Q. In the headline “Rack ’em Up and Play,” would Chicago support ’em or ’Em? (It’s for an article about a billiards-themed mobile game. We follow Chicago, so our headlines are always in title case. And we have a casual style, hence the contraction.) I’m consumed by indecision. On the one hand, ’Em is technically a pronoun, standing in for Them, and pronouns regardless of length are capitalized in headlines. On the other, I get stuck on the fact that the initial letter of the full word is what would be capitalized, and that initial letter is removed by the contraction. No initial letter, no capital? Aesthetically the lowercase option looks better to me, but other colleagues have said lowercase looks like a mistake to them. Help!
Q. Hello. Looking for a bit of clarification on headings with parentheses. Should we avoid them? If parentheses are used, what is the proper way to use them in headline style? For example, is “Your Guide to College (And Beyond!)” the correct way to list this chapter title/heading? Thank you.
Q. Would it be “the Color Purple musical” or “The Color Purple musical”?
Q. Is it correct to italicize the word “Titanic” when referring to the movie, or do the italics of a ship name and movie title cancel each other out (assuming quotation marks don’t get involved)? Thanks!
Q. If the words of a book title are lowercased, do you uppercase them in the bibliography? The CMOS standard for capitalizing the words of a book title in the bibliography are, by and large, the standard of most publishers. So, if a publication veers from that, do you retain the original way of capitalizing (or not) the title? Or do you change it?
Q. Why are prepositions (and other such words) lowercase in titles in Chicago style (per CMOS 8.159)?
Q. How should the phrase “out of” be capitalized in a title or heading?
Q. CMOS 14.195 explains how to include the headline names of regular columns or features in a footnote citation, but how should they appear if mentioned in the main text: italicized, in quotes, or roman? Thanks!
Q. Should “that” be capitalized in titles? Does it depend on usage? Take, for example, this title: “Features of the Website That Are Offered as Premium.” Thanks!
Q. An author of a book I’m copyediting wishes to italicize the books of the Bible (Genesis, etc.) on the grounds that the convention of using roman type for sacred works is based on the assumption that these texts were divinely inspired rather than authored by humans (an assumption this author is challenging). The author would add a note explaining this style choice.
I cannot, however, find anything about the basis for the rule that the titles of “highly revered works” (from CMOS 8.103) should not be italicized. Do you know the original rationale for the convention?