STYLE MANUAL OF THE GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE COMPILED UNDER DIRECTION OF THE PUBLIC PRINTER V Revised Edition : October, 1924 WASHINGTON, D. C. 1924 PREPARED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF GEORGE H. CARTER Public Printer Board of Revision HERMANN B. BARNHART WILLIAM H. CORNISH JOHN GREENE WALTER R. JOHNS JOHN P. MURRAY CHARLES E. YOUNG Washington, D. C. February, 1922 EXTRACT FROM THE PUBLIC-PRINTING LAW OF JANUARY 12, 1895 : : : : : SECTION 51. The forms and style in which the printing or binding ordered by any of the depart- ments shall be executed, and the material and the size of type to be used, shall be determined by the Public Printer, having proper regard to economy, workman- ship, and the purposes for which the work is needed. Ill STYLE SUMMARY. rage. Approval by the Joint Cominittee on Printing and the Permanent Conference on Printing vni Authors and department editors, suggestions to 1 Composition, rules and style of 11 Abbreviations 27 Addresses 38 Authority 11 Bill style 47 Capitalization 11 Guide to capitalization 20 Court of Claims headings for records and briefs 52 Court style : 50 Date lines 41 Figtires 30 Follow, follow lit., reprint, etc 47 Foreign governments, table of principal 14 Hearings 43 Introduction 11 Itahe 47 Leader work 37 ^lisceUaneous 47 Orthography 44 Punctuation 42 Signatures 39 Supreme Court headings for transcript of record and for briefs 53 Tabular work 32 Testimony 43 Compound and noncompound words 1S9 Compound words, list of 190 Congressional Record style 78 Addresses and signatures 85 Call of the House 84 Capitalization 78 Caps and small caps, use of 80 Congressiona 1 proceedings 87 House 94 Adjournment, recess, and evening session 98 Amendments 98 Committee of the "\Miole House on the state of the Union 95 Conference report and statement J 96 House briefs 99 Pension bills 97 Senate 87 Amendment, third reading, and passage of a bill 89 Bills considered as in Committee of the Whole 91 Confirmations 93 Forms of amendments 90 Injunction of secrecy removed 92 Nominations 92 Rejection 93 Third reading and passage of a bill 89 Withdrawals 93 Contractions 78 Credits 85 Extracts 85 Figures 79 Forms for speech heads 86 Forms of titles 84 Generalrules 78 V VI SUMMARY. Congressional Record style—Continued. Page. Italic ^ 79 Miscellaneous 79 Pairs 84 Parentheses and brackets 81 Purictuation 81 Voting by yeas and nays 83 Voting in the House and in Committee of the Whole 82 Congressional Record index style 102 Rules and examples 102 Semimonthl y history of bills 104 Semimonthly index 102 Copy editors, compositors, operators, readers, and revisers, instructions to 5 Composition 6 Editing copy 5 Reading and copy holding 6 Revising 7 Signature marks 9 House Journal index style 118 History of bills in House Journal 118 Index in House Journal 118 Journals, House and Senate, style of 105 General rules 105 House 107 History of bills in House Journal index 118 Index in House Journal 118 Instructions for setting votes in House Journal 114 Senate 105 History of bills in Senate Journal index 115 History of bills un der names of Senators introducing them 116 Index in Senate Journal 115 Instructions for setting votes in Senate Journal 114 Style of Senate omnibus bills 117 Nominations, reports, documents, and laws , 54 Dating proclamations, commissions, and similar Executive documents 75 Executive Calendar 60 Executive Journal extracts 60 General rules for nominations 54 Messages 58 Reports, documents, and laws 61 Samples of laws 75 Samples of nominations 55-57 Withdrawal 58 Railroads, titles of 138 Reports, documents, and laws 61 House documents C3, 71, 73 Engineer document 63 Estimates of appropriations 71-75 House reports 01,02,08 Conference report 68 Pension report 62 Senate documents 66, 70 Conference report printed as Senate document .• 70 Court of Claims document 66 Senate report 65 Specification style 120 Abbreviations 120 Capitalization 121 Compounds 120 Divisions 123 Figures 121 Gothics 123 Italics and roman 122 Orthography 123 SUMMAEY. VII Specification style—Continued. Page. Plurals 123 Possessives 122 Punctuation 120 Reference letters and figures 122 Samples of headings 124 States, Territories, and counties, list of 152 Title-pages, Senate and House hearings 76,77 Useful information 126 Accented letters frequently used 130 Astronomical signs 129 Average number of words in a line and page and number of ems in a page 131 Bookbinding 187 Chemical elements and symbols 127 Dimensions of type pages and trim of printed books 130 Electrotype-foundry work 179 Greek alphabet 129 Imposition 161 Increase of text by using leads 131 Length of page 130 MaMng-up 161 Mathematical signs 129 Metric tables 128 Capacity 128 Common measures and their metric equivalents 128 Length 128 Surface 128 Weight 128 Miscellaneous tables 120 Names of the months in five languages 129 Number of words and ems to the square inch 131 Plate dimensions 181 Presswork 182 Principal and guide meridians and base lines 137 Relative