Q. When printing the name of someone whose last name is instantly recognizable and unmistakable like, say, Warhol, would you
still advise that the person’s given name be included upon first mention? Or is it acceptable to refer
to the individual by his/her last name right off the bat (Bach, Shakespeare, Warhol, etc.)?
A. The editor should consider the intended audience and decide accordingly. You don’t want to insult readers’
intelligence by stating the obvious, but sometimes you might want to educate the uninitiated by providing the full information.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Hello folks. I’m editing a travel brochure on South America, and one of the natural wonders featured prominently is Iguaçú (or Iguazú) Falls, which sits right where Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina meet. While this is a single wonder, it is accessible from three different countries boasting a total of two different national languages, and as such it has two possible correct spellings: Iguaçú (Portuguese, on the Brazil side) and Iguazú (Spanish, preferred in Paraguay and Argentina). National Geographic Atlas of the World (8th edition) uses both spellings (Iguazú National Park in Paraguay, Iguaçú River in Brazil, for example), showing the border where the spelling (and political jurisdiction) changes. They refer to the falls in Portuguese (Foz do Iguaçú) on the map, but use both spellings in the index and on their website. I emailed them to ask if they knew which country if any maintains physical ownership of the falls, and apparently it is a shared natural wonder. They suggested that I use both spellings in my brochure, Spanish in the sections on Spanish countries, and so on. This was not a feasible solution for this type of project, so in the end I just chose one (Iguazú: another editor’s son is named Zheid, pronounced “Zed.” We established a new house rule that whenever there is a choice between two spellings, pick the one with a zed. If there is no z and no other clear solution, flip a coin). How would CMOS handle this one?
A. We don’t have a Zheid, but I sometimes go by “Ed.,” so let’s say I get to choose. Assuming that the readers are to be primarily English-speaking, I’ll follow Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, which lists Iguaçú first (though Iguazú is listed also, as an equal variant; Chicago usually picks the first-listed term and sticks with it).
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Since the Great Depression can be shortened to simply the Depression, how does one deal with a document that includes both
usages? Sometimes the word “Great” adds the right amount of emphasis or helps
the cadence of the sentence. Other times, just “the Depression” will do. Must
one keep consistent by choosing one over the other?
A. I don’t see a need for consistency. Better to have a little variety.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. If someone has a PhD and is a professor at a university, what would be his or her title? Doctor or Professor?
A. Although this question doesn’t really fall within the purview of CMOS, the manuscript editing department at Chicago is of course well versed in etiquette, as we are in most things. Traditions vary from school to school and from discipline to discipline. You’re always safe with Mr. or Ms., but I doubt that any teachers would be offended if you called them Professor, whether or not they are one. Doctor is usually reserved for medical doctors, although some professors use it, and PhDs who don’t have tenure-track appointments (and who therefore don’t hold the title of professor) often like to use Doctor instead. (For other questions of etiquette, you can browse the internet for “etiquette” or “manners” or, in this case, “forms of address.”)
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Dear CMOS: Several of my coworkers have balked at a copyedit I have made repeatedly, and I want to get to the bottom of it, whether
I’m proven right or wrong. The University of Texas specifies on its website that “the”
is part of its name and that it should therefore be capitalized in every reference to the university. However, I have done
extensive research on the matter and have found that most respected copyeditors do not capitalize “the”
when it also functions as an article in a sentence, as in “We evaluated the University of Texas’s
enrollment data.” I have met with staunch resistance to lowercasing this “the,”
especially from coworkers who happened to attend the university in question. Will you please resolve this for me?
A. Chicago style is to lowercase “the” in this context, although we understand that
school spirit and corporate pride often overrule Chicago when it comes to in-house publications. Even some University of Chicago
publications uppercase “the University” against the recommendation of CMOS. So if UT boosters want the extra oomph from capping the T, you might have to bow to their wishes. It would be good for everyone
to follow the same style, whichever one you choose.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I notice in your online Q&A that you put a period after Harry S. Truman. I was told that there should be no period after the S, when I took a copyediting class decades ago, and doubted that, so I wrote to him. I have a letter from him saying that since it doesn’t stand for anything in particular, it does not take a period. Shouldn’t we go with his own stated preference? I’ll be glad to send you a copy of the letter.
A. Occasionally a celebrity can get away with demanding special treatment, but since editors cannot know the personal preferences of every person, we prefer to follow a guideline and apply it consistently. As it happens, I visited the Truman presidential library in Independence, Missouri, recently and noticed that the period appears on the building, on the grave-site marker, and in the brochures. You can read about this issue at the library’s website, where they explain that Truman himself was entirely inconsistent in using a period and may have insisted on its omission as a joke.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. When a proper name begins a sentence, is it always capitalized, even when it’s a name commonly seen as lowercase (e. e. cummings, for example)? I’m also unclear about names with particles. CMOS 8.7 says de (or d’) is always lowercased and is often dropped when the surname is used alone. How would I know that it’s dropped from Tocqueville but not from de Gaulle if neither of these names were in Merriam-Webster?
A. E. E. Cummings can be safely capitalized—not necessarily because he’s no longer around to object, but because it wasn’t his personal preference to lowercase his name (see this entry in Encyclopaedia Britannica). For those who do have a strong preference—bell hooks is a well-known example—you will want to respect it. This makes life difficult, however, for those of us who cannot bear to begin a sentence with a lowercase letter. CMOS forbids so doing (except for names like eBay)—we advise you to rewrite. Some publications simply ignore the preference (see Elise Harris, “That 4-Letter Word,” review of All about Love, by bell hooks, New York Times, January 30, 2000). Note that I’ve in turn ignored the capitalization in the Times’s review.
As for the particle de/d’, dropping it or not when referring to the surname only is a matter of tradition. If you are unable from any source to determine what that tradition might be, err on the side of retaining the particle.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. What is the CMOS standard for alphabetizing names that are hyphenated and not hyphenated? This would apply mainly to persons who, instead of hyphenating their name upon being married, make their pre-marriage last name their middle name. For example, Pat Doe Smith and Pat Doe-Smith. Should both examples of this name be alphabetized under the Ds, the Ss, or would the first example be alphabetized under the Ss and the second example be alphabetized under the Ds?
A. Compound family names, with or without hyphens, are usually alphabetized according to the first element.
Lloyd George, David
Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig
Sackville-West, Victoria
Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre
But be sure to check against a biographical dictionary or other reliable resource. See CMOS 8.6, 8.11, and 16.72 for more examples.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. When referring to Orville and Wilbur Wright as a unit, should the word “brothers” be capitalized—Wright brothers vs. Wright Brothers?
A. According to CMOS 8.36, “Kinship names are lowercased unless they immediately precede a personal name or are used alone, in place of a personal name.” One of the examples at 8.36 is “the Brontë sisters,” who, though none of them lived to see the age of modern aviation, provide a perfect analogy in terms of capitalization: write “the Wright brothers.”
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]