Reporting on Movies

At my internship this week I did interviews with some really incredible film makers and producers. When I was writing about the films I realized I did not know how what to do with the title of their movies. With essays you always put the title in quotation, Toni Morrison addresses the black woman's view on women's lib in her essay, "What the Black Woman thinks about Women's Lib." The title of a book is in italics. I am reading Toni Morrison's book, Tar Baby. But what do you do when you are referencing a movie or a documentary?

I will get back with you when I find out, or you can let me know if you find out first. In all the reviews, some capitalized the entire title, some italicised and some put the title in quotations. I am not sure what to do or who to follow?

"Nit-picker's Bible"

So, Google News has informed me that the 16th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style has just been released and is generating a lot of buzz. Well, buzz for a bunch of grammar nerds anyway. So, here are some of the facts I found interesting while reading this 3 PAGE homage:

• The Chicago Manual of Style has 11,000+ fans on FB.
  
• The preferred spelling of the term "U.S." has been updated to: "US."
  
• The proper citation for Wikipedia is now included.
  
• The rule for sequential punctuation marks has been rethought - "Chicago says it is now OK in certain situations to use a comma directly after a question mark or exclamation point."
• People seem to do more than just respect this book - they love it. They adore it. They want to make little half-text, half-human babies with it.
  

Overall, it was kind of interesting to read some of the ways that copyeditors think about this book. It's clear that it's one of their most vital tools. During editing tests they're often given this book and nothing else to reference. I've had to use it, but it certainly hasn't taken on the significance for me that it has for others. Not yet, anyway :D

Chicago Manual

I thought you might be interested in reading what one reviewer of the latest edition of Chicago Manual has to say about it. The article appeared in Slate.

My thanks to David for sending the link.