Here at the Chicago Manual of Style, I’ve been dismayed by recent talk online about discord between the major style manuals: tweets from the ACES conference calling for an “AP vs. Chicago smackdown”; a new blog called “AP vs. Chicago.”
Upset by the hype, I went to my boss and mentor, Chicago’s managing editor Anita Samen. “Anita, what’s happening?” I asked. “Why do people want to drive a wedge between us and AP? I thought we were friends!”
Anita sighed. “Sit down, dear,” she said. “I’ve been meaning to have ‘the Talk’ with you. The truth is . . . they’re jealous. Yes, they’ve probably heard the rumors. And since that means the truth will be all over the Internet in no time, I might as well explain: We’ve been in bed with AP for years.
“It’s true: not only are we friends, we’re friends with benefits—and proud of it, too. MLA, APA, CSE, and even [sotto voce] Bluebook. We hook up with them when we want to or need to or when it just feels right. It’s not that we’re slutty—well, maybe a little. It’s just that we’re not into exclusive relationships or long-term commitments with other styles.
“Sure, we may sometimes seem to ignore AP or the other styles we hang with—or even deny that we use them. But we value and respect them even when we aren’t faithful. Our lives would be poorer without our style buddies, and although we don’t like to admit it, our hookups with them can help us make better decisions about our own style.
“And, you know, it’s not a one-way street. Other styles have a friends-with-benefits relationship with us. Back in 2003 when we talked about citing online sources in our 15th edition, MLA and APA started talking about it too. That’s okay. It wasn’t trash talk. We’re all in this together—style (like S-E-X) is important! Sometimes we’ll dally with APA, sometimes with MLA; sometimes we’ll fiddle with AP. Sometimes we’ll even swap citations with CSE or Bluebook. They’re all important to us—and we’re friends with all of them. Friends with benefits.”
Eyes wide, I thanked Anita for clueing me in and went back to my desk, trying to process everything she had told me.
No question about it, I’m going to need some bigger style sheets.
And a lot of style bleach for those style sheets.
OK, let’s not call it a smackdown. How about a lovefest? As long we get Chicago, AP, Yahoo and perhaps others in the same room, I am OK with any name.
I’m not sure about Bluebook, however, because I am still scarred from all of those footnotes in my master’s thesis.
Deborah Tannen’s The Argument Culture explains why people want to see these things as battles.