Headlines and Titles of Works

Q. A book title is written in italics, as is the title of a musical album. Chapter names and songs are set between quotation marks. If I’m correct, the thinking behind this is that a song is usually part of an album or a play or some sort of larger work. However, it wasn’t that long ago that a song was a stand-alone work, released as sheet music or as a single on a 78 or 45 rpm record. LPs and the concept of an album came to prominence in the 1960s. So what do we do with “The Pineapple Rag,” which was never part of an album? It was released originally as sheet music and possibly as a player piano roll. Throughout most of music history, the song was the major work. Some songs, like “Money” on Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon, are integral parts of the album, while Bach’s Minuet in G has nothing to do with any larger work. Doesn’t it make more sense to italicize song titles? This also eliminates all the awkward quotes and commas when listing the songs in an album or play. Thoughts?

Q. Is the word program capitalized as part of the name of a program, such as Orphan/Infant Care Program—or is it Orphan/Infant Care program? Does the rule change if it is in text or on a poster?

Q. The “Life Style” section of a newspaper is referred to in dialogue. The dialogue is in double quotations. Should the name of the newspaper section also have a set of double quotation marks? I searched for an answer or a reliable example and could find none.

Q. I’m editing company profiles for a business directory and often encounter statements like the following:

            We were cited as Outstanding Exporter of the Year in 2008.

            We are no. 6 in DQ’s “Best IT Employer Survey.”

Another editor placed quotation marks around “Outstanding Exporter of the Year.” How would CMOS place quotation marks in the list above?

Q. It has baffled me for years why the name of The New Yorker is sometimes written the New Yorker, and today I learned it is because the Chicago Manual advises it. I’m not sure why. The title of the magazine, as William Shawn used to say, is The New Yorker. To present it otherwise is to make a factual error, as it would be to print the New York Times, or the first letters of someone’s name in lowercase.

Q. If our publication follows your style of italicizing the titles of most works (e.g., books), what would you recommend we do in cases when that title must appear in the headline of an article? Italicization is not possible in our headline fields, and our style for quotation marks in headlines is single quotation marks. Single quotes would likely improve clarity in many cases, but it may also be best to use quotation marks only when needed for clarity. I would appreciate some reinforcement as we try to pin this down for good.

Q. I am editing an article, and the terms “Cause of Death,” “Manner of Death,” “Natural,” “Accident,” “Suicide,” “Homicide,” and “Undetermined” are all capitalized. If the term is reused later in the article, e.g., “This is a Natural death” and “There has been no finding as to the Manner and possible Cause of death,” should I capitalize “Natural,” “Manner,” and “Cause” in this latter usage?

Q. According to CMOS, the names of major sporting events are capitalized. But none of the examples provided include major sporting events made up of multiple games. For the World Series, for example, would it be Game Four of the 1948 World Series, or game four of the 1948 World Series?

Q. A manuscript I’m working on right now features a quote in running text which refers to the twentieth century. Since the quote is from the New York Times, it says “20th century”—which does not match the number style for the rest of our book. Is spelling out the number a permissible change to the quote?

Q. Dear CMOS: In chapter 8, you indicate that I need to capitalize regions in the United States such as the Northwest, East Coast, etc. What do I do when attempting to indicate specific regions in a particular county of a state? Do I write the North Central region of Contra Costa County, or do I lowercase north central, etc.? I believe that it should be the latter form, but I am not sure. Can you shed some light on this problem? P.S. I think you are gods! (If that will help get a quick response!! Thanks for your help :-)