A Guide to Tricky Citations for Academic Authors & Editors
All academic writers know that they need to properly cite their sources. Whether you’re directly quoting from a text or speech, paraphrasing the thoughts of another scholar, or reprinting an image or table, you need to cite the original author in order to give them credit and provide breadcrumbs for readers to learn more.
While the Chicago Manual of Style’s (CMOS) guidelines for common bibliography and note citations are generally well known by scholarly writers, there are a number of other tricky formats that often confuse academic authors.
In this brief guide, assembled from recommendations by my expert team of citation editors at Flatpage, I’ll introduce you to the hardest types of citations for academics to get right using CMOS and provide you with sample notes so you can get them right next time!
BREATHE: Overcoming Writer’s Block
I once had a job attempting to novelize a video game that (somehow) had no script, and every time I told the project manager, “I’m stuck,” they would tell me, “It’s okay, you just need to wait for the muse to inspire you!”
Needless to say, that book never got written, because—more’s the pity—working writers don’t have the luxury of waiting for inspiration to strike. When a deadline’s looming, and the writer’s block is pressing down, you often don’t have any other option but to keep going, even when that feels like beating your head against a brick wall.
Thankfully, there are some things you can do to help break through the (hopefully metaphorical) wall.
Are You Game for a New Kind of Mouse?
For a good part of my elementary school years my reading diet included large portions of Tom Swift, Danny Dunn, and Alvin Fernald, those midcentury envoys of STEM, the boy-inventors. This probably goes a long way toward explaining why I’m always on the lookout for ways to reduce my workload through technology, preferably technology with blinking lights. So when I first came across a mouse designed for computer gaming, the idea of turning it into an editing productivity tool was very alluring. I was surprised, however, that I couldn’t find anything written on the subject—there are plenty of blog posts about gaming mice by video editors and photo editors but apparently none by editors of writing.
Tips for Offering Editing Samples
When I first began as a freelance editor, I was encouraged to offer my potential clients a complimentary editing sample. Something small—a few pages from their manuscript to demonstrate the edits I could offer.
It made sense, but the idea still made me cringe. Editing for free? I’d just graduated from the nine-month-long Certificate in Editing program at the University of Washington. I was ready to work as an editor. Frankly, I was ready to make money (oh, how naïve I was!).
I quickly learned, though, that one does not preclude the other.
Brass Tacks Season
Before becoming a full-time editor, I went out and picked up Sara Horowitz’s The Freelancer’s Bible. I had taken many contracts but had never strung them together as my sole source of income. Horowitz’s insightful book introduced me to the regular beats of an editor’s day: early-morning emails, the job hunt, marketing, marketing, and marketing, followed by the nitty-gritty of editing. But importantly for this post, the Freelancer’s Bible taught me how to calculate my rates.
Cooking with Adverbs
Many writing experts agree that adverbs can weaken rather than strengthen the point being made. “The adverb is not your friend,” states Steven King, one of the leaders of the movement to avoid adverbs. Some go so far as to say it is the mark of the novice writer to use adverbs when they are not necessary and even redundant: to have someone “shout loudly” or “stomp heavily.” A few advise avoiding adverbs in dialogue altogether to avoid such errors.
Overuse of adverbs can also make a writer lazy. It’s easier to throw in an adverb instead of providing enough description that the reader can imagine how someone is behaving.
But there is a middle ground between overuse and avoiding all adverbs that most writing mavens fail to address!
Marketing for Editors: Takeaways from a Guild Discussion
Effective marketing includes deciding where you want to focus your efforts (perhaps independent authors), as well as how (such as presenting at conferences). All the panelists felt a professional website is important. It should describe your editorial experience, the kinds of editing you specialize in, and how you work with clients—anything and everything to show that you are the person someone wants to work with.
Networking, which can strike fear in the hearts of introverted editors, entails meeting and connecting with others and communicating who you are and how you can fulfill their needs, whether it’s being published, attracting more clients, increasing sales, or improving writing skills.
Learning From Mistakes
Has this ever happened to you? You accept a new manuscript project for copyediting. You think you’ve correctly assessed the level of editing needed and bid accordingly. Indeed, the writer claims to have already paid for an editor, though she is a bit vague as to what she paid for.
You get to work, thinking you know how many days and hours it will take to finish the project. But wait—something is very wrong. That’s an odd expression for a novel set in medieval times. Ah well, must be a fluke. She did have another editor work on this manuscript, after all . . .
How to Table: A Guide for Introverts
You’ve signed up for a shift at the NWIEG table at an event or conference. Maybe you’re excited for free or discounted entrance into the event. Maybe you’re making an effort to get out and network more often. Maybe you want to share the wide variety of talents held by Guild members. These are all good reasons to volunteer to represent the Guild.
But wait! Aren’t you an introvert? How the heck are you supposed to make small talk with a bunch of strangers for several hours? What are you supposed to do during the downtimes? Can you just sit there with a pile of flyers and hope they magically drift into the hands of attendees?
Don’t panic. We’ve got a strategy for you and a list of ways to ensure that you, your tablemates, and the people you meet all leave happy and with a positive impression of the Guild.