Editing Decorum (section)

==Social decorum==
''Social'' decorum sets down appropriate [[social behavior]] and [[propriety]], and is thus linked to notions of [[courtesy]], [[:wikt:decency|decency]], [[etiquette]], [[:wikt:grace|grace]], [[manners]], [[respect]], and [[:wikt:seemliness|seemliness]].

The precepts of social decorum as we understand them, as the preservation of external decency, were consciously set by [[Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield|Lord Chesterfield]], who was looking for a translation of {{lang|fr|les moeurs}}: "Manners are too little, morals are too much."<ref>{{cite book|author=Lord Chesterfield|chapter=Miscellaneous Pieces: XLIII. The World|title=Miscellaneous Works of the Late Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield|edition=Second|volume=2|year=1777|orig-date=12 August 1756|page=299}}</ref> The word decorum survives in Chesterfield's severely reduced form as an element of etiquette: the prescribed limits of appropriate social behavior within a set situation. The use of this word in this sense is of the sixteenth-century,<ref>[[Cicero]]'s use of {{lang|la|decorum}} in discussing virtue in ''De officiis'' does not distinguish it from {{lang|la|honestum}}, according to {{cite journal|first=Melvin R.|last=Watson|title=Lord Chesterfield and 'Decorum'|journal=Modern Language Notes|volume=62|number=3|date=March 1947|pages=197–198|doi=10.2307/2910039 |jstor=2910039 }}</ref> prescribing the boundaries established in drama and literature, used by [[Roger Ascham]], ''The Scholemaster'' (1570) and echoed in [[Malvolio]]'s tirade in ''[[Twelfth Night]]'', "My masters, are you mad, or what are you? Have you no wit, manners nor honesty, but to gabble like tinkers at this time of night?... Is there no respect of persons, place nor time in you?"<ref>{{cite journal|first=Thomas|last=Kranidas|title=Malvolio on Decorum|journal=Shakespeare Quarterly|volume=15|number=4|date=Autumn 1964|pages=450–451|doi=10.2307/2868124 |jstor=2868124 }}
* {{cite book|first=T.|last=McAlindon|title=Shakespeare and Decorum|location=New York|year=1973}}</ref>

The place of decorum in the courtroom, of the type of argument that is within bounds, remains pertinent:<ref>{{cite journal|title=Decorum of Attorney in Argument: Propriety of Appeals to the Pathetic or Sentimental|journal=Michigan Law Review|volume=2|number=1|date=June 1903|page=49|doi=10.2307/1272437 |jstor=1272437 }}</ref> the decorum of argument was a frequent topic during the [[O. J. Simpson murder case|O.J. Simpson trial]].

During [[Model United Nations]] conferences the honorable chair may have to announce, "Decorum delegates!" if delegates are not adhering to parliamentary procedure dictated by the rules. This often happens if a delegate speaks out of turn or if the delegation is being disruptive.