Q. Does the advice in CMOS 6.45 about capitalizing a direct question midsentence apply to a sentence like this? “With all of X’s resources, why [lowercase w] had her cell phone not been fixed?” This type of sentence seems different to me than the examples given in CMOS, but I can’t explain why. Should it be “With all of X’s resources, Why [uppercase W] had her cell phone not been fixed”?
A. Your sentence is different from those in CMOS because it’s not a direct question included within a sentence. Rather, your entire sentence is a direct question. If your sentence/question were part of another sentence, then the first word would be capped. “She wondered, With all of X’s resources, why had her cell phone still not been fixed?” (Note that the first word of your direct question is With.)