Return to Top Alphabetical Order Alphabetical listing provides the best key to conceptual and analytical material. In the sciences especially, but also in technical or theoretical material from any discipline, index entries and subentries should be alphabetized. To alphabetize letter by letter, treat the entire entry as a unit up to the first punctuation mark, ignoring spaces and hyphens, no matter how many words are involved. Ignore initial prepositions and conjunctions when alphabetizing subentries. Return to Top Proper names and nouns Names of persons precede names of places with identical spelling.
Any proper noun precedes a common noun with identical spelling.
Initials in proper names are alphabetized as if they were spelled out. Return to Top Numbers Alphabetize numbers as if they were spelled out except where chronology or sequence establishes a more appropriate pattern for listing. Many common abbreviations, especially those in place names, are alphabetized as if they were spelled out. In these cases, list the abbreviation alphabetically by letter. Return to Top Hyphenated entries Treat words with hyphenated prefixes as whole words when alphabetizing.