The Hudson River Valley Review

Submission of Essays and A Style Guide for HRVR

Submission of Essays | Style | Citation | Titles of Works | Spacing | Note on the Comma | Colon | Dashes and Hyphenation | Ellipsis | Italics | Numbers, Dates, Time | Spelling and Capitalization | Some Matters of Usage

Submission of Essays and Other Materials

HVRR invites essays and other materials related to the Hudson Valley and to regionalism as a concept. At this time it is particularly interested in considering essays concerned with the Hudson Valley in the Eighteenth Century, its intellectual, social, political, economic, military, artistic, architectural, and literary aspects, in particular those that can be said to be related to the American Revolution.

HVRR prefers that essays and other written materials be submitted as two double-spaced typescripts (format: one-inch margins, 12 point type), paginated, generally no more than thirty pages long, along with a 3.5-inch computer disk with the clear indication of the operating system (that is, MS-DOS or MAC), of the name and version of the word-processing program, and of the names of documents on the disk. An e-mail address should be included whenever possible.

Illustrations or photographs that are germane to the writing should accompany the hard copy. Otherwise, the submission of visual materials should be cleared with the editors beforehand. Illustrations and photographs are the responsibility of the authors.

No materials will be returned unless a stamped, self-addressed envelope is provided. No responsibility is assumed for their loss.

All materials should be mailed to:

The Hudson River Valley Review
The Hudson River Valley Institute
Marist College
Poughkeepsie, NY 12601-1387

Under some circumstances HVRR will accept materials submitted as an e-mail attachment (hrvi@marist.edu). It will not, however, open any attachment that has not been announced and cleared beforehand.

The following guide will serve as a reminder of general conventions and provide solutions to sometimes uncertain or puzzling matters of style and usage.

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Style

HVRR applauds a style that is graceful and lucid, accessible to the expert in the subject and the nonexpert alike, avoiding technical jargon when specialized terms are not needed for precise meaning.

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Citation

Since HVRR is interdisciplinary in its approach to the region and to regionalism, it will honor the forms of citation appropriate to a particular discipline, provided the forms are applied consistently and supply complete information. Endnotes rather than footnotes are required.

As a default form for citations, HVRR follows the Chicago Manual of Style. Some examples follow.

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Titles of Works

Titles and subtitles of published books, newspapers, magazines, journals, and other periodicals are italicized, as are the titles of long poems and plays.

Titles of essays in periodicals, journals, and newspapers, chapter titles and part titles, and titles of short stories, poems, essays, and individual selections in books are set in roman type and enclosed in quotation marks:

• The Journal of the History of Ideas, Time, Sports Illustrated

• Shaw’s play Arms and the Man

• "A Defense of Shelley’s Poetry," by Kathleen Raine in the Southern Review

• "Maternal Behavior and Attitudes," Chapter 14 of Human Development

Titles of long musical compositions are italicized, but titles of songs and short compositions are set in roman type and enclosed in quotation marks. Musical compositions that have no distinctive titles and are identified by their musical form, often plus a number or a key designation, are set in roman type.

• Don Giovanni

• "Strange Fruit"

• Symphony in B Major

• Adagio from the Fifth Symphony

Titles of paintings, drawings, statues, and other works of art are italicized:

• Grant Wood’s American Gothic

• Michelangelo's Pietà

Titles of films and of television and radio programs that are a continuing series are italicized:

• the movie Moonstruck

• The fifth episode of Hill Street Blues is "Death on the Hill."

• National Public Radio’s All Things Considered

Titles of exhibitions are italicized; titles of events such as lectures or conferences are set in roman type and enclosed in quotation marks.

• the Baltimore Museum of Art’s exhibition American Prints, 1870–1950

• the museum’s exhibition of American prints

• The conference Hudson Valley Villas is to be held in Kingston.

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Spacing

Text, indented quotations, and notes should be double spaced.

In a sentence, use two spaces after a period and a colon, one space after a comma and a semicolon.

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Note on the Comma

Use a comma before the conjunction in a series of words, phrases, and clauses:

• The flag is red, white, and blue.

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Colon

Use a colon to introduce a formal statement or quotation or a list or series that is not an object or part of the introductory statement:

• It included three subjects: a, b, c.

