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.]
Q. I’m helping a French writer edit a book he has written in English. I’ve been
following the convention of writing French words and phrases in italics and also using italics for movie titles, book titles,
etc. Now I come upon a French song title, and I can’t figure out what to do with it. Here is the phrase:
He called it “La non-demande en mariage.” Do I keep the quotation marks? Do I
italicize the French song title? Both?
A. Chicago puts longer French phrases and sentences in quotation marks (no italics) and reserves italics for single words and
very short phrases. Poem or song titles are quoted no matter what language they’re in. Chapter 11 of
CMOS has more information on editing French and other languages.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I see in CMOS that civil titles, such as “secretary of state,” should be lowercase unless appearing as, for example, “Secretary of State Smith.” What about titles such as “assistant secretary of state for bureaucracy and obfuscation”? Should “bureaucracy and obfuscation” be lowercase to match “assistant secretary of state” or should it be capitalized as the name of a specific department?
A. Chicago style lowercases the title of the person but uppercases the department name: Jordan Smith is assistant secretary of bureaucracy and obfuscation. The Department of Bureaucracy and Obfuscation requires advance notice of emergency absences. Anyone who works for Bureaucracy and Obfuscation should keep her resume up to date.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I am editing a cookbook. When I am referring to a recipe by its full name in introductory text—say,
Spelt Butterhorn Rolls—would the name be capitalized as I just did, should it be enclosed in quotation
marks, or should it just be lowercase?
A. The caps will suffice. In a cookbook, they are useful in distinguishing actual recipes from generic descriptions of food.
As the editor of a cookbook, you would do well to look at a few classic or popular cookbooks to see what stylings are conventional.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Hi there. Please advise those of us who have to deal with music questions in our copyediting. How would you style the name
of a concert—in roman or italics? For example, One World: The Concert for Tsunami Relief.
A. CMOS doesn’t treat concert titles, but you could style them exactly as you did or put quotation marks around
them, as you would the title of a lecture.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I’m an editor at a law firm. I was recently asked whether there is any difference between “no
more than” and “not more than,” as in “Violator
will be sentenced to no/not more than five years in prison.” I took a poll in the office, and the other
editors said they prefer “no more than,” but they pointed out that “not
more than” is common in the legal context.
A. Unless there is some difference in official top-secret legal lingo (which would not surprise me), “no”
= “not” in this phrase.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I’m editing a university press book about the romance genre in England with references and comparisons to the rest of Europe. My question is about CMOS 8.47, which indicates “Continental cuisine; but continental breakfast.” This MS uses “continental” to modify any number of objects and concepts. Which are the exceptions, and which the rule (and why)?
A. Just between you and me, I suspect many editors struggle with these subtleties. I assume that CMOS takes its lead from Merriam-Webster, which certainly leaves me scratching my head. A good strategy is to ask the author if he or she capped and lowercased according to a plan, and if not, then you are justified in styling as you think best—perhaps lowercasing the adjective but capping “the Continent.” Just keep a record in your style sheet.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]