Q. Dear CMOS, As a religious writer I am struggling with a recent (apparent) change. With the advent of computer spell-checkers, the term
“biblical” when referring to the Holy Scriptures is no longer capitalized. Turabian
seems to indicate that proper adjectives should be capitalized, whereas even older editions of the Oxford American Unabridged
Dictionary (for instance) do not. It would seem to me, since the term “bible”
when not capitalized can refer to a number of authoritative books in various fields, that the reference to the Holy Bible
as a proper noun should be capitalized in its adjectival form. What say you? Thank you.
A. CMOS does not capitalize “biblical,” nor has it ever (see p. 12 of the first edition, published in 1906 and available here). (Turabian follows Chicago style for most matters, by the way, including this one.) If you must capitalize “biblical,” however, you have our blessing (as long as you do so in a consistent and logical manner).
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. My organization holds a lot of events, and we refer to them often on our website and in our member newsletter. Some are large programs (Last Remaining Seats film series); others are one-time events (Haunted Scavenger Hunt). In trying to determine how to format event titles, the closest comparison I found in CMOS was titles of exhibitions, which should be italicized (our events are more like museum exhibitions than world’s fairs). Would you agree that we should italicize all events, regardless of their size or duration?
A. Exhibitions are a special exception in CMOS because often they include a published catalog of the same title, and the confusion seemed to cause endless difficulty for writers. Your events are perhaps more akin to sporting events (CMOS 8.78), courses of study (8.86), or even holidays (8.89), so style them as you did in your query, with headline caps. If some events are lectures (8.87), you can put quotation marks around their titles.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Can you please confirm the correct spelling of “TIME magazine”? CMOS 8.171 has Time magazine. However, TIME customer service tells me that TIME Magazine is correct. I think “magazine” should be lowercased, since it does not appear anywhere on the cover, and I do not think it is part of the official name of the magazine, even though they capitalize it on their website. What do you think?
A. We’re sticking with Time magazine. One of the best things about having a style guide is not having to phone every organization in a document and talk to customer service; instead, we use the style manual to present titles consistently. Even if you were to check the periodical itself, you might find that the magazine cover has one spelling (TIME) but the copyright information has another (Time) and yet another is used in running text (Time). And you know for sure that if you phoned again, a different rep would give you a different answer.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I am copyediting a website that includes testimonials from authors of various books. If this were a print publication, there would be no question that the book titles would be italicized. However, since it is a website, are the rules different? The Yahoo! Style Guide, which deals specifically with digital content, recommends enclosing book titles in double quotation marks. Several other style guides I have come across recommend using italics. I am the person expected to create the style guide for the organization. What do you say?
A. Putting book titles in italics in running text is a strong convention, and italics should not be a problem on a website. In display headings, however, it’s common to see various styles. At our own site, for example, you can see book titles in bold, in roman caps/lowercase, and in italics, depending on context.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Lately, more and more titles are styled in lowercase—the Broadway show bare , for example, and Ann Hamilton’s 2001 installation the picture is still. When this sort of title appears in a headline or at the beginning of a sentence, would you allow authors to retain the lowercase
styling? It sure looks weird, but people do love their high-maintenance names. (Yes, Ke$ha, I am talking about you.)
A. If the titles are italic, they might work lowercased, but if you’re writing for a newspaper or magazine
where italics aren’t allowed (especially in headlines), you should take care lest the words in the title
be confused with the surrounding syntax. A title like the picture is still could cause trouble even in italics, if the italics are taken as emphasis: Researchers have found the picture is still at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Allow the lowercasing if it doesn’t cause trouble; otherwise, argue
for standard treatment.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Should the word “nature” be capitalized in this sentence? “My
research goal is to advance a global energy solution copied from Nature itself: artificial photosynthesis.”
A. If you want the reader to picture a goddess dressed in a flowing garment and flinging fruit and flowers everywhere, yes,
cap it and change “itself” to “herself.”
Otherwise, no.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. According to CMOS, the honorific title First Lady should be capitalized in all instances. Does that mean that the phrase “the
president and First Lady” is correctly capitalized?
A. It’s better to get rid of apparent inconsistencies in phrases like this by capping either both or neither.
“First Lady” is normally capped to distinguish her from a woman who happens to
be first in something: They offered flowers to the first lady in line at the theater. But in a context next to “the
president,” the meaning will be clear even without caps. If for some reason you don’t
have the authority to bend Chicago style in lowercasing “first lady,” you could
change “the president” to “President Obama”
to stay strictly within CMOS guidelines.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I’m helping a French writer edit a book he has written in English. I’ve been
following the convention of writing French words and phrases in italics and also using italics for movie titles, book titles,
etc. Now I come upon a French song title, and I can’t figure out what to do with it. Here is the phrase:
He called it “La non-demande en mariage.” Do I keep the quotation marks? Do I
italicize the French song title? Both?
A. Chicago puts longer French phrases and sentences in quotation marks (no italics) and reserves italics for single words and
very short phrases. Poem or song titles are quoted no matter what language they’re in. Chapter 11 of
CMOS has more information on editing French and other languages.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I see in CMOS that civil titles, such as “secretary of state,” should be lowercase unless appearing as, for example, “Secretary of State Smith.” What about titles such as “assistant secretary of state for bureaucracy and obfuscation”? Should “bureaucracy and obfuscation” be lowercase to match “assistant secretary of state” or should it be capitalized as the name of a specific department?
A. Chicago style lowercases the title of the person but uppercases the department name: Jordan Smith is assistant secretary of bureaucracy and obfuscation. The Department of Bureaucracy and Obfuscation requires advance notice of emergency absences. Anyone who works for Bureaucracy and Obfuscation should keep her resume up to date.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I am editing a cookbook. When I am referring to a recipe by its full name in introductory text—say,
Spelt Butterhorn Rolls—would the name be capitalized as I just did, should it be enclosed in quotation
marks, or should it just be lowercase?
A. The caps will suffice. In a cookbook, they are useful in distinguishing actual recipes from generic descriptions of food.
As the editor of a cookbook, you would do well to look at a few classic or popular cookbooks to see what stylings are conventional.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]