These general editing rules apply to the majority of reviews. Some exceptions may arise; in some cases the following suggestions/models may not be appropriate or may create more problems than they solve. The editor should be flexible and use his/her best judgment. Leave the reviewer's style intact, but eliminate unnecessary verbal baggage. The main goal is a clear, readable review.

1). Professional Titles and Institutional Affiliations. Omit "titles" before the author's name. Also delete references to the author's institution. Give the author's full name the first time that it appears in the review.

EXAMPLE: "Professor Smith, dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst" becomes simply "Jane E. Smith."

POSSIBLE EXCEPTION: The author's credentials are highly unusual. "The well-known professor of psychiatry at the University of Vienna, Sigmund Freud, employs regression analysis in this study of Custer's last stand."

2). Early Reference to Author by Name. Typically, we omit reference to the author by name or the title of the book in at least the first sentence of the review and even as long as the remainder of the first paragraph, if possible. Readers presumably have just read the complete citation and know who the author is and the title of the book. If they have memory problems so severe as not to remember, we can refer them to Dr. Freud. The first reference to the author employs their complete name.

3). Reference to Other Works by the Author. Generally omit reference to lists of other works by the author of the book under review. We are reviewing THIS book, not his life's work. These lists can usually be replaced with, "In her works, Jane Smith...", etc. An exception is when the reviewer uses the author's previous work to trace a trend in the author's scholarship, leading up to the book under review. If, however, the litany is merely a shopping list (sometimes written by the reviewer to show off a bit), omit it.

4). Reference to Other Works on the Topic by Other Authors. Similarly, if the reviewer lists many other works on the topic of the book under review, we usually replace these with "other works on the topic," especially when the other works have long titles and are in the same vein and thus conveniently grouped.

5). Repetition. Eliminate repetitious phrasing in the review.

6). Repetition. Eliminate repetitious phrasing in the review.

7). Page Numbers in Citations.Page number citations go at the END of sentences, after the quotation, and before the period. If the reviewer includes several different page citations within one sentence, it is best to omit the citations altogether, though occasionally a construction requires a double citation.

EXAMPLE: The author describes the president as having been "a liar" (42), "highly intelligent," (119), and "imposing" (78).
becomes "The author describes the president as having been "a liar," "highly intelligent," and "imposing."

SAMPLE CORRECT CITATION: "The author characterizes Lincoln as being of such "questionable sanity" that he would be removed from office today (216)."

8). Underscore rather than Italicize. Italics should appear as underlined words. Underscored words are easier to find in the editing process, and the typesetter automatically changes all underscores to italics when the review goes to press.

9). Avoid the passive voice.
EXAMPLE: "The reader is shown that the ambassador played an active role in the negotiations."
becomes "The author shows that the ambassador played an active role in the negotiations."

10). Try, where practical, to have the author do things, rather than the book.In general, we try to have the author do things, not the book, but often, you will find constructions that require one to assume action on the part of the book.
EXAMPLE: "Chapter three examines the fate of the collaborators in postwar France."
becomes "In chapter three, the author examines the fate of the collaborators in postwar France."

11). Spell-out centuries.
EXAMPLE: "16th-century Europe" always becomes "sixteenth-century Europe."

12). Dangling, hyphenated adjectives are not preferred, but they ARE correct.
EXAMPLE: "The rise of liberalism was a development of major importance in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Europe."
for the sake of facility it may become "The rise of liberalism was a development of major importance in Europe during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries."

13). Always use figures for decades.
EXAMPLE: "the sixties" (leaves us wondering which sixties is meant>
becomes "the 1960s" and NOT "the 1960's" (not a contraction and not possessive)

14). Eliminate as much deadwood as possible without changing the reviewer's meaning.
EXAMPLE: "Smith succeeds in telling the story very well."
becomes: "Smith tells the story well."

15). Some specific words/phrases:

a. "Upon" becomes "on" (in most cases).

b. "While" becomes "though" or "although" unless the reviewer literally means that actions were taking place simultaneously.
EXAMPLE: "While historians have always debated this topic, few have approached it as uniquely as Jones."
becomes "Although historians have always debated this topic, few have approached it as uniquely as Jones."

c. "For instance" becomes "for example."

d. "Interestingly" is best avoided.

e. Also generally--but not always--omit meaningless modifiers like "really" and "very."

