What is the correct way to present the author's abbreviated name?

[DNSB]

For what it may be worth, the most common format I've seen for the initials is J.R.R. Tolkien. OTOH, I have seen JRR Tolkien & J. R. R. Tolkien on covers. Even one where the publishers just used Tolkien on the cover with no initials (Unwin did this for one set). I'm not going to get into the covers where the name is rendered in what looks like a bastardized Tengwar font or the ones where an interpunct is used (J· R· R· Tolkien).

[DrChiper]

Originally Posted by Moonbase59

I also use this between adjacent nested quotes in English texts: ‘Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.” ’

Perhaps nitpicking, but shouldn't it be ‘Quoth the Raven “Nevermore”.’ as one is quoting NEVERMORE, and the period belongs to the complete sentence, hence should not be included in the quotation?
Just a thought.

[DrChiper]

Originally Posted by DNSB

For what it may be worth, the most common format I've seen for the initials is J.R.R. Tolkien. OTOH, I have seen JRR Tolkien & J. R. R. Tolkien on covers. Even one where the publishers just used Tolkien on the cover with no initials (Unwin did this for one set). I'm not going to get into the covers where the name is rendered in what looks like a bastardized Tengwar font or the ones where an interpunct is used (J· R· R· Tolkien).

It seems they all have it wrong, according Tolkien himself as he seemed to have used "dangling" periods.

[Moonbase59]

Originally Posted by DrChiper

Perhaps nitpicking, but shouldn't it be ‘Quoth the Raven “Nevermore”.’ as one is quoting NEVERMORE, and the period belongs to the complete sentence, hence should not be included in the quotation?
Just a thought.

You could well be right, I must have been living in Germany for too long, it seems… ;-)

Nitpicking is perfectly fine when it comes to orthography and microtypography.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by DNSB

…
OTOH, I have seen JRR Tolkien & J. R. R. Tolkien on covers. Even one where the publishers just used Tolkien on the cover with no initials (Unwin did this for one set). I'm not going to get into the covers where the name is rendered in what looks like a bastardized Tengwar font or the ones where an interpunct is used (J· R· R· Tolkien).

Covers are someone's idea of art and publicity. They are not even consistent for the same author in the same era from the same publisher for the same Genre.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by DrChiper

Perhaps nitpicking, but shouldn't it be ‘Quoth the Raven “Nevermore”.’ as one is quoting NEVERMORE, and the period belongs to the complete sentence, hence should not be included in the quotation?
Just a thought.

I asked some rooks and they said, "Caw".

[BetterRed]

Blimey

BR

[AnnieQuinn]

Thanks for sharing. I had such a question because I was afraid of making a mistake. Because of my language, names are not usually abbreviated like that, so I had to ask to be sure so as not to have to correct them later. I thought it had a specific format, like the rules we use to type text. It turned out to be interesting. Thanks again everyone.

[Moonbase59]

@AnnieQuinn: On a more authoritative side, I can recommend the following reference books (both on my shelf here):

• New Hart's Rules: The Oxford Style Guide (for British English; Wikipedia)
• The Chicago Manual of Style (for American English; Wikipedia)

Both are invaluable companions for professional publishing and copyediting, long-standing and reputable.

[AnnieQuinn]

Originally Posted by Moonbase59

@AnnieQuinn: On a more authoritative side, I can recommend the following reference books (both on my shelf here):

• New Hart's Rules: The Oxford Style Guide (for British English; Wikipedia)
• The Chicago Manual of Style (for American English; Wikipedia)

Both are invaluable companions for professional publishing and copyediting, long-standing and reputable.

Yes. Thank you very much ^^
I will learn more.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Moonbase59

@AnnieQuinn: On a more authoritative side, I can recommend the following reference books (both on my shelf here):

• New Hart's Rules: The Oxford Style Guide (for British English; Wikipedia)
• The Chicago Manual of Style (for American English; Wikipedia)

Both are invaluable companions for professional publishing and copyediting, long-standing and reputable.

The problem is that there are too many differences in those style guides. So you have ti choose one of them and forget the other. Personally, I would go for the Chicago Manual as I prefer US style vs UK style.

[DNSB]

Currently, I use multiple style guides. For local use, I use The Canadian style : a guide to writing and editing. I also have The Canadian Press Stylebook, The Canadian Press Caps and Spelling, the New Zealand Stylebook (a gift from a fellow FootRot Flats fan), the New Oxford Style Manual, The Associated Press Stylebook, The IBM Style Guide: Conventions for Writers and Editors and and The Chicago Manual of Style. The pbooks live next to my collection of typography books while the ebooks are stored in various places.

I also still have a Kodak International Service Language (KISL) guide which is a odd variant of a controlled language. There are no homonyms, no synonyms, etc. At time very wordy when a single English word needs multiple KISL allowed words but has the advantage of reducing the possibility for confusion.

[DrChiper]

A real dazzling amount of style-guides that seems quite overwhelming and intimidating to me.

Just curious: did you distill your own style to be used from all those guides or do you browse per issue through them in order to find an answer that suit your particular needs at that moment?

My workflow would be that when, for instance, I worked for IBM, I would pick their style-guide as my master guide, and only refer to other guides when my particular problem is not addressed in the master guide. And then: as all style references are mere "guides", I reserve the right to invent my own solution and use it consistently, which is perfectly acceptable as any actively used language is subject to change over time.

[Moonbase59]

I typically pick the one the publisher prescribes (like publishing houses, large companies, etc.). If I’m the publisher myself, I typically use one of my two (or German), depending on where the target audience is.

But I must admit, although still loving "my" language (UK English), I got pretty much "Americanized" over the last decades… I do grab the Chicago more often than good old Hart.

Which reminds me… Need to get a new copy of my Chicago, 18th edition is out since 2024 I think, and I’m still using the 17th.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by DrChiper

A real dazzling amount of style-guides that seems quite overwhelming and intimidating to me.

A collection over the years including some gifted ones.

Originally Posted by DrChiper

Just curious: did you distill your own style to be used from all those guides or do you browse per issue through them in order to find an answer that suit your particular needs at that moment?

I have my own style developed over the years. I tend to use the style guides when I run into something that is iffy to me and then I will look through the guides to see what they suggest.

Originally Posted by DrChiper

My workflow would be that when, for instance, I worked for IBM, I would pick their style-guide as my master guide, and only refer to other guides when my particular problem is not addressed in the master guide. And then: as all style references are mere "guides", I reserve the right to invent my own solution and use it consistently, which is perfectly acceptable as any actively used language is subject to change over time.

That's pretty much my opinion as well.