Q. How would you treat the title of a blog—roman with quotation marks, roman without quotation marks, or italic?
Q. In a software application that catalogues musical albums in a sidebar column for playback selection the main developer insists
on using italics for the album titles. I advised to drop the italics mainly because on today’s low-resolution
screens italic typefaces are rendered poorly. I reasoned that the CMOS advice that artwork titles should be set in italics is to be construed as a device of emphasis that sets the respective title
off from the flowing text. If the context would consist of titles only (and no surrounding text) there would not be a need
for emphasis, hence no italicization. Is this correct?
A. You make a good argument. The fact is, any time italics are unreadable, they are inappropriate. Although Chicago style is
to put titles of albums in italics, CMOS was not written primarily with web design in mind. Even in Chicago books, there are separate rules for display type. For
instance, book titles are often set in roman type on a title page. It’s probably best for you to ditch
the italics.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. When working in an electronic format that does not allow italics, how should you treat the titles of books?
A. If your text is mainly meant to convey information, you can indicate italics _like this_ or <italic>like this</italic> or
<i>like this</i>. If you want the text to display nicely, some applications allow you to use color or boldface or underlining.
A last resort is to use all caps or quotation marks.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Should “foundation” be capitalized in the following phrase? “With funding from the Ford and Simon foundations.” I thought it should be capped, since it means “from the Ford Foundation and the Simon Foundation,” but a coworker thinks otherwise.
A. By popular demand, Chicago style once again calls for uppercasing the generic term in such constructions (see, for instance, CMOS 8.53). But in the scenario you describe, it might be best to give both names in full to avoid any possible ambiguity.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Should one capitalize academic degrees? I am reading a quasi-academic journal and am wondering about the capitalization of
three words in the following sentence: “He was hoping to use his Associate of Applied Science degree.”
A. Chicago style is to lowercase the degree (including the field) in running text and whenever it’s used
generically. Generic uses (like the one in your sentence) often are introduced by “a”
or “the” or “his.” Capitalize the
name of a degree when it is displayed on a resume, business card, diploma, alumni directory, or anywhere it looks like a title
rather than a description. You can’t go too far wrong with this if you’re consistent
within a given document.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. When spelling out a proper name that is also known by an acronym, is it acceptable to capitalize more than one letter in
a word that contributes multiple letters to the acronym? To give an example, the name of an organization named Techno Hub
Innovation Kawasaki (THINK) came up in a document that I translated from Japanese to English, and the client wants to spell
the organization Techno Hub INnovation Kawasaki. Although the organization’s website itself uses INnovation,
it looks wrong to me. Am I right?
A. I don’t think readers would require the unusual capitalization in order to understand the acronym,
so I would discourage it, but if the client wants it that way and spells it that way on his website, and if the document is
some kind of commercial copy, I wouldn’t fuss about it.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. This is the title of a section heading. Should it be “The Importance of Well-Written Reports” or “The Importance of Well-written Reports”? Should we capitalize “written”?
Q. What would you say to a translator who says that an author’s use of all caps for EMPHASIS should stand? I tried to invoke house style but she is claiming it is, well, LITERARY. I’d like to explain to the author and translator this looks AMATEUR at best, and to say, look, WE JUST DON’T DO THAT.
A. If it’s not a lot of text, I would just put it in small caps without discussing it further. If it’s a lot, I would press on in my arguments, e.g., “I feel I must more strenuously insist on the use of italics for emphasis instead of all caps. Chicago style avoids the use of artificial emphasis in any form, including italics, which are sometimes perceived by readers as a writer’s crutch and (heaven forbid) a result of careless editing. We are also conscious of the wide influence of email etiquette, in which the use of all caps is criticized as the equivalent of shouting. I’m afraid there is rarely a place for all capitals in published work these days.”
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I work for a company that every two or three years puts out what it refers to as a medium-term management plan. When we refer to this plan in running text, such as in our annual report and in-house publications, should we treat this as an essay and place quotation marks around the name, as a notice and use capitalized headline style, or as a freestanding publication requiring italics?
A. Someone gets to decide and tell everyone else. It can be recorded in your house style guide so everyone in the company treats it the same way. (You have a house style guide, right?)
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Help! I’m teaching a grammar and usage class to my coworkers. I was sailing along, pointing out that
it’s correct to use a lowercase s when referring to Washington the state. My next sentence, however, used capitals in this way: “the
City of Olympia.” I did so, I admit, out of habit. So when does a name become official? Thank you.
A. If you are talking about the official powers of the city or state (the authorities who can sign contracts and pass laws)
or the exact geographical entity, uppercase.
The City of Chicago regularly auctions used vehicles and equipment.
The new school is not technically located within the Village of Victor.
The state of Illinois has many tourist attractions.
Obviously there will be times when the meaning is blurred, and in those cases be sure to keep track of your choices in order
to maintain consistency.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]