Category: Style manuals

A new edition is here! The online version is live, and the print arrives in early September. (We’ve been waiting patiently since it was announced in March at CMOSShoptTalk.com.)

Changes include:

• Internet is no longer a proper noun; it’s just lowercase internet.
• The singular they is the preferred personal pronoun, even in formal writing.
• Twitter gets citation samples.

In September, the new print Chicago Manual will live with other general-purpose dictionaries and style guides, downstairs at Z 253 .U69. Online, UCI community members can use www.chicagomanualofstyle.org. (Off-campus users: log into the VPN beforehand.) The free online Q&A section also provides gleefully opinionated guidance on style and grammar minutia.

Law students should (of course) still consult specialized sources for legal writing like the Bluebook for citation and Bryan Garner’s classic Redbook—among other titles—for grammar and style. In print, both of these titles live upstairs in the KF 250 call number range. The Chicago Manual, however, can supplement these sources when you’re drafting scholarly papers and other types of writing for a more general audience.

The Typography for Lawyers website made a splash when it launched, with its opinionated and informed take on legal document design. Written by a former professional font designer who is currently a civil litigator, the blog recently evolved into a book. Now both the blog and book offer advice, anecdotes, and examples.

The Law Library recently purchased the book in response to a law student’s suggestion.* Now you can come check out the author’s design aesthetic in print, and see for yourself the differences between print-optimized and screen optimized fonts.

Matthew Butterick, Typography for Lawyers: Essential Tools for Polished & Persuasive Documents. (Jones McClure Publishing) 216 pages, paperback.
Reading Room – KF250 .B88 2010.
Check ANTPAC to see if it’s on the shelf.

* The Law Library welcomes your feedback. Let us know if you have a suggestion!

New title: Ross Guberman, Point Made: How to Write like the Nation’s Top Advocates, (Oxford Univ. Press, 2011). 311 pages, paperback.

Reading Room – KF251 .G83 2011.

Check ANTPAC to see if it’s on the shelf.

Update 09/06/2011: The paperback version of this book was briefly reviewed by Professor Mark Wojcik on the Legal Writing Prof Blog:

It’s fascinating to see the examples [Guberman] has chosen and to see how patent lawyers, ACLU lawyers, Kenneth Starr and others use the same writing techniques to produce powerful advocacy.  It’s a nicely done book that took quite a bit of work to assemble.