Q. I am writing a text and need help with one thing. I checked your Q&A and didn’t see anything on this so I’ll ask here. Do government offices and bureaus need to be capitalized? For example, the Wireless Bureau of the FCC, or can it be listed in a sentence as the wireless bureau of the FCC? Thanks!
A. According to the examples given in CMOS 8.63, official names of administrative bodies are capitalized, whereas just part of the name is not. For example:
The FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau today set guidelines for broadcast frequencies at the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah. The bureau plans to publish these guidelines within the next seven days.
Note that subsequent mentions of “the bureau” are lowercased. You might also do this:
The FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (WTB) today set guidelines for broadcast frequencies at the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah. The WTB plans to publish these guidelines within the next seven days.
Note also that the official name is the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau. If you were to refer simply to the “wireless bureau of the FCC,” it would have to be lowercase, as when you say only “the bureau,” because you are not giving the official title of the organization.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I am unable to find a ruling on state nicknames in my Chicago manual. Am I overlooking it? Is it “aloha state,” “Aloha state,” or “Aloha State”?
A. Write “Aloha State.” It’s essentially a proper name because it is a nickname for the proper entity Hawaii (nicknames for people are capitalized). And according to CMOS 8.48, popular names for places and epithets are usually capitalized. See that paragraph for examples.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Should I capitalize “the states” when used alone (referring to the United States)?
I’m copyediting a novel in which the author capitalizes “the States”
when used alone. I think it would be lowercased.
A. Actually, “the States” is capped when it means the United States. It’s
only when referring to individual states collectively that you should lowercase: “Each of the states
elects two senators,” as opposed to “I’m going back to the
States.”
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]