Does a pro need to follow Chicago?

[Geoff Hart <Geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

John David Hickey wondered <<...when it comes to a
conflict on what to use, I consult each [style guide] until I
find a convention that works for me. I don't really like
conforming to one rule just because it comes from "The
Chicago Manual of Style". It may not apply in my case or
even to technical writing in general!>>

That's a fairly enlightened attitude, provided you're actually
considering why the style guides say what they say rather
than just seeking until you find something that supports your
personal prejudices. It's not always easy to tell which is the
case (and I'm not excluding myself from that caveat).
Interestingly, you've used two very different words (guide
and rule) in this brief quote that are contradictory, and
perhaps that's the source of your question. A "guide" is not a
"rule" book... it's a guide. The important thing to understand
is that any one style guide is generally written to provide the
most common solutions for a specific audience: in the case of
the Chicago Manual of Style, that audience is academic
publishers; the Microsoft guide is for Microsofties (with
pretensions of applying to the whole computer industry); and
the Council of Biology Editors guide is for biologists and (to
some extent) other scientists. Pick the right guide for your
audience. Sometimes, as you do, you need to mix and match.

<<But is this a professional attitude? Should I be relying on
one particular (published) style guide when creating
documents? Or is it more important to use your own rules
consistently and wisely?>>

It's important to be consistent within each document or family
of documents, since otherwise the change in meaning may
lead to occasional confusion among your readers. Small
things such as the serial comma are less likely to disturb a
reader than larger issues such as calling something an
"object" in one guide and a "thing" in another. imho, it's
professional to understand the reasons for guidelines so you
know when to use them--and when not to. In no case should
you apply a rule blindly (see my sig line for probably the
most widespread and pernicious example). Using "your own
rules" is fine so long as those rules are based on sound
reasons and apply to your current audience. Knowing when
they don't is the hard part.

--Geoff Hart @8^{)}     Pointe-Claire, Quebec
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca

"Perhaps there is something deep and profound behind all those sevens,
something just calling out for us to discover it. But I
suspect that it is only a pernicious, Pythagorean coincidence." George
Miller, "The Magical Number Seven" (1956)

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