American Anthropological Association Style 2009 Guide
Visual Continuity Guide AAA Style Guide
American Anthropological Association 2009 Style Guide
- General Guidelines…………………………………….. 1
Article Titles and Section Heads………………… 1
Capitalization………………………………………….. 1
Non-English Words and Quotations ………….. 2
Italics………………………………………………………. 2
Numbers …………………………………………………. 3
Punctuation…………………………………………….. 3
Quotations………………………………………………. 4
Running Text…………………………………………… 4
Tables, Figures, and Appendixes……………….. 5
Text Citations and References Cited ………….. 5
- Orthography…………………………………………….. 6
III. Reference Examples…………………………………. 7
Single-Author Book …………………………………. 7
Coauthored Book…………………………………….. 7
Author, with Others…………………………………. 7
Multiple References in the Same Year……….. 7
Work Accepted for Publication…………………. 7
Work Submitted for Publication
or Unpublished Work……………………………… 7
Materials in Archives………………………………… 7
Chapter in Book with Editor(s)………………….. 7
Editor as Author………………………………………. 7
Article in Journal……………………………………… 7
Article in Journal, Special or
Theme Issue …………………………………………… 8
Book in Series………………………………………….. 8
One Volume in Multivolume Work……………. 8
Review ……………………………………………………. 8
Report…………………………………………………….. 8
Ph.D. Dissertation or M.A. Thesis………………. 8
Paper………………………………………………………. 8
Reprint or Translation………………………………. 8
Subsequent or Revised Edition………………….. 8
Article in Newspaper or
Popular Magazine ………………………………….. 9
Personal Communication …………………………. 9
Court Case ………………………………………………. 9
Electronic/Online Sources…………………………. 9
Non-English Publications with
Title Translation……………………………………… 9
Audiovisual Recordings and Multimedia………… 9
Authors of Forewords, Afterwords, or Introductions……………………………………… 9
Table of Contents
Sources consulted: The Chicago Manual of Style (15th edition, 2003); The Handbook of Nonsexist Writing (New York: Lippincott
and Crowell, 1980); Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (11th edition, 2006); MLA Style Manual (2nd edition, 1998);
and United States Government Printing Office.
Copyright ©2009 American Anthropological Association (July)
American Anthropological Association 2009 Style Guide
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- Article Titles and Section Heads
(a) Do not put endnote callouts on display type such as
titles, section heads, or epigraphs. Place them after
nearest hard punctuation or at the ends of excerpts.
Never use endnotes inside excerpts or after soft punctuation
(i.e., commas, em-dashes, in lines of poetry).
(b) Do not number section heads
(c) Use the following terms for each separate submission:
- paper = conference
- article = journal or newspaper
- chapter = book
- essay = essay in journal, book, etc.
- review = review in journal or newspaper
- Capitalization
Follow Webster’s and Chicago
(a) Ethnic, Socioeconomic, and Other Groups (Chicago
8.41–8.45)
- Capitalize these terms as noted (unless
author objects): African American, AfroAmerican,
Alaska Native, American Indian,
Asian American, Canadian American, Euramerican,
Euro-American, Euro-Canadian,
European American, European Canadian,
First Nation, Hispanic, Indo-European, Jew,
Latina, Mesoamerican, Native American,
Pacific Islander, Australian and Canadian
Aboriginal and Aborigine
- Lowercase these terms as noted: aboriginal
(where not Australian or Canadian); black;
highlander, but Highlander (where referring
to Scottish); indigenous; mestizo; native (as
adj. except for specific populations, such as
noted above); redneck; white
(b) Events (Chicago 8.81–8.84)
- Capitalize historical, quasi-historical, political,
economic, and cultural events or
plans: Battle of the Books, Boston Tea Party,
Cold War (20th century, USSR vs. USA),
Great Depression, the Holocaust, Industrial
Revolution
- Lowercase: California gold rush, civil rights
movement, cold war, depression
(c) Figures, Tables, and Appendixes (exception to Chicago)
- Capitalize in text if they refer to items within
the present work, lowercase if they refer to
those in other works:
◊ In Figure 1
◊ As you can see in Table 2
◊ In Johnson’s figure 1
◊ Evidence in Johnson’s table 1 agrees
with my own (Table 2)
(d) Historical and Cultural Terms (Chicago 8.77–8.80)
