Section-Hiking the AMA Manual of Style

This year, I decided to earn some of my BELS maintenance points by brute force: An epic reread of the AMA Manual of Style. For my hiking readers, this is like doing an AT Northbound but with copyright law and specialized punctuation rules instead of Springer, Washington, and Katahdin. Like with an Appalachian backpacking trip, I’ve set reasonable daily goals, staying hydrated, and probably eating more Cliff bars than is good for me.

But if any of my fellow ELS feel that a beginning-to-end take on AMA is not for them, allow me to recommend a Presidential Traverse. This may be more practical given that BELS only allows us to apply three hours of self-directed study per year to our maintenance scores. (AMA 11 is over 1100 pages long. I do not feel shy about saying that it is taking me more than three hours.)

If you’re section-hiking the AMA this year, just do chapter 11: Correct and Preferred Usage. Some of its content, like eliminanting redundancy and handling frequently misused medical terms, holds more or less steady over the years. Other parts, however, handle terminology for LGBTQ individuals (AMA prefers “transgender woman” and “transgender man” to “trans woman” and “trans man,” for example) and other matters that the current administration has instructed Federal agencies to change.

Not all hikers like switchbacks or rock slides, and, even among editors, reading a style guide isn’t everyone’s favorite thing to do, but—unusually—this part of our profession is making the mainstream news. That could help editors maintain focus as they put one foot in front of the other.