And of course everyone has very good reasons for doing it the way they do, even though it drives other people nuts.

I would like to know how they all came up with their respective styles. Who decided? Like, IEEE based theirs on Chicago, but why they made the seemingly arbitrary changes they made, I don't know. And then some IEEE journals do things a little differently, just because they want to, which seems to defy the point of having a style manual, but I just work here.

which seems to defy the point of having a style manual

We have a style manual -- a big-ass book you can buy -- and we STILL do things that contradict it. The style manual says that "a quarter" is fine for "one fourth" as long as it's not meant to be an actual measurement of a drug/test result, whatever. But you could say "a quarter of Americans think Steph is awesome," and that would be fine. It says, verbatim, that "a quarter" is fine for "one fourth" IN THE STYLE MANUAL.

My boss sent me feedback this week when I left "a quarter" in an article, saying " 'a quarter' should be 'one fourth' per the style manual." So I emailed her back and told her I looked it up (and cited the page) and that's why I left it in. So she emailed back and said "Bigger Boss prefers 'one fourth'." And I thought, you are SO busted, lady. Don't lie to me about the style manual when you know I can look it up. Just tell me that Bigger Boss, for whatever weird reason, prefers to go against the style manual, and I'll make a note of it and do that, too.

That was ridic, though. Tell me one thing that's provably untrue? Kind of out of character for her. I think she was having a bad day, because she doesn't do stuff like that.

But yeah, it's hilarious how we have a published manual and STILL the AMA Authorities just decide they want to do something different. For no apparent reason other than -- I swear to you this has been given as the reason -- "they don't like it."

I go away for the day and come back to more than forty posts of style geekery. I love you guys. We used MLA in high school, but when I was attending college we used APA and I found the transition difficult.

I can work with whatever style I'm given, although I've spent most of my time with AP style, as altered by the whims of mysterious higher-ups. Usually that meant capitalizing things they they thought were Important.

On an entirely different subject, I just got a call about the PET scan I had Tuesday. The cancer is responding to the chemo! It's shrinking! Go, chemo, go!

Hooray, chemo! Cancer, GTFO and don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out!

That is seriously so fucking great, Ginger. I just clapped my hands loudly enough to wake the dog, who now looks really disgruntled. I'll have to explain to him I got good news about another dog-owning human; that'll probably mollify him.

The cancer is responding to the chemo! It's shrinking! Go, chemo, go!

YAY! GTFO, cancer, you rat bastard!

Go, chemo!

Usually that meant capitalizing things they thought were Important.

You mean like Pooh Case? I got dinged a few times for Pooh casing things when I went back to school this summer. Hard habit to break.

The cancer is responding to the chemo! It's shrinking! Go, chemo, go!

AWWW, YEEEAAAHH! Woot woot! Go chemo, go! Or more importantly - GO (AWAY) CANCER, GO!

On an entirely different subject, I just got a call about the PET scan I had Tuesday. The cancer is responding to the chemo! It's shrinking! Go, chemo, go!

YES!!! THAT IS AWESOME!!!