16). Use N-dashes for dates, and include century digits.
Correct: 1961-1963
Not Correct: 1961-63, 1961 - 1963, 1961--63, 1961--1963

17). "An historian" becomes "a historian."

18). Adjectival forms require a hyphen.
EXAMPLE: adj. form: "Nineteenth-century England was splendid."
but..."Nobody would want to return to America in the nineteenth century."

19). Closed Compounds. Pay close attention to which adjectives require closed compounds. Consult the CMS, if you need to do so. See CMS 6.35, and table 6.1.

20). Double dashes. 2-N dashes have no spaces on either side or between them.
EXAMPLE: "O.J. Simpson--once best known as a rental car salesman, athlete, and poor movie actor--took on a different image after 1994."

21). Watch for and correct split infinitives.
EXAMPLE: "To boldly go where no man has gone before..."
becomes: "To go boldly where no man has gone before..."

22). Put the comma before the conjunction in a series.
EXAMPLE: "Paul Palmer, Andy Young, and Marcie Wademan were very able Senior Editorial Assistants."

23). Check citations for accuracy and completeness. They should be single spaced and block inset, if they exceed four lines of text.

24). American or United States. In general, refer to things pertaining to the Americas as American and to the United States alone as U.S. We do, however, call the citizens of the United States Americans. Just be sensitive without becoming ridiculously politically correct.

25). Descriptive and Restrictive Dependent Clauses.When to use WHICH and THAT

- THAT is the defining or "restrictive" pronoun.

- WHICH is the non-defining or "non-restrictive" pronoun.

- Use THAT when the reviewer intends to refer to a specific, restricted, particular thing.
EXAMPLE: "The bus that ran over Matt Zielenski is parked across from the Church."

- Use WHICH when the reviewer intends only to provide additional descriptive information.
EXAMPLE: "The Ohio Wesleyan school flag, which is a hideous mix of red and black, is displayed only on special occasions." (Adds a fact about the flag.)

- NOTE that the additional information in a WHICH clause (descriptive dependent clause) is set apart by commas, while a THAT clause (restrictive dependent clause) is not.

According to Strunk and White, "The careful writer, watchful for small inconveniences, goes WHICH-hunting, removes the defining WHICHES, and by doing so improves his work."

26). Whom or Who. "Whom" is used as the object of a preposition. If there is no object, use who.

27). Some Semicolon Rules:

a. Use the semicolon to link two sentences without use of a coordinating conjunction, but the sentences should be related in some way.
EXAMPLE: "Karie and Rachel went to town often, but they never went on Wednesdays; on that day, they always played bingo."

b. Use the semicolon to improve clarity in a series, especially when appositives are mixed in.
EXAMPLE: "The Book Review Section employed many excellent editorial assistants including Kevin Manzel, the Managing Editor of the American Psychological Journal; Ken Robinson, now a Red Cross Mogul; and Chelsea Buffington, a graduate of the historical editing program at Arizona State University."

c. Unlike the comma, the semicolon goes OUTSIDE of the quotation marks. When a quotation ends with a semicolon, the semicolon is dropped too.
EXAMPLE: "Derek Dickey assumed that everyone in the room had read 'Copy-Editing Guide for Book Reviewers'; he alluded to it several times a day, which helped everyone immeasurably."

28). No Comma in a Person's Name.Following the most recent edition of CMS we will not use commas in names with Jr., or Roman numerals.
EXAMPLES:
Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
Adlai Stevenson III

29). Proper nouns are NOT hyphenated as adjectives.
EXAMPLE: "African American history"
but " Afro-American" is hyphenated.

30). Numerals. According to CMS, numbers one to ninety-nine are written as words; higher than that, such as 100, are written in numerals. Note: This differs from our old MSU Press policy.

An exception would be when several numbers on both sides of the divide are in the same sentence.
EXAMPLE: "There were six Western states, 26 counties, and four cities at the meeting."
becomes: "There were six Western states, twenty-six counties, and four cities at the meeting."

31). Points Doubled. Remember that editing points are doubled on a review if you cite the rule from this list or in the CMS that allows you to make the correction.

Revised June 2003