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.]
Q. In a nongovernmental organization, are job titles ever capitalized in full or part when they include the name of a department? For example, Network Development is the name of a department; would we use lowercase when referring to a “network development specialist”? Thank you for any guidance.
A. It’s your choice, depending on meaning. If you want to identify which department the specialist belongs to, you would use the uppercased name of the department (a specialist in Network Development). If you are describing the type of work the specialist does (developing networks), you would use the lowercase generic form.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. There seems to be an increasing number of people who prefer their names in lowercase, and I was wondering when other capitalization rules trump this preference. It seems like the first letter of a sentence should be capitalized even if it happens to be a lowercased name (e.g., “Damali ayo is . . .” or “Ayo is . . .”), but could that look clumsy or incorrect, requiring all such sentences to be rephrased?
A. A capital letter does look best at the beginning of a sentence. An exception may be made for words that have a midcap like eBay or iPhone.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Should professor be capitalized in this sentence? “He studied at Yale University and went on to become a professor.”
A. No. Because professor is a common noun, lowercase it just as you would if this Yale student went on to become a movie star, a chef, or a dog walker.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]