Capitalization, Titles
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”?
A. Chicago’s “simple rule” (CMOS 8.169) is to capitalize only the first element of a hyphenated compound unless any subsequent element is a proper noun or adjective. CMOS also explains a more complex and traditional rule (too long to type out here, but which we prefer, and by which you would cap “Written”). Please see CMOS 8.170 for examples.