• The three subjects it included were a, b, and c.

Capitalize full sentences following a colon.

• The rule may be simply stated: Always do it.

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Dashes and Hyphenation

There are several dashes, differing in length. Each dash has its own use. Two kinds, the en dash and the em dash, are most commonly used. Most word-processing programs have a keyed shortcut for the creation of the different dashes.

En dash
The en dash is half the length of an em dash and longer than a hyphen. Use an en dash to indicate inclusive numbers (dates, times, pages) in lists, charts, tables, and the like and to indicate periods extending over two calendar years, but do not use an en dash in place of words in text:

• May–June (but: from May to June)

• 9:00–11:00 (but: from 9:00 to 11:00)

• pp. 234–255

the fiscal year 1968–69 (but: from 1968 to 1969)

• a final work (1960– )

The spacing on either side of an en dash depends on whether the dash separates two numbers (pp. 234–255, fiscal year 1968–69), in which case there is no space before or after the dash; or a letter and a number (11:15 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.), in which case there is a space before and after the dash.

Em dash
The em dash is twice the length of an en dash. Use an em dash to denote a break in thought that causes an abrupt change in sentence structure or to enclose a parenthetical insertion not syntactically related to the sentence. Dashes in this usage are weaker than parentheses.

• Consensus—that was the goal she doggedly pursued.

• The chancellor—he had been awake half the night—was in an angry mood.

There is no space before or after an em dash.

Hyphenation
There is no easy general rule governing hyphenation in English. The specific examples that follow cover most cases of uncertainty:

Do not use a hyphen with prefixes such as ante-, anti-, bi-, counter-, extra-, infra-, inter-, macro-, meta-, mid-, mini-, multi-, non-, over-, post-, pre-, pseudo-, re-, semi-, sub-, super-, trans-, ultra-, un-, under-, even when two like vowels or consonants fall together, unless the second element is capitalized, is a number, or consists of more than one word (pre-1914, un-American, non-interest-bearing) or the word might be misread (re-create, re-cover, un-ionized). Change the hyphen to an en dash (see above) if the second element is an open compound (pre–Civil War).

Hyphenate words beginning with self- and all-.

Hyphenate quasi- in compound adjectives, but let it stand alone in compound nouns:

• quasi-legislative, quasi corporation

Hyphenate adjectival compounds with half- and cross- whether they precede or follow the noun.

Hyphenate temporary compounds used as adjectives before a noun to avoid confusion; do not hyphenate following a noun:

• community-based organization, the organization was community based

Do not hyphenate permanent compounds used as adjectives:

• community development banks, civil rights movement

Do not hyphenate compounds formed with adverbs ending in -ly:

• highly developed, fully illustrated, poorly seen

Hyphenate adjectival compounds formed with other than -ly adverbs when the compound precedes the noun:

• ever-increasing speed (but: the speed was ever increasing)

• much-maligned person (but: he was much maligned)

Hyphenate adjectival compounds with well, ill, better, best, little, lesser when the compound precedes the noun; do not hyphenate when it follows the noun, unless the word is hyphenated in Merriam-Webster’s:

a well-known scholar (but: the scholar is well known)

• well-informed

• fiber optics (n.), fiber-optic (adj.)

• foreign-born

• political affiliation: R–Mich. (no period after "R" or "D," en-dash)

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Ellipsis

An ellipsis, or elision—the omission of a word, phrase, line, paragraph, or more from a quoted passage—must be indicated by ellipsis points or dots that are printed like periods with one space between each dot.

Omission within a Sentence
Three dots, with a space before and after each dot, indicate an omission within a quoted sentence or fragment of a sentence. Thus the sentence,

• The porcupine, which is common in this region, is characterized by stiff bristles.

could be shortened to,

• The porcupine . . . is characterized by stiff bristles.

Omission between Sentences
When the last part of a quoted sentence is omitted and what remains is still grammatically complete, four dots—a period followed by three ellipsis dots—are used to indicate the omission. There is no space between the period or other terminal punctuation and the preceding word, even though that word does not end the original sentence:

• The spirit of their conservatism is thoughtless and short sighted. . . . the liberal faction . . . is more idealistic. The choice is clear enough.

