The Quest to Understand a Change in Writing Guidelines

During the fall semester, I took the course ENG W365 “The Theory and Practices of Editing” with Professor J. J. Stenzoski. The course was designed “to learn and practice the craft of copyediting nonfiction prose.” I would recommend this course to every staff member at IUPUI because what you might have learned in high school English, typing or computing, or journalism has changed. Granted, I graduated from high school many years ago, but who would have thought that rules for grammar, punctuation, and style would have changed? Not me! Well, I was wrong.

Below are just a few of the changes I learned:

• There are no longer TWO spaces between ending punctuation and the next word of writing. (Example: Is it hard to learn to type one space instead of two after ending punctuation? Yes, it is!)
• One space, not two, follows a colon.
• Numbers one through one hundred are spelled out, not just one through ten.
• Titles are capitalized only if preceding a person’s name (Examples: President Michael McRobbie is the current president of Indiana University. Michael McRobbie, president of Indiana University, will attend the Board of Trustees meeting next week.) Board of Trustees would not normally be capitalized because in some places it is not considered an official title for the body. However, at Indiana University, it is considered an official name. Tricky, right? It’s a good idea to use the style guide for IU to know how the university wants things listed.
• Is it email or e-mail? It’s e-mail. It will probably evolve to “email” in a few years, but for now, hyphenate it.
• Watch for compound words. Is it on-line or online? It’s online. Be sure to have a good dictionary on hand.
• Periods and commas go inside single or double quotation marks. A semicolon or colon goes outside. A question mark or exclamation point can go inside or outside.
• Ellipsis or suspension points are three spaced periods.
• Degree abbreviation: The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) says NOT to put periods in abbreviations for degrees (PhD), but the IU Style Guide does (Ph.D.). Always go with the Style Guide first.

If you don’t already have these tools for proper writing, I recommend purchasing the Chicago Manual of Style, 16^th ed., and Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11^th ed. The Chicago Manual of Style can also be accessed online. Another valuable resource for IUPUI faculty and staff is the style guide for Indiana University. This guide follows many of the practices in CMOS, but tells you specifically the guidelines Indiana University wants you to use.

My new rule for writing and grammar? When in doubt, look it up!