Q. In the sentence “Cane Ridge post office in Van Buren County, Tennessee, was opened in March 1866,” the town name is Cane Ridge and it has a post office. Would you capitalize “Post Office” or leave it lowercase?
A. In your sentence the phrase “Cane Ridge Post Office” looks like a title that should be capped, like Cane Ridge High School. If you had written “The Cane Ridge post office,” then “post office” might be read as a generic and lowercased in the way that you would lowercase “the Cane Ridge gas station” or “the Cane Ridge bus stop.”
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Hi, Chicago! My team has a question about kinship names. We understand words like Mom, Dad, and Grandma get capped when standing in place of a name, but we often see son and sis lowercased, even in direct address (e.g., “Well, son, let me explain” and “What’s the matter, sis?”). Is it because those are more terms of endearment than actual stand-ins for the name? Or should Son and Sis be capitalized too?
A. You’re right that Mom, Dad, and Grandma are used by children who wouldn’t address their elders by first name, whereas terms like son and sis are more often meant as generics rather than to replace a name, and that makes lowercasing them appropriate. In gray areas writers may use their discretion.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I have always thought that the only time one uses capitalization after a semicolon is when it is followed by a proper noun (or a word like I). As a mathematics editor, I’ve encountered capitalization after a semicolon with two different publishers (“No; Possible answer: they can find . . .”). I’ve searched for an answer in CMS but no luck.
A. CMOS probably doesn’t cover this because it’s never come up before! Uppercasing after a semicolon in running text (other than a proper name) is likely to look like an error.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. How does Chicago style handle capitalization of add-on questions such as the following? “May I have a cookie? two cookies? four cookies?” Should the latter two questions start with a lowercase letter?
A. CMOS doesn’t cover this issue per se, but it incidentally shows an example at 5.229: “Which is better? And why?” In that case CMOS chose capital letters, perhaps because the add-on question can be seen as beginning a new sentence. You could view “Two cookies?” as an elision of “May I have two cookies?” and therefore as the beginning of a new sentence, or you could choose to view your add-ons as sentence-ending fragments, so that lowercasing is justifiable.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Regarding the update to 6.42 about capitalizing a direct question midsentence: Does it apply to a sentence like this? “With all of X’s resources, why [lowercase w] had her cell phone not been fixed?” This type of sentence seems different to me than the examples given in 6.42, but I can’t explain why. Does the new rule apply? Should it be “With all of X’s resources, Why [uppercase W] had her cell phone not been fixed”?
A. Your sentence is different from those at 6.42 because it’s not a direct question included within a sentence. Rather, your entire sentence is a direct question. If your sentence/question were part of another sentence, then the first word would be capped. “She wondered, With all of X’s resources, why had her cell phone still not been fixed?” (Note that the first word of your direct question is With.)
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. What does it mean when the name of a person is presented in all caps?
A. On an office door, nothing. On a birthday cake, probably nothing. In a sentence like “NAME IN ALL CAPS is very important and powerful,” it could mean that the person is very important and powerful, or it might only mean that they wish they were.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I see that we initial cap Satan, Satanism, Satanist. Do we initial cap Satanic?
A. Like biblical, the adjective satanic is normally lowercased, but writers of specifically religious content may prefer to uppercase such words.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Should quoted (historical) telegram/telegraph messages be set in all caps?
A. The caps are necessary if it’s important to show how the telegram looked (though small caps would be more readable), but otherwise normal sentence capping is fine.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. When writing a novel, if you label someone in a quote (e.g.) “You Mad Little Bugger,” is it capitalized?
A. Oh my goodness no. That would look as though the speaker were giving the person an award or an official title. Stick with lowercase.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Can you please answer definitively whether miss should be capitalized in direct address? Let me help you with that, miss. Or, Let me help you with that, Miss.
A. Definitively? No. While it may be traditional to cap Miss in direct address, lowercasing is Chicago style.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]