed over hundreds of years, and we shouldn't throw them out because someone invented the typewriter.

[hfx-ben.livejournal.com]

Yaa. Just that. It's true.
(A very clear image came to mind as soon as I conjured up the term "monospace".)

[oblomova.livejournal.com]

Anyone who doubts the wisdom of the Enchilada Advice should read the chapter in Trainspotting where Renton's girlfriend is working as a waitress and gets back at abusive customers in highly, um, creative ways.

[hfx-ben.livejournal.com]

*blink*
Zero google results for "Enchilada Advice"!

(I've been waiting for someone to mention empanada.)

[sweetdelirium.livejournal.com]

Speaking as the roommate of a half-argentinian black belt who makes kicking empanadas, I must agree.

Added you, by the by.