Commentary

The latest Chicago Style Q&A

jacket imageThe Chicago Manual of Style Online features a Q&A page, where the manuscript editors from the University of Chicago Press interpret the Manual‘s recommendations and uncoil its intricacies. Our editors receive hundreds of submissions each month and a handful of the most helpful (not to mention entertaining) are selected for publication on the Chicago Style Q&A page. And often there’s one too good not to reprint here:

Q. Oh, English-language gurus, is it ever proper to put a question mark and an exclamation mark at the end of a sentence in formal writing? This author is giving me a fit with some of her overkill emphases, and now there is this sentence that has both marks at the end. My everlasting gratitude for letting me know what I should tell this person.
A. In formal writing, we allow both marks only in the event that the author was being physically assaulted while writing. Otherwise, no.

Anyone can post a question and access to the Q&A is free, so go ahead and ask all those hairsplitting questions about English grammar you’ve been dying to solve!
While you’re at it, be sure to check out the loads of other free content like the tools for editors—a collection of sample forms, letters, and style sheets—as well as the Chicago Style Citation Quick Guide for help citing sources.