The University of Chicago Press Editorial Staff: But Can I Start a Sentence with 'But'? Advice from the Chicago Style Q&A

摘要

If you would expect a "Best-Of anthology" from the Chicago Manual of Style Q&A page to be a dry affair, it is time to think again. As Carol Fisher Saller so aptly states in her introduction, over the years, the CMOS Q&A (specifically the "A" half) has developed a "voice". Saller attributes the development of this voice to long hours and overworked editors who barely have time to answer any questions at all, let alone as many as they do, but it seems it could have developed just as easily from their collective inability to resist a good grammar joke when the opportunity presents itself. No matter how it originated, this voice turns what could have been a drab little reference book into an entertaining pleasure read.