When what remains is not grammatically complete, the period is omitted:

• The spirit of their conservatism . . . the liberal faction . . . more idealistic . . . The choice is clear . . .

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Italics

Isolated words or phrases in a foreign language may be set in italics if they are likely to be unfamiliar to readers, but foreign words and phrases that are found in Merriam-Webster’s should treated as English, that is, set in roman type:

• The grève du zèle is not a true strike but a nitpicking obeying of work rules.
• They formed an ad hoc committee to examine the issue.
• He exhibited impressive savoir faire.
• When studied in vivo, the compound appeared to be just as effective.

See also above, "Titles of Works."

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Numbers, Dates, and Time

Numbers
Spell out numbers one through nine. Use figures for 10 and above, including whole numbers followed by hundred, thousand, million, and so on. The rule applies to ordinals as well as cardinals.

• two, nine, 36, 120, four thousand,
  7,247, 65 million

• second, 19th, 36^th, 122^nd, 123^rd

Note: Use superscript when available.

Use figures for ages and for all specific quantities when a unit of measure is given (whether written out, abbreviated, or represented by a symbol):

• 4 degrees, 2 kilograms, 8 lbs., 20 miles
• 2 years old, 45-year-old person

Dates
Use the same form consistently throughout a work:

• nineteenth century, nineteenth-century architecture
• 1990s, nineties, or 90s, but not: 1990’s
• July 1993 (no comma between month and year), but: July 3, 1993
• A.D. 200, 300 B.C., fourth century B.C., 621 B.C.E.
• (Note that era designations, such as B.C. and A.D., are in small caps)

Time
Times of day in even, half, and quarter hours are normally spelled out in text:

• He left the office at a quarter of four.
• The family always ate dinner at seven o’clock.
• They must be in their rooms by midnight on weekdays.

But numerals are used when the exact moment of time is to be emphasized:

• If we don’t eat dinner, we can catch the 6:20 train.

Abbreviations for divisions of the day are in lowercase:

• 4:00 p.m. or 4 p.m.
• noon (not: 12:00 p.m.); midnight (not: 12:00 a.m.)

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Spelling and Capitalization

Use American rather than British spelling, "color" rather than "colour."

Some specific Terms:

• African American, Italian American
• Eastern Hemisphere
• e-mail
• Internet
• online (one word)
• socioeconomic
• website
• workforce, workplace, workstation
• worldview
• World Wide Web

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Some Matters of Usage

HVRR prefers standard American usage; when uncertain, the arbiter will be Fowler's English Usage.

that, which, who
Use that to introduce a defining (restrictive) clause:

• The report that the committee submitted was well documented.

Use which to introduce a descriptive (nonrestrictive) clause:

• The report, which was well documented, was discussed.

Use who when referring to persons:

• The director of parks who [not that] took on the job in January.

e.g., i.e.
The abbreviation "e.g." means "for example"; "i.e." means "that is." They are not interchangeable. The English equivalents are often preferable.

Homophones
Distinguish between:

• seen and scene
• sight and site and cite
• weary and wary
• base and basis
• weather and whether
• pervasive and persuasive

Mistaken Pairs
Distinguish between:

• amount / number
• between /among
• affect / effect
• quote (verb) / quotation (noun)
• utilize / use
• simplistic / simple
• analysis / analyze
• access /excess
• good (adj.) / well(adv.)
• imply / infer

Plain Style vs. Academic Affectations, "Jargon"
Generally plain words are more effective than those that sound "academic." Often this entails using an abstract term when a concrete term would do or using an abstract noun when its corresponding verb would be more effective. Some usage has become cliché. For instance, it is often clearer to use

• use instead of utilize
• simple instead of simplistic
• many instead of a multiplicity of
• comic instead of comedic

It is usually better to use

• as if rather than like
• tells rather than recounts
• tells rather than relates
• tells rather than relays
• clear, evident rather than blatant
• discussion of rather than discussion on
• react to rather than react against
• intimates rather than insinuates
• different from rather than different than
• couple of rather than couple

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Special thanks are due Carol Brener for her attention to these matters.