Revision Checklist for Contributors

Before sending off the final version of your work to your volume/edition editor, please review the following checklist and correct any of these common errors. For more detailed inquiries, please refer to the RC House Style document. The following recommendations generally defer to the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition.

General Requirements

  1. Revise to meet word count limits for essay and abstract: *5,000 words max for essays *150 words max for abstracts.
  2. Test all hyperlinks.
  3. Select appropriate tags from the Tag Options for RC Contributors document.
  4. Provide or update author bio.

Document Layout

  1. 12-point, Times New Roman Font
  2. Double-spaced
  3. MS Word-linked endnotes, instead of footnotes
  4. I-inch margins
  5. 1-inch indentation block quotations (for quotes approximately over 100 words in length) *Prose should be double-spaces and verse single-spaced. See CMOS 13.10 for additional guidance. *Avoid ending paragraphs in block quotations. *If your quotation contains more than one line from the poem use forward slashes (/) between each line of the poem. For line breaks that occur between stanzas, use a double forward slash (//).

Bibliography, Notes, and URLs

  1. When possible, use DOIs instead of html links (see CMOS 14.8).
  2. Check that all URLs are direct (permalinks), short, and unbroken (see CMOS 14.9).
  3. In any citation, include http or https in the URL address.
  4. Basic formatting/elements will differ slightly between bibliographic endnotes vs. entries: *Books (end-notes): *AuthorFirst Last, Title (Location: Publisher, year), pages. *Books (bibliography): *AuthorLast, First. Title. Location: Publisher, date. *Journal (endnotes): *AuthorFirst Last, “Title,” Journal Title, no. # (Month Year): pages. *Journal (bibliography): *AuthorLast, First. “Title.” Journal, no. # (Month Year): pages.
  5. When repeating bibliographic information in an endnote, contributors should use the following convention: *Shortened notes: *AuthorLast, Title, Location (could be chapter, volume, pages, or URL information).

Number Formatting

  1. Spell out whole numbers from one through nine and any number beginning a sentence (CMOS 9.3).
  2. Spell out centuries and hyphenate when used adjectivally: mid-eighteenth century, twentieth century, twenty-first-century politics (CMOS 7.85).
  3. Abbreviate all number ranges (typically page number references) by including in the second number only the changed part of the first (e.g., 234–5, 25000–1). Use an en dash, not a hyphen.

Punctuation

  1. Remove spaces around em dashes (—)
  2. Replace all double hyphens with the em dash character (—). Appropriate em dash usage: grammatical asides, interpolations, and interrupted speech.
  3. Add spaces within initials (M. C. Escher)
  4. In the bibliography, use three em-dashes when multiple works are cited by the same author (———).
  5. Add Oxford commas (serial commas).
  6. Use periods and all caps on C.E. and B.C.E.; in M.A., M.F.A., J.D., and Ph.D.; in U.S. / U.K. when used adjectivally.
  7. Do not use a period in a sentence that ends with a question mark or exclamation point, even if that question mark or exclamation point is part of the title of a work (CMOS 6.124).
  8. No need for ellipses at the beginning or end of a quotation unless the quoted sentence is deliberately incomplete (CMOS 13.50).
  9. For three-dot ellipses, there should be internal spaces before, after, and internally. In a four-dot ellipsis, the first acts as a period at the end of a sentence—that period should be right up against the text.
  10. No ampersands should be used in running text or titles, only in direct quotation/facsimile.
  11. Check punctuation within quotations: *Periods and commas precede closing quotation marks. *Colons and semicolons follow closing quotation marks. *Question marks and exclamation points following closing quotation marks (unless they belong within the quoted material).

Usage and Writing Style

  1. Americanize British spellings (except in direct quotations and titles; e.g., A Defence of Poetry).
  2. Upon first mention of works, put the date of publication in parentheses after the title. See CMOS 14.142 for missing dates, date ranges, etc.
  3. Avoid the unnecessary use of scare quotes and and italics.

Images / Illustrations / Artwork

  1. Images are high-res (with a minimum width or height of 1500 pixels) in either .jpg or TIFF file formats.
  2. Provide captions for all visual mediums.
  3. Label multiple visuals using the following convention: *Figure #: Caption.
  4. Use end punctuation only 1) if the caption is a complete sentence or 2) if one or more complete sentences follow the caption.
  5. Check that all images are either fair use or that permissions have been obtained.