Q. According to CMOS, the names of major sporting events are capitalized. But none of the examples provided include major sporting events made up of multiple games. For the World Series, for example, would it be Game Four of the 1948 World Series, or game four of the 1948 World Series?
A. Either way is fine, but Chicago style prefers to lowercase when there’s a choice, and we also like to use numerals for enumerations, so we would probably refer to game 4 of the World Series, in the way that we refer to chapter 1 of a book.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. A manuscript I’m working on right now features a quote in running text which refers to the twentieth
century. Since the quote is from the New York Times, it says “20th century”—which does not match the number
style for the rest of our book. Is spelling out the number a permissible change to the quote?
A. No, this is not the sort of thing you should change in a quotation. But don’t worry about appearing
inconsistent; readers won’t hold you responsible. They understand that you weren’t
available to copyedit everything that was ever written.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Dear CMOS: In chapter 8, you indicate that I need to capitalize regions in the United States such as the Northwest, East Coast, etc. What do I do when attempting to indicate specific regions in a particular county of a state? Do I write the North Central region of Contra Costa County, or do I lowercase north central, etc.? I believe that it should be the latter form, but I am not sure. Can you shed some light on this problem? P.S. I think you are gods! (If that will help get a quick response!! Thanks for your help :-)
A. (Make that “goddesses” and it will definitely get you a quicker reply.) Yes, you are right. We would lowercase regions within counties.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Dear CMOS, As a religious writer I am struggling with a recent (apparent) change. With the advent of computer spell-checkers, the term
“biblical” when referring to the Holy Scriptures is no longer capitalized. Turabian
seems to indicate that proper adjectives should be capitalized, whereas even older editions of the Oxford American Unabridged
Dictionary (for instance) do not. It would seem to me, since the term “bible”
when not capitalized can refer to a number of authoritative books in various fields, that the reference to the Holy Bible
as a proper noun should be capitalized in its adjectival form. What say you? Thank you.
A. CMOS does not capitalize “biblical,” nor has it ever (see p. 12 of the first edition, published in 1906 and available here). (Turabian follows Chicago style for most matters, by the way, including this one.) If you must capitalize “biblical,” however, you have our blessing (as long as you do so in a consistent and logical manner).
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. My organization holds a lot of events, and we refer to them often on our website and in our member newsletter. Some are large programs (Last Remaining Seats film series); others are one-time events (Haunted Scavenger Hunt). In trying to determine how to format event titles, the closest comparison I found in CMOS was titles of exhibitions, which should be italicized (our events are more like museum exhibitions than world’s fairs). Would you agree that we should italicize all events, regardless of their size or duration?
A. Exhibitions are a special exception in CMOS because often they include a published catalog of the same title, and the confusion seemed to cause endless difficulty for writers. Your events are perhaps more akin to sporting events (CMOS 8.78), courses of study (8.86), or even holidays (8.89), so style them as you did in your query, with headline caps. If some events are lectures (8.87), you can put quotation marks around their titles.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Can you please confirm the correct spelling of “TIME magazine”? CMOS 8.171 has Time magazine. However, TIME customer service tells me that TIME Magazine is correct. I think “magazine” should be lowercased, since it does not appear anywhere on the cover, and I do not think it is part of the official name of the magazine, even though they capitalize it on their website. What do you think?
A. We’re sticking with Time magazine. One of the best things about having a style guide is not having to phone every organization in a document and talk to customer service; instead, we use the style manual to present titles consistently. Even if you were to check the periodical itself, you might find that the magazine cover has one spelling (TIME) but the copyright information has another (Time) and yet another is used in running text (Time). And you know for sure that if you phoned again, a different rep would give you a different answer.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I am copyediting a website that includes testimonials from authors of various books. If this were a print publication, there would be no question that the book titles would be italicized. However, since it is a website, are the rules different? The Yahoo! Style Guide, which deals specifically with digital content, recommends enclosing book titles in double quotation marks. Several other style guides I have come across recommend using italics. I am the person expected to create the style guide for the organization. What do you say?
A. Putting book titles in italics in running text is a strong convention, and italics should not be a problem on a website. In display headings, however, it’s common to see various styles. At our own site, for example, you can see book titles in bold, in roman caps/lowercase, and in italics, depending on context.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Lately, more and more titles are styled in lowercase—the Broadway show bare , for example, and Ann Hamilton’s 2001 installation the picture is still. When this sort of title appears in a headline or at the beginning of a sentence, would you allow authors to retain the lowercase
styling? It sure looks weird, but people do love their high-maintenance names. (Yes, Ke$ha, I am talking about you.)
A. If the titles are italic, they might work lowercased, but if you’re writing for a newspaper or magazine
where italics aren’t allowed (especially in headlines), you should take care lest the words in the title
be confused with the surrounding syntax. A title like the picture is still could cause trouble even in italics, if the italics are taken as emphasis: Researchers have found the picture is still at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Allow the lowercasing if it doesn’t cause trouble; otherwise, argue
for standard treatment.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Should the word “nature” be capitalized in this sentence? “My
research goal is to advance a global energy solution copied from Nature itself: artificial photosynthesis.”
A. If you want the reader to picture a goddess dressed in a flowing garment and flinging fruit and flowers everywhere, yes,
cap it and change “itself” to “herself.”
Otherwise, no.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. According to CMOS, the honorific title First Lady should be capitalized in all instances. Does that mean that the phrase “the
president and First Lady” is correctly capitalized?
A. It’s better to get rid of apparent inconsistencies in phrases like this by capping either both or neither.
“First Lady” is normally capped to distinguish her from a woman who happens to
be first in something: They offered flowers to the first lady in line at the theater. But in a context next to “the
president,” the meaning will be clear even without caps. If for some reason you don’t
have the authority to bend Chicago style in lowercasing “first lady,” you could
change “the president” to “President Obama”
to stay strictly within CMOS guidelines.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]