Q. People Seem to Have Capitalitis These Days. I am editing our company directory and wondering if all titles must be capitalized. My column headings include “Name” and “Title.” Under “Name,” I have Joe Smith. Under “Title,” which is correct: “Customer Service” or “customer service”?
A. You may be happy to know that the University of Chicago Press considers almost all titles to be generic unless they are used as part of a name. Practically no one gets special treatment—neither the pope nor the president of the United States. But the recommendations in The Chicago Manual of Style apply for the most part to descriptive and analytical texts. Excess capitalization hinders an argument’s clarity.
We’d allow an exception for something like your directory, where corporate politics might be a factor:
In promotional or ceremonial contexts such as a displayed list of donors in the front matter of a book or a list of corporate officers in an annual report, titles are usually capitalized even when following a personal name. Exceptions may also be called for in other contexts for reasons of courtesy or diplomacy. (CMOS 8.20)
So though we at the press share your disdain for capitalization, please consider the exceptions and decide where your directory fits.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. When referring to a specific conference, would the word “conference” be capitalized
when used alone? For example, “I attended the Western Region Writing Style Conference earlier this year.
During the Conference I learned . . .”
A. “Conference” should be capitalized only if it is in fact part of the official
title of the conference. So,
the Fifteenth Computers and Writing Conference; the conference; that conference on computers and writing
Official titles are capitalized, whereas generic terms used to talk about the official conference are not.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I am having a discussion/argument with my author’s editor over the presentation of Pizza and its Variations: Beyond Two Pi R, the title [changed for this forum] of a forthcoming book edited by myself. The title is so presented in the UK edition, and the American publisher is insisting that this is incorrect (or at any rate in defiance of normal convention), and “Its” should be used, despite the fact that the lowercase version appears in the book (whose text will be the same in both editions). Quite apart from the question of consistency, I feel that in the case of this particular title a capital ‘I’ would take the eye away from the two important words, “Pizza” and “Variations.” Do you have a (quick, please!) view?
A. Correct headline-style capitalization as defined by The Chicago Manual of Style would call for capital “Its.” All nouns—pronouns included—get capitalized according to our rule (see paragraph 8.159). And while we are flattered that the American publisher is following our guidelines to a tee, you do have a point. An opposite problem was encountered many years ago with our own publication of the novel A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean. According to our rules, “through,” a preposition, would not get a capital “t” in titles. Somebody here objected to this (on the grounds of emphasis and prominence), so we capitalized it on the cover and in promotional materials.
Nonetheless, those who write about Maclean’s book—or cite it—should submit to their editors. We’d write A River Runs through It. And we’d capitalize your Its.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. When referring to the US Army Corps of Engineers, in saying “the Corps of Engineers” and “the Corps,” how should the shortened forms be capitalized? Should “the Corps of Engineers” be in initial caps and “the corps” be in lowercase?
A. CMOS includes the following examples among the forty or so listed at paragraph 8.112:
Army Corps of Engineers; the corps
United States (or US) Army; the army
United States Army Signal Corps; the Signal Corps or the signal corps
United States Coast Guard; the Coast Guard or the coast guard
United States Marine Corps; the Marine Corps or the marine corps; the US Marines; a marine
United States Navy; the navy
The terms “army” and “navy” when used alone are considered to be generic, whereas, for example, the “Army Corps of Engineers” (or “Corps of Engineers”) and the “Marine Corps” are more specialized by virtue of being unique subbranches within the US armed forces. “Coast Guard” and “Signal Corps,” on the same principle, are often capitalized, but any of these may be lowercased if used alone. “Corps” becomes generic when used by itself. (All these terms are routinely capitalized in the military’s own documentation—a matter of institutional pride.)
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. In the phrase “federal constitutional law,” should the “c”
in “constitutional” be capitalized? I say no, but a coworker says yes.
A. You are right. The “Constitution,” referring to the US Constitution, is capitalized.
The adjective “constitutional” is never capitalized.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
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.]