Chicago 17 Resource Center: Style

From CMS 17, Section 5.254: Bias and the editor's responsibility.

"Chicago's editors do not maintain a list of words or usages considered unacceptable.... What you should strive for - if you want your readers to focus on your ideas and not on the political subtext - is a style that doesn't even hint at the issue." p. 359

Here are some techniques suggested by the Chicago editors:

• Where pronouns are concerned and the identity of the person is unknown, try to rewrite the sentence to avoid their use.
• When pronouns must be used, when possible use the pronoun preference of the person being referenced.
• Whenever possible, avoid irrelevant references to a person's sex, race, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation or social standing.
• When a characteristic is important to your writing, emphasize the person, not the characteristic. 
• For words that are sex-specific (ie: "chairman", "mailman"), whenever possible, use a variant like "chair" or seek a different word like "mail carrier".

From CMS 17, Section 6.127-129: Lists and Outline Style

• Use Minimally
• Parallel elements (use similar structure of list items to show connection)
• May be run in (for short, simple lists)
• May be vertical (when visual prominence is necessary, long lists, or lists with multiple levels)
• Use introductory numbers or letters only in a vertical list and only if they are required to suggest chronology or importance

From CMS 17, Section 3.47 - 3.54: Tables

Tables can present information in an easy to scan format that could take paragraphs of exposition to give otherwise.

Some points to consider about tables:

• Style should be consistent throughout
• Should be individually numbered referred to in text using that number
• Appear as soon as possible after the first mention of the table in the text

From CMS 17 5.6: Proper Nouns

Proper nouns should always be capitalized. There are a number of special circumstances and the Chicago Manual of Style should be referenced to answer any particular capitalization questions.