The 18th edition of ๐‘‡โ„Ž๐‘’ ๐ถโ„Ž๐‘–๐‘๐‘Ž๐‘”๐‘œ ๐‘€๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘ข๐‘Ž๐‘™ ๐‘œ๐‘“ ๐‘†๐‘ก๐‘ฆ๐‘™๐‘’ came out in September 2024. While the publishers I work with havenโ€™t fully transitioned to it yet, that shift is comingโ€”and yes, Iโ€™m updating my style sheet!

Here are a few changes Iโ€™m especially excited about:

Capitalizing prepositions of five or more letters in titles (e.g., ๐‘€๐‘ข๐‘โ„Ž ๐ด๐‘‘๐‘œ ๐ด๐‘๐‘œ๐‘ข๐‘ก ๐‘๐‘œ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘–๐‘›๐‘”). Titles just look better in the new format.

Capitalizing the first word after a colon when it begins a complete sentence. Previously, the rule was to capitalize only when more than one complete sentence followed the colon. Small changes like this one make copyediting faster and more intuitive.

Full endorsement of the singular โ€œtheyโ€โ€”essential for respectful, inclusive writing.

Omitting the city of publication for books published after 1900. Citations will be cleaner, and we can stop juggling multiple city names.

New guidance on writing alt text for imagesโ€”important for accessibility and transparency. I have started seeing more in my work, so I welcome this clarity.

This version of CMOS strikes a thoughtful balance between clarity, inclusivity, and evolving language.

If youโ€™re a writer, editor, academic, or just someone who gets excited about hyphens and style guidesโ€”what changes stand out to you?