Style Manual

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, dates, and perhaps others.
• Date format is day month year — 18 August 1957 (18 Aug 1957 in genealogies and tables).
• 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 “twentieth 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. The exception is mention of prior publication, non-Society copyright, mention of prior articles in a series, and brief author bios which go in a footnote on the first page of the article marked with an asterisk.
• Notes shall be numbered sequentially throughout each article. Multi-part articles should use continuous numbering when all parts are by the same author. Occasional exceptions apply, as with exceedingly long articles like the Germond series.
• If footnotes are used with a Bibliography, the footnotes shall be in brief format, “Author, Short title, vol:page” 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 surround mdashes with spaces, thus [—], not [ — ].
• Do not put blank lines between paragraphs. Use spacing above paragrahs.
• Do not link frames or illustrations to pages; link them to paragraphs. (Except when the system is being uncooperative.)

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

Fundamental principle

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

Book

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

United States. Journal of the House of Representatives. (00^th Congress) 000.

Book, second citation

Lastname, Short Title, 00–00.

Census

Government agency. 1957 Census: Torrance, Los Angeles Co., CA. National Archives Microfilm #A00-00, 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 Aug 1957. http://wiki.augustansociety.org/specific/page. National Archives Microfilm #A00-00, 000, Firstname Lastname.

Journal

Lastname, Firstname. "Title of Article" in Journal Title, Vol. 00. City: Publisher, 1957. 000–000.

Letter

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

Letter on website

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

Document

Lastname, Firstname. Government document name, 18 Aug 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 Aug 1957. http://wiki.augustansociety.org/specific/page.
Note: This form only appropriate when the Jurisdiction maintains the website.

Webpage

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

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

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