- Where capitalized by tradition or to avoid
ambiguity, per Chicago and Webster’s use:
Middle Ages, Progressive Era, Restoration,
Roaring Twenties, Stone Age
- Lowercase: ancient Greece, nuclear age, romantic
period, U.S. colonial period
(e) Names of Organizations (including committees,
associations, conferences; see Chicago 8.66–8.76)
- Capitalize full official names, but lowercase
“the” preceding a name, even where it is part
of the official title: the Baltimore City Council,
Bureau of the Census, Census Bureau,
Circuit Court of Cook County
- Lowercase where they become general: the
bureau, city council, congressional, council,
county court, federal
- General Guidelines
AAA uses The Chicago Manual of Style (15th edition, 2003) and Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (11th
edition, 2006). This guide is an outline of style rules basic to AAA style. Where no rule is present on this list, follow
Chicago. For spelling, follow Webster’s first spelling if there is a choice and use American not British spellings.
This guide does not apply to newsletters, which frequently deviate from these guidelines in the interest of space
and tend to follow many Associated Press style rules.
American Anthropological Association 2009 Style Guide
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(f) Names of Places (Chicago 8.46–8.63)
- Capitalize geographical and popular names
of places: Antarctica, Asia, Atlantic, Back Bay
(Boston), Central America, City of Brotherly
Love, Foggy Bottom (D.C.), Ivory Coast,
North Pole, Orient, the States, Third World
(do not hyphenate as adj.), Upper Michigan
- Directions should be capitalized where used
as a name but not where used as a direction:
◊ Caribbean Islands; Far East; North
India; North Pole; Pacific Islands; the
South; South India; South Pacific;
the Southwest (n.), but southwestern
(adj.); the West; Westernize
◊ northern Michigan, the south of
France, southeastern, western Samoa,
the Western world
- Lowercase: eastern Europe, western Europe,
central Europe. Exceptions: use Eastern and
Western Europe in the context of the political
divisions of the Cold War; use Central
Europe in the context of the political divisions
of World War I
(g) Titles and Offices (Chicago 8.21–8.35)
- Capitalize civil, military, religious, and professional
titles only where they immediately
precede the name. In formal usage, such as
acknowledgments or lists of contributors,
capitalize the title following the name: B.A.
in anthropology; Judy Jones, Smith Professor
Emeritus at Yale University; Professor Jones,
associate professor of education studies; a
professor emeritus; Henry Trueba, chair of
the Department of Education Studies; the
chairman of the department
- For academic degrees or titles, capitalize
where formal, lowercase where informal:
Louis Spindler, Ph.D.; a Master of Science
degree from University of Virginia; a master’s
degree in education
(h) Titles of Works (Chicago 8.164–8.177)
- For titles of works in AAA journals, references
cited, and notes: change capitalization only.
Do not change anything else, even spelling or
punctuation (exception to Chicago).
- Capitalize first and last words of titles and
subtitles in English. For other languages, follow
Chicago.
- Capitalize both words in a hyphenated compound
(exception to Chicago)
- Do not capitalize parenthetical translations
of titles in references cited
- Non-English Words and Quotations
(a) Diacritics
- Alert production editor of unusual characters
or fonts in advance of submission to
verify access to usable fonts
(b) Quotations
- Put non-English sentences and quotations in
quotation marks (and do not italicize)
(c) Translations
- Include translations of non-English words
in parentheses immediately following (or
vice versa, but keep consistent throughout
the work)
◊ ellai (borders) and cantippu (crossroads)
- Include translations of foreign-language quotations
either in an endnote or in brackets
immediately following the quotation (without
italics and without quotation marks)
◊ “Todas somos amigas de desde chiquitas,
casi puras vecinas” [We are all
friends since we were small, and almost
all are neighbors].
