by Bobbie Christmas
Q: I have two questions. In including a quote from [source redacted] in an article I’m writing, I have these challenges:
1. He was British so his spelling is different from ours in one word in my quote. Should I keep it intact and, if so, do I need to notate the difference in some way?
2. The quote has a parenthetical phrase that is irrelevant to my topic. Can I skip the phrase without losing the integrity of the quote?
A: The Chicago Manual of Style lists permissible changes to quotations in section 13.7, which states that obvious typographical errors may be corrected, but “if spelling and punctuation are modernized or altered for clarity, readers must be so informed in a note, in a preface, or elsewhere.” Seem to me, then, that keeping the British spelling would be the wiser way to go. As for eliminating a parenthetical phrase, I don’t see the specific issue addressed in CMOS, but if eliminating any portion doesn’t change the meaning of the quotation, I see no problem. If it were me, I’d quote only the portions relevant to the point I was trying to make.
Q: I can’t remember if I place a period after the single quote or before.
A: In American English single quotation marks are used only inside double quotation marks. They never stand alone. In addition, periods almost always, if not always, go inside quotation marks, whether single or double.
Contrary to what might be popular belief, single quotation marks are not used for emphasis or irony. They never stand alone except in headlines.
Examples of single and double quotation marks with periods:
Mary said, “John told me, ‘I never lie.’”
Example of single quotation marks in headlines:
AUDIENCE RECEPTION ‘MILD,’ ACCORDING TO REVIEWER
Q: When are the directions (north, south, east, west) capitalized?
A: Directions are capitalized in Chicago style when they refer to regions. In the following example “north” is simply a direction, not a region, so it is not capitalized: We went north to Virginia. In the following sentence, though, “North” refers to a region, so it’s capitalized, but south is a direction, so it’s not: She grew up in the North, but she moved farther south to enjoy the warmer weather.
Perhaps the use of the word “the” is a fairly reliable indicator that the word refers to a region, rather than simply a direction.
Here’s what my book Purge Your Prose of Problems has to say about the subject: Capitalize directions when used for areas of the country. (He moved to the North for the summer.) Do not capitalize for general directions. (We drove south for four blocks.)
Q: In my book manuscript I quote from 1945 newspaper articles that contain names of oceangoing vessels. The articles did not italicize those names, perhaps because of shortcomings of the presses of that time. Nevertheless, I feel I should italicize the names in my manuscript. Am I correct?
A: Good catch! The newspaper articles did not italicize those names because it apparently was not the newspaper’s style to italicize the names of oceangoing vessels. Chicago style, however, which is the style used by book publishers, does indeed italicize the names of specific ships, submarines, airplanes, aircraft, and even artificial satellites. If the name is preceded by an abbreviation such as SS or HMS, however, the abbreviation is not italicized.
Bobbie Christmas, book editor, author of Write In Style: Use Your Computer to Improve Your Writing, and owner of Zebra Communications, will answer your questions, too. Send them to Bobbie@zebraeditor.com. Read more Ask the Book Doctor questions and answers at www.zebraeditor.com.