#000636
The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th Edition
University of Chicago Press
For much of the English-speaking publishing world, this is the book that settles the argument. The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th Edition (2003) is the University of Chicago Press's comprehensive guide to preparing and editing prose for publication: grammar and usage, punctuation, capitalization, quotations, tables, and, most famously, two rival systems of documentation, notes-and-bibliography and author-date citation. This edition was a notable modernization, rewriting the grammar chapter and expanding coverage of electronic publishing and the then-new realities of digital workflow. Thick, authoritative, and meticulously indexed, it functions less as a book to read than as an oracle to consult. It speaks to editors, academic authors, and anyone in scholarly or trade publishing who needs a defensible answer to how something should be styled, and it has long been the default house standard across the humanities and social sciences.
more…less ▴
The book
The Chicago Manual of Style has been issued by the University of Chicago Press since 1906, growing from a printer's style sheet into the standard American reference for editing and citation. The 15th edition (2003) modernized the venerable text, with a substantially rewritten chapter on grammar and usage (by Bryan A. Garner) and much-expanded treatment of electronic sources and production. It codifies two documentation systems, notes-bibliography and author-date, and rules on nearly every mechanical question an editor faces.
How to read it
It is a working reference, not a cover-to-cover read, and on that basis it is superb: exhaustive, consistent, and clearly organized around its index. Its authority is real but not universal, since journalism follows the AP Stylebook, much of the humanities uses MLA, and psychology uses APA, so "correct" depends on your house. The chief caveat with this particular edition is age: at more than two decades old it predates later guidance on digital and web citation, and Chicago has since issued newer editions (the 18th appeared in 2024). Keep it for the fundamentals; check a current edition for anything involving online sources.
For more context
Compare with the MLA Handbook, the Publication Manual of the APA, and Garner's Modern English Usage.
Sources - Chicago Manual of Style Online - University of Chicago Press
- Type
- Book
- Author / Maker
- University of Chicago Press
- Publisher
- University of Chicago Press
- Place of publication
- Chicago
- Year
- 2003
- Edition
- 15th
- ISBN
- None
- Shelf
- Reference
- Location
- Colorado