number of ems in a page 131 Roman munerals 129 Rule cut to 6-point in 8-point tables 133 Scale for indexing 188 Signatures for eights and sixteens 135 Standard set measurements 132 Standard sizes of books and paper 178 Unit value of 1 J-point nxles 133 Unit value of 6, 8, and 10 point monotype characters 134 United States equivalents of weights and measures used in foreign agricultural statistics 136 Values of foreign coins 126 APPROVAL BY THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON PRINTING Congress of the United States, Joint Committee on Printing, Washington, February 4, 1922. Dear Sir: Receipt is acknowledged of the proof pages of the Government Printing OflSce Style Manual for inspection and approval. The Style Manual as compiled and submitted is approved by the Joint Committee on Printing. Respectfully, George H. Moses, Chairman. To the Public Printer, Government Printing Office. RESOLUTION OF THE PERMANENT CONFERENCE ON PRINTING The following resolution was unanimously adopted on Janu- ary 11, 1922, by the Permanent Conference on Printing, composed of representatives of the various executive departments and inde- pendent establishments of the Government, as organized with the approval of the President and the Director of the Biu^eau of the Budget: RESOLVED, That the Government Printing Office Style Manual as compiled under direction of the Public Printer be approved and adopted as the style to be followed in all Government departments and independent bureaus on and after February 15, 1922. vm SUGGESTIONS TO AUTHORS AND DEPARTMENT EDITORS. Copy should be carefully edited, in accordance with the style laid down in this Style Manual before being sent to the Government Printing Oflace; that is, editing should not be done on proof sheets. This Style Manual is intended to facilitate public printing. If those submitting copy for publication will carefully observe the following suggestions, they will con- tribute materially toward that end. Copy should be sent fiat, numbered consecutively, typewritten if possible, unless reprint, and each page should begin with a paragraph, as the passing of "run downs" is an expensive operation. The Government Printing Office style must be followed in department printing in all cases. Write on one side of the paper only. Duplicate copy of reprint must be fur- nished when possible if both sides are to be used. Authors and departments are requested to send to this office the first sheets of copy, not the carbon copies, for the first sheets are much plainer than the carbons. This is especially requested for copy in foreign languages and copy containing figures. Proper names, foreign words, and technical terms should be written plainly and verified. Illegible signatures and figures should be rewritten. Corrections of figures should not be written over the originals. Manuscript and typewritten copy in a foreign language should be marked accu- rately to show capitalization, punctuation, accents, etc. Abbreviations should not be used unless they are to be printed as written, in which case they should be marked "follow." Answer all queries on proof, as delay and errors often result from neglecting them. All tabulated statements should be written on separate sheets; that is, end the preceding paragraph of text on one sheet, place the table on the next, and commence the next paragraph on the following sheet. Reference marks in text and tables should be arranged consecutively across each page. (See table, p. 36.) Photographs, drawings, etc., for illustrations should accompany manuscript, each bearing the name of the publication in which it is to be inserted and the figure num- ber or plate number. The proper place for each illustration should be indicated on the copy by title, legend, or otherwise. If a publication is composed of several parts, a scheme of the desired arrangement should accompany the first installment of copy. All corrections should be made on first proofs submitted, later proofs being intended for the purpose of verification only. Plate corrections will be made only when abso- lutely necessary. Requisitions for work containing illustrations should give explicit instructions as to whether or not illustrations are to be furnished by the Government Printing Office, giving the number and indicating the process of reproduction. Instructions should be given on the margin of each illustration if reduction is necessary. A publication containing illustrations should be accompanied by a letter certifying that the illustrations are necessary and relate entirely to the transaction of public business. (See 33 Stat. L. 1213.) Samples are desii'able and should be furnished if possible. They should be plainly marked, showing clearly whether intended for style of type, size of type page, paper, tiim, lettering, or binding. 2 STYLE MANUAL. It is imperative that corrections should be marked on the margins of a proof sheet opposite the indicated errors. Do not attempt to make a correction by writing over the print or between the lines.