Headlines and Titles of Works

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.