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====== LaTeX and BibTeX advice ======

In practice, LaTeX users vary significantly in how proficiently they use LaTeX and BibTeX. In what follows, we mention those points of LaTeX and BibTeX usage that we insist on. If anything is unclear, please don't hesitate to ask.((This page will be expanded as needed.))

===== LaTeX =====

==== Overfull \hbox-es ====

When compiling your TEX file, if you pay attention to the compilation log, you may see warnings of the following kind:

  Overfull \hbox (9.13985pt too wide) in paragraph at lines 476--486
  \T1/futs/m/n/12 mak-ing the right ac-tion choices. Ac-tion choices are de-ter-mined by an agent's

Any such overfull ''\hbox'' is acceptable **as long as its width is strictly less than 12pt**.

Naturally, it would be preferable to eliminate any overfull ''\hbox''-es altogether, but this isn't always straightforward to do. In general, narrow overfull ''\hbox''-es of, say, less than 6pt aren't an issue.

==== Citing passages of text ====

If you want to cite a passage of text that consists of one sentence or less, you should do this in-line using double quotation marks.((See also page 4 of the [[style_sheet|Generic Style Rules]].)) For example:

<file latex>
Chomsky (1957: 34) says that ``[t]he strongest proof of the inadequacy
of a linguistic theory is to show that it literally cannot apply to some
natural language.''
</file>

If you want to cite a passage of text that consists of more than one sentence, you should use a block quotation (not containing quotation marks), which can be achieved with the ''quoting'' environment:

<file latex>
Chomsky (1957: 106) makes the following claim:
\begin{quoting}
Grammar is best formulated as a self-contained study independent of 
semantics. In particular, the notion of grammaticalness cannot be 
identified with meaningfulness (nor does it have any special relation,  
even approximate, to the notion of statistical order of approximation).
\end{quoting}
</file>

===== BibTeX =====

==== No BibTeX warnings ====

When running BibTeX on your BIB file, there should be **no BibTeX warnings or errors whatsoever**. Please pay attention to the BibTeX compilation log to verify this.

==== Don't abbreviate names ====

Every entry in your BIB file should include **the names of the authors and editors as they appear on the work in question** -- please don't abbreviate any author's or editor's name yourself.((This general point is also made on page 10 of the [[style_sheet|Generic Style Rules]].))

For example, the author of the book //Semantic interpretation in generative grammar// is given as "Ray S. Jackendoff". If you want to cite this book, then the corresponding entry in your BIB file should contain the following author field:

<file bibtex>
author = {Jackendoff, Ray S.},
</file>

In this example, you **shouldn't** abbreviate ''Ray S.'' as ''R. S.'' or ''Ray'' or ''R.''.

==== Don't force unnecessary capitalization in titles ====

Since there are different bibliographic styles for how titles of works of different types are capitalized, please don't force unnecessary capitalization in titles of works in your BIB file, for otherwise a bibliographic style (which is determined by a BST file) won't be able to change this.

For example, if you want to cite the book //The sound pattern of English//, then the corresponding entry in your BIB file should contain the following title field (following the convention known as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_case#Title_case|Title case]]):

<file bibtex>
title = {The Sound Pattern of {E}nglish},
</file>

If the title is given in this way, then ''{E}nglish'' will be capitalized, whereas ''Sound'' and ''Pattern'' may but need not be capitalized, which allows the BST file to decide, depending on the bibliographic style. (Note that ''The'' will necessarily be capitalized because it is the first word of the title.)

Any other variation in how this title is given could lead to undesirable results. For example, a common mistake would be to write the title as follows:

<file bibtex>
title = {{The Sound Pattern of English}},
</file>

But this would force the capitalization of ''Sound'' and ''Pattern'', which may contradict the chosen bibliographic style.

Similarly, another common mistake would be to write the title as follows:

<file bibtex>
title = {The sound pattern of English},
</file>

In this case, the problem is that this wouldn't force of the capitalization of ''English'', which would be incorrect, and it also wouldn't allow for the capitalization of ''sound'' or ''pattern'', which again may contradict the chosen bibliographic style.

Naturally, what was said above applies to titles of works in English. Other languages, for example, French, don't have a tradition of Title case, and in the case of German, you need to force the capitalization of nearly all common nouns.