Difference between revisions of "Style Manual"

Revision as of 17:19, 3 October 2020

The publications of The Augustan Society, Inc., need a consistent style so as to present a consistent and professional appearance. This page is an effort to establish such a standard.

Typographic Standards

Editorial Preferences

• Serial commas in all situations — alpha, beta, and gamma.
• Quantities of twenty or fewer are spelled out as words, larger amount as digits. Exceptions are for ages, and perhaps others.
• Date format is day month year — 18 August 1957 (18 Aug. 1957).
• Months are to be spelled out in the body of the article, but abbreviated in notes and in genealogical tables.
• Centuries are to be styled "20th century.
• Calendar designation shall be either "BC" or "AD" whenever there may be ambiguity — AD 1957 or 3400 BC, but 2 January 201 AD. Articles set entirely in one era may omit these.
• Acronyms composed of initials shall omit periods — thus USA, FAS, PhD.
• Endnotes are preferred to footnotes.
• Notes shall be numbered sequentially throughout each article. Multi-part articles should use continuing numbering when all parts are by the same author. Occasional exceptions apply, as with exceedingly long articles like Germond.
• Footnotes should be used sparingly, and should not be used for citations (endnotes being preferred). Author biographies or references to prior articles in a series should be footnoted on the opening page with an asterisk [*].
• If footnotes are used with a Bibliography, the footnotes shall be in brief format, "Author, Year, p. 00" with full details in the Bibliography. Note that this approach works poorly with web sources, and is discouraged when these are used.
• Notes are referenced by numerals within square brackets in text — [1], not superscript ¹.
• Notes are listed by numerals followed by a closing square bracket — 1], not [1].
• Do not use apostrophes in decades and centuries; thus 1920s not 1920's, and 1800s not 1800's.
• Ordinal suffixes (st, nd, rd, th) should be superscript. Elevation 33% and size 67%.

Things to Avoid

• Do not use double spaces; condense them all to single spaces.
• Do not place spaces at the start or end of paragrahs.
• Do not use spaces for formatting. Use indent or tabs if required.
• Do not put blank lines between paragraphs.
• Do not link frames or illustrations to pages; link them to paragraphs.

English Admonitions

• When inserting a parenthetical phrase, any following comma goes outside the parentheses.
• When a parenthetical phrase at the end of a sentence is itself a whole sentence, place the period for the main sentence at its end (before the parentheses), and place the period for the parenthetical sentence within the parentheses.

Citation Standards

These are based largely upon Chicago, but changes have been made to provide greater consistency and to extend the range of sources. Examples follow:

Fundamental principle

Author. "Title of article or chapter" in Title of book. Access date for online sources. Publisher or access method. Page numbers.

Book

Firstname Lastname. Title of Book. City: Publisher, 18 August 1957, p. 000.

United States. Journal of the House of Representatives. 00^th Congress, p. 000.

Book, second citation

Lastname. 1957. pp. 00-00.

If only one title by the author, the date may be omitted.

Census

Government agency. 1957 Census: Torrance, Los Angeles Co., CA. National Archives Microfilm #A00-00, p. 000, Firstname Lastname.

Census Online

Government agency. "1957 Census: Torrance, Los Angeles Co., CA" in Website Author or Owner. "Web Page Name" in Website Name. Accessed 18 August 1957. http://wiki.augustansociety.org/specific/page. National Archives Microfilm #A00-00, p. 000, Firstname Lastname.

Journal

Firstname Lastname. "Title of Article" in Journal Title, (Volume:Number), Issue number, 1957. City: Publisher, pp. 000-000.

Firstname Lastname. "Title of Article" in Journal Title, Vol. 00, No. 0, 1957. City: Publisher, pp. 000-000.

Letter

Firstname Lastname. Letter to Firstname Lastname. 18 August 1957. Location of original.

Letter on website

Firstname Lastname. Letter to Firstname Lastname. 18 August 1957, in Website Author or Owner. "Web Page Name" in Website Name. Accessed 18 August 1957. http://wiki.augustansociety.org/specific/page.

Document

Firstname Lastname. Government document name. 18 August 1957. Archives holding document. Details needed for access.

Unique items

Lastname Family Bible. Copy in possession of author.

Vital Records

Jurisdiction. Vital Records. Accessed 18 August 1957. http://wiki.augustansociety.org/specific/page.
Note: This form only appropriate when the Jurisdiction maintains the website.

Webpage

Firstname Lastname. "Page Name" in Website Name. Accessed 18 August 1957. http://wiki.augustansociety.org/specific/page.

Do not give citations to web sites that require registration or a password.

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