- For translation of non-English titles in references,
see example #24 in the Reference Examples
section
(d) Words
- Italicize non-English words that do not appear
in the main section of Webster’s. Italicize
them on first use only, unless used as a
term (see 4a below)
- Italics
(a) Words as Words
- Italicize words used as words (e.g., as terms)
in written context; but where the context is
solely the spoken word, is used for ironic effect,
or is a concept, use quotation marks.
◊ In Smith 1994 the term subaltern
implies
◊ to keep children on the “right path”
academically
◊ Bourdieu, who utilized notions of
“cultural capital” and “habitus”
◊ Bourdieu defines cultural capital and
habitus as
(b) Legal Cases (Chicago 8.88):
- Use italics for names of legal cases
American Anthropological Association 2009 Style Guide
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(c) Publication Names
- Italicize publications used as authors in intext
citations, but leave roman in references
cited. See Reference Examples section.
(d) Use of “[sic]” (Chicago 11.69)
- Italicize word, not brackets
- Correct obvious typographical errors rather
than use [sic]
- Do not italicize: e.g., i.e., or cf.
- Numbers
(a) Spell out numbers in the following instances
- One through ten
- Numbers at the beginning of a sentence
- Numbers used in the approximate sense
◊ The area comprises roughly two hundred
viable sites; not 200
◊ About 15 thousand soldiers were
killed; not 15,000 or fifteen thousand
(b) Age
- 24 years old, 11 months old, a 34-year-old
woman, in her thirties
(c) Currency
- Assume dollar designations are in U.S. currency.
Otherwise (e.g., Canada) use:
◊ US$200 (not U.S.) and CAN$200
- Do not use $ with USD (e.g., $20 USD), as it
is redundant
- Refer to the Government Printing Office for
pre-Euro designations, or flag for the production
editor
(d) Dates
- ninth century, 20th century; 1960–65; 1960s
(not 60s); the sixties; October 6, 1966; April
1993 (no comma); C.E. 1200; 1000 B.C.E.;
April 18, not April 18th
(e) Fractions
- Hyphenate as both adjective and noun: a
two-thirds majority, two-thirds of those
present
(f) Inclusive numbers
- Do not elide numbers in a range: 893–897;
1,023–1,045
- Elide year spans (exception to above): 1989–92
(g) “Mid-”
- Hyphenate numbers or numerals: mid-thirties
(age), mid-1800s (years)
- Use an en-dash (–), rather than hyphen (-),
with an open compound: mid–19th century,
mid–Cold War
(h) Numbered items, such as parts of a book, are not
capitalized
- chapter 5 (in reviews ch. 5 or chs. 5–7), part 2
(i) Ordinals (nd or rd)
- 22nd, rather than 22d; 23rd, rather than 23d
(j) Quantities (Chicago 9.3–9.4; 9.19)
- Use numerals above ten and spell out measurement:
26 millimeters, five miles, 15 kilometers
(not km); but in tables, OK to use 26
mm, 5 gm, 10 mph
- Express round numbers above ten million in
numerals + words: 20 million
- 20 percent, but in tables, OK to use %
- Use commas in four-digit numbers: 1,409;
but not page numbers (p. 1409)
(k) Series
- Where dealing with more than one series
of quantities, use numerals for one of the
series
◊ The first shape had 4 sides, the second
had 7 … and the twelfth had 3
- Where small numbers occur in a group with
large numbers, set them all in numerals for
consistency
(l) Statistics (Chicago 9.20–9.21; 13.5)
- Decimal fractions: use initial zero only if
number can equal or exceed 1
◊ 0.3–1.5
◊ according to a Chi-square test yielding
a value of 4.2, p < .05
◊ Kappa = .33, p < .05
- Use N for sample sizes, but use n for subgroups
of samples
(m) Time
