Q. Many of the products that my company offers employ midcaps (internal capital letters) as well as partial italics—for example, CustomerCares. In chapter 8, I see that Chicago style is to preserve midcaps in company or product names—do you recommend the same for italics?
A. No, we don’t. Once you start trying to accommodate typographic styles, it’s hard to stop. There are companies that use bold font or small caps or a backward R—and how about those logos where the first letter is small and then the letters get progressively larger, or where the letters have little wings on them? Better to look the other way.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Does the CMOS have a preferred spelling list of prominent Iraqi proper names, cities, and towns? Different publications use different spellings,
but I would like to adhere to the CMOS preferences.
A. No, sorry. CMOS is not the right place to list current spellings of the world’s cities—such a
list would be out of date before the book hit the shelves. Style sheets from newspapers or news services like the Associated
Press are better sources for this type of information.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. How should I list an author’s name when it is given in different forms in different works I am citing (e.g., John Smith, John R. Smith, J. R. Smith)? In the case of an author’s name in a non-Roman script, if the name has been transliterated differently in different publications, shall I list the name as given in each publication, or choose one form? If a name in a non-Roman script is transliterated differently from the system of transliteration I am using, what shall I do? Thank you!
A. Please see CMOS 14.82: “When a writer has published under different forms of his or her name, each work should be listed under the name that appears with the work—unless the difference is merely the use of initials versus full names. . . . Cross-references are occasionally used.” If a transliterated version is very different from the one used most often in the book, list it as a blind entry with a cross-reference to the more common one.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
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.]