Q. Should “foundation” be capitalized in the following phrase? “With funding from the Ford and Simon foundations.” I thought it should be capped, since it means “from the Ford Foundation and the Simon Foundation,” but a coworker thinks otherwise.
A. By popular demand, Chicago style once again calls for uppercasing the generic term in such constructions (see, for instance, CMOS 8.53). But in the scenario you describe, it might be best to give both names in full to avoid any possible ambiguity.
Q. Should one capitalize academic degrees? I am reading a quasi-academic journal and am wondering about the capitalization of
three words in the following sentence: “He was hoping to use his Associate of Applied Science degree.”
A. Chicago style is to lowercase the degree (including the field) in running text and whenever it’s used
generically. Generic uses (like the one in your sentence) often are introduced by “a”
or “the” or “his.” Capitalize the
name of a degree when it is displayed on a resume, business card, diploma, alumni directory, or anywhere it looks like a title
rather than a description. You can’t go too far wrong with this if you’re consistent
within a given document.
Q. When spelling out a proper name that is also known by an acronym, is it acceptable to capitalize more than one letter in
a word that contributes multiple letters to the acronym? To give an example, the name of an organization named Techno Hub
Innovation Kawasaki (THINK) came up in a document that I translated from Japanese to English, and the client wants to spell
the organization Techno Hub INnovation Kawasaki. Although the organization’s website itself uses INnovation,
it looks wrong to me. Am I right?
A. I don’t think readers would require the unusual capitalization in order to understand the acronym,
so I would discourage it, but if the client wants it that way and spells it that way on his website, and if the document is
some kind of commercial copy, I wouldn’t fuss about it.
Q. This is the title of a section heading. Should it be “The Importance of Well-Written Reports” or “The Importance of Well-written Reports”? Should we capitalize “written”?
A. Chicago would capitalize “Written.” To find out why, please see CMOS 8.161.
Q. What would you say to a translator who says that an author’s use of all caps for EMPHASIS should stand? I tried to invoke house style but she is claiming it is, well, LITERARY. I’d like to explain to the author and translator this looks AMATEUR at best, and to say, look, WE JUST DON’T DO THAT.
A. If it’s not a lot of text, I would just put it in small caps without discussing it further. If it’s a lot, I would press on in my arguments, e.g., “I feel I must more strenuously insist on the use of italics for