Styles, for Writers

Style—grammar, punctuation, paragraph construction, capitalization—is an inexact science. Consistency on the page often supersedes textbook guidance, and there remains a lot of room for artful flair. Even the title of this article, with that comma, for example, demonstrates a bit of artistry.

However.

Conventions are important, and when submitting narrative prose to an agent or publisher—or perhaps even a critique group—an author should follow expected convention as much as possible. In the United States, the formatting of your manuscript should ideally follow the industry standard manuscript format (reference page: The Industry Standard Manuscript), and your prose should adhere closely to guidelines found in The Chicago Manual of Style. The Associated Press Stylebook defines the style expectations for newspapers and news websites, magazines, PR, press releases, and marketing copy. Blog posts and online content, though more naturally aligned to the AP style of content, often will follow the CMOS, or the author's bespoke preferences.

Note, this page addresses an American-specific editorial expectation for narrative works. British English-based publications follow a different set of standards.

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TOPIC: Spelling (CMOS 7.1, 7.2)

When in doubt, refer to Merriam Webster. To quote the Chicago Manual of Style:

Recommended dictionaries. For spelling, Chicago prefers the first-listed entries in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary at Merriam-Webster.com, referred to throughout this manual as Merriam-Webster (see also 7.2). That dictionary, originally based on the printed Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (11th ed., 2003) [Todd Warner owes the just released 12th ed., 2026], carries the name Collegiate Dictionary on some platforms. Whenever possible, refer to the larger and more frequently updated online dictionary rather than its printed counterpart. For words not found at Merriam-Webster.com, refer to Merriam- Webster Unabridged (the ongoing online update to Webster's Third New International Dictionary). If, as occasionally happens, the dictionary at Merriam-Webster.com disagrees with Merriam-Webster Unabridged, the more frequently updated entries at Merriam-Webster.com should be followed. For further definitions or alternative spellings, refer to another standard dictionary such as Dictionary.com, which is based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary (and supplemented by other sources). At least for spelling, one source should be used consistently throughout a single work. (For full bibliographic information on these and other English dictionaries, including Canadian, British, and Australian references, see bibliog. 3.1.)

For entries with variant spellings, CMOS 7.2 recommends you use the first listed term.

Some terms are neither listed in Merriam-Webster.com nor Dictionary.com. For example, the word fenceline. For these … do the best you can. Just be ready to justify it if an editor takes issue.

TOPIC: The Oxford Comma (CMOS 6.19)

There really is no excuse not to use the Oxford comma—the comma before the conjunction in a list of three or more—except in rare artful presentations. The oxford comma adds clarity. Choose clarity.

✔ The red, yellow, and green balloons. YES
✗ The red, yellow and green balloons. NO

Remember, punctuation has an impact on meaning

Be aware of how comma usage can change meaning.

Eats shoots and leaves.
. . . describes the eating habits of certain tree-dwelling animals.

Eats, shoots, and leaves.
. . . suggests someone just polished off their sandwich at the diner, murdered someone, and then left.

(See also Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss, Gotham Press, 2004. Notice she doesn't use the Oxford comma in her title. Probably to drive American writers to drink.)

TOPIC: Ellipses (CMOS 12.43, 12.59-69)

Ellipsis formatting commonly chosen by publications (CMOS 12.68)
(which differs from what is recommended for manuscript authors; see next section below)

The Chicago Manual of Style prefers three spaced periods (suspension points) with additional spacing (with exceptions) around the set of dots. The spaces between the dots require the use of nonbreaking spaces in order to facilitate correct word-wrapping of the ellipsis as a unit. If punctuation follows an ellipsis, an additional nonbreaking space is added between (exception: ending quotation mark) so that punctuation wraps with the ellipsis.

I.e., if you look at the model description below, there is a nonbreaking space before the exclamation point, but no space at all between the third period of the ellipsis and the quotation mark.

When your book goes to production, this will very likely how your book publisher will format they ellipses. And if you self publish, you really should make the effort to implement this correctly.

Examples of usage demonstrating the spacing requirements.

✔ "I . . . Um . . . Er . . . So . . . Do you want to go out on Saturday?"

✔ "I . . . " he said, then scratched his head. "Well, I forgot what I was going to say." (Note: In dialogue, commas are generally dropped after an ellipsis.)

✔ Everyone knows that the Declaration of Independence begins with the sentence "When, in the course of human events . . ." But how many people can recite more than the first few lines of the document? —Example taken from CMOS 12.64 (17th ed., 13.55). Notice the dropped space between the ellipsis and the ending quotation mark.

✔ "I thought he was coming to the party, but now . . . ?"
—Note that if the question (?) mark, in this example, was instead a period (.) marking the end of a sentence, a fourth period could be added (now . . . ."), but Chicago suggests you drop it for clarity's sake: (now . . .").

Ellipsis formatting commonly recommended for your manuscript (CMOS 12.68)
(which differs from what a publication will likely choose)

The manuscript author exception:

The Chicago Manual of Style makes a convenience allowance for manuscript authors to use the individual ellipsis character instead:

12.68   Spaced periods versus the ellipsis character. A Chicago-style ellipsis consists of three spaced periods . . . like that. [. . .] Some publishers instead use the horizontal ellipsis character (…), defined for Unicode as U+2026. This character, which has the advantage of not breaking over a line, may also be preferred by some authors when they are preparing their manuscripts (alternatively, three unspaced periods, which will also stay together, may be used, provided only one type of ellipsis appears throughout a document). A space should be used before and after an unspaced ellipsis … like that, except when the ellipsis is followed by a comma or other mark of punctuation …, like that. Copyeditors imposing Chicago style will replace these characters with Chicago-style spaced periods, adding nonbreaking spaces as needed.

Examples of usage demonstrating the single character usage.

✔ "I … Um … Er … So … Do you want to go out on Saturday?"

✔ "I …" he said, then scratched his head. "Well, I forgot what I was going to say." (Note: In dialogue, commas are generally dropped after an ellipsis.)

✔ Everyone knows that the Declaration of Independence begins with the sentence "When, in the course of human events …" But how many people can recite more than the first few lines of the document? —Example taken from CMOS 12.64. Notice the dropped space between the ellipsis and the ending quotation mark.

✔ "I thought he was coming to the party, but now . . . ?" —Note that if that question (?) mark was instead a period (.) marking the end of a sentence, a fourth period could be added (now …."), but Chicago suggests you drop it for clarity's sake: (now …").

The model: _. . ._   _. . ._!_   _. . ."_
Those ellipses are single characters. For the sake of not fighting the particularities of word-wrapping, you could even drop that space, _. . .!_, between the trailing punctuation and the ellipsis. The publisher will fix it later.

The reasoning is simple: juggling those dots and nonbreaking spacing is difficult at the keyboard level and should be left to the publisher. They will search and replace all of those character combinations with dots and nonbreaking spaces.

So, for your manuscript, use the ellipsis character and honor the spacing so that your publisher can easily format it to their desired pattern using search and replace.

TOPIC: Em Dashes (CMOS 6.91, 12.41-42)

Em dash usage is relatively straight forward. And the model of formatting is simple. Em dashes are essentially super-commas and they can also be used in place of parentheses in most cases. They are also used to show interruption. They are almost always used without spacing surrounding the em dash unless the em dash is truncating a sentence.
(See also, post "Minuses, Hyphens and Dashes. Oh, My!")

Examples:

The em dash interruption (CMOS 12.41, 12.42)

✔ "I think we should—wait, did you hear that noise?"
✔ "I think we should— Wait, did you hear that noise?" (preferred, but depends on pacing)

✔ "Gerald, look at your phone—"
"Gah! Holy cow, you scared me," Gerald said.
"—or don't you have one?" Ava was getting impatient. (This is really three paragraphs.)

✔ "Look at your phone"—Ava was getting impatient—"or don't you have one?"
. . . but this could be . . .
✔ "Look at your phone." Ava was getting impatient. "Or don't you have one?"
. . . but never . . .
✗ "Look at your phone—" Ava was getting impatient "—or don't you have one?"

Parenthetical em dashes (CMOS 6.91)

✔ The three core ingredients—flour, water, and yeast—are all you need to begin your baking journey.

Because this could be: The three core ingredients (flour, water, and yeast) are all you need to begin your baking journey.

Em dashes help avoid "comma soup" (CMOS 6.91)

✔ The delegates—hailing from France, Germany, and Italy—refused to sign the treaty until the terms were clarified.
. . . instead of . . .
✗ The delegates, hailing from France, Germany, and Italy, refused to sign the treaty until the terms were clarified.
(Note, this is not incorrect, per se, but simply less clear.)

The em dash terminal expansion, i.e., replacing the colon (CMOS 6.91)

✔ After years of searching and thousands of dollars spent, he finally found the perfect gift—a vintage 1968 typewriter.

Trailing off using em dashes . . . (CMOS 12.42)

✔ "But I thought you said that the—" She stopped, realizing she had already said too much.
✔ "Did he really say—?"

Those indicate a more punctuated trailing off. But if you wanted a bit more drift in the pacing, you could have done (see also CMOS 12.43, etc.):

✔ "But I thought you said that the . . ." She stopped, realizing she had already said too much.
. . . or, demonstrating the manuscript author exception:
✔ "But I thought you said that the …" She stopped, realizing she had already said too much.

✔ "Did he really say . . . ?"
. . . or, again demonstrating the manuscript author exception:
✔ "Did he really say … ?"

TOPIC: Plurals for Words That End in an S Sound (CMOS 7.5)

This is an easy guideline. You add es.

✔ Bus → Busses (or buses^*)
✔ Box → Boxes
✔ Waltz → Waltzes
✔ Dish → Dishes
✔ Jones → Joneses

^* Neat! Both 'busses' and the more common 'buses' are acceptable.

TOPIC: Singular Possessives (CMOS 7.16)

This is an easy guideline. You add 's.

✔ Todd's website is great.
✔ Keats's poems are particularly rich with imagery.
✔ Stephen Graham Jones's novels are an example of literary, upmarket horror.
✔ Marx’s theories
. . . and not . . .
✗ Keats' poems are particularly rich with imagery.
✗ Stephen Graham Jones' novels are an example of literary, upmarket horror.
✗ Marx’ theories

The idiomatic exception (CMOS 7.21)

✔ For goodness’ sake.

When it gets clunky, the CMOS suggests rewording the phrase:

✔ "The plays of Euripides" instead of "Euripides’s plays."

TOPIC: Plural Possessives (CMOS 7.16)

For plural possessives that end in an S sound . . . you add an apostrophe.

✔ The team met at the Joneses' house for dinner.
✔ My classes' schedules changed.
. . . and not . . .
✗ The team met at the Joneses's house for dinner.
(This would be inSSSanity!)
✗ My classes's schedules changed.
(Again . . . INsssSSSanity!)

TOPIC: Punctuation and the Ending Quotation Mark (CMOS 6.9–11)

Punctuation goes inside the ending quotation mark, but there are some exceptions.

✔ "I’m headed to the store," he said. "I'll be back in an hour."
✔ "Are you coming with us?"
✔ "Stop right there!"

If we were quoting someone . . .

✔ Did he really say, "I'm never coming back"?
✔ I can't believe she called that "a minor inconvenience"!

But, if it ends in a period for this last example . . .

✗ I can't believe she called that "a minor inconvenience".
✔ I can't believe she called that "a minor inconvenience."
. . . because, English. 😭

Punctuation Mark	Position	Example
Period (.)	Always Inside	"This is the end of the story."
Comma (,)	Always Inside	"Wait," he said, "I'm coming too."
Semicolon (;)	Always Outside	He called the car "vintage"; I called it a wreck.
Colon (:)	Always Outside	She had three "must-haves": coffee, silence, and a book.
Question Mark (?)	Contextual (Inside)	He asked, "Where are you going?"
Question Mark (?)	Contextual (Outside)	Did he really say, "I'm leaving"?
Exclamation Point (!)	Contextual (Inside)	"Stop right there!"
Exclamation Point (!)	Contextual (Outside)	I can't believe he called that "a minor delay"!

What if the inner quote is a question?

✗ Did he really ask, "When are you coming back?"?
✔ Did he really ask, "When are you coming back?"
✗ He asked, "When are you coming back?".
✔ He asked, "When are you coming back?"

Asking a question about a question someone asked?

✔ He called the performance "spectacular"; however, the critics disagreed.
✔ She had three "must-haves": coffee, silence, and a good book.

Scenario	Placement	Example
Outer sentence is a question	Outside	Did he really say, "I'm never coming back"?
Inner quote is a question	Inside	He asked, "When are you coming back?"
Both are questions	Inside	Did he really ask, "When are you coming back?"

TOPIC: Curly Quotes versus Straight Quotes (CMOS 6.123, 6.125)

When formatting English, there are straight quotes, " and ', and then there are curly or "smart" or typographical quotes, “ and ”, ‘ and ’. (Font-size increased to highlight the differences.) Straight quotes are what we can type naturally on the keyboard. Smart quotes need a bit of nuance to get them right.

Interestingly, the prominent manuscript standards generally don't address the quote formatting situation. Shunn (who's standards most consider "the standard" and the standards that I base these guidelines upon) posts example manuscripts all with straight quotes. This implies straight quotes are "the standard" for your manuscript.

And so. My recommendation, for today, in March 2026:

1. Don't mix straight quotes with curly quotes. Whatever you do, do it throughout the document.
2. Stick with straight quotes unless the manuscript standards for a particular publisher state something different. Let them clean it up for publication when they clean up other typographic elements of the document. For whatever word processor you are using, turn them off in the "autocorrect" section of the application.

But you want curly quotes? There are a number of ways to enable them:

• Most word processors have a setting to turn them on.
• All text editors will only support straight quotes.
• Switching to curly quotes after the fact
  • MS Word: does a pretty good job replacing straight quotes if you turn on autocorrect and do a search and replace of " for " (yes, straight quote for straight quote), and ' for '. CHECK YOUR WORK!
  • LibreOffice: You will have to manually search and each quotation mark (single and double) with the appropriate typographical quote. Alternatively, import and use this macro: StraightQuotes2CurlyQuotes.bas. That is far and away the easiest method. You just have to figure out how to import and use macros in LibreOffice. It's not rocket science, but most folks will struggle if unfamilial. Read more here at LibreOffice's Getting Started with Macros.

Recommendations if doing document-wide change:

• Turn on Track Changes the first time you make these bulk changes and pick through the document and note and address any anomalies.
  • MS Word: Not sure where you turn that on.
  • LibreOffice: Edit > Track Changes > turn on both Record and Show
  • OnlyOffice: Collaboration > Track Changes > On for me (or On for me and everyone)
• A significant gotcha: Word constructions like "Got get 'em!" will almost always be rendered incorrectly in a bulk replace operation and often even by autocorrect. "It's about time!" and "'Tis the season to be jolly." should render correctly (but not unquoted 'Tis), but you need to verify this. That single quote is a RIGHT single quote and not a left single quote. I.e, This is not correct: “Got get ‘em!” These should look like this: “It’s about time!”, “Got get ’em!” or “’Tis the season to be jolly.”

TOPIC: Hyphenated Words (and Compounds)

This section is not complete yet. Please reference CMOS 7.87–7.96.

TOPIC: Minuses, Hyphens, Dashes, and More

I have posted (way back in 2019) a whole article on this topic: "Minuses, Hyphens and Dashes. Oh, My!".

Asyndeton and Polysyndeton (CMOS 6.19)

Polysyndeton

Polysyndeton is a stylistic device where conjunctions (most commonly and, but, or or) are used in quick succession, often with no commas, even when they aren't grammatically necessary.

Dumped to the ground, he lay still. From there, he gaped, forever surprised, toward the branches clawing at the starlit sky. From there, he stared up at his killer and the sky and at nothing*, now blind to all that was and will ever be.*

"His killer and the sky and at nothing" instead of "his killer, the sky, and at nothing."

The choice adds gravitas, rhythm, and a slower pacing.

Asyndeton

Asyndeton is the direct opposite. It is the practice of leaving out conjunctions entirely. Example: "I came, I saw, I conquered." The choice adds immediacy, while still serving to highlight. The pacing is quicker and will often add a snap to the prose. (Note that this example uses commas instead of periods or semicolons in order to link the phrases more tightly.)

While asyndeton speeds a sentence up to create excitement or haste, polysyndeton drags the moment out to emphasize the scale or the labor of the experience.

Alright! Alright! Okay, already!

Use these spellings (most of the time): All right. Already. Okay.

All right

"Alright is never right." You can quote me on that. But it is a bit misleading. Use "all right" everywhere except, perhaps, within dialogue. Within dialogue, use your own judgment. Matthew McConaughey's character's catchphrase in Dazed and Confused is definitely spelled "alright": "Alright alright alright!" Colloquially, we tend to slur the words together whereas in most other instances the two words are enunciated apart.

OK vs. Okay

Formal, non-narrative, journalistic writing, and when in doubt: OK.

Narrative writing and poetry: Okay.

Already vs. All ready

These two have differing meanings:

1. By this time or so soon: already
2. Entirely set or completely prepared: all ready

Awhile vs. A while

1. Awhile (adverb) — Berend decided to stay awhile. (briefly)
2. A while (noun phrase) — Berend decided to stay for a while. (for a period of time)

Bonus: Alot vs A lot

"A lot" is the correct choice.

More to Come

This may look like a list of pet peeves, but it's really more of a list of common issues that even experienced writers struggle with at times. In the end, editors can be rather forgiving (editor dependent) and they may even state a clear preference. Consistency often supersedes the textbook guidance. But it is best to adhere to The Chicago Manual of Style as much as possible since it is tacitly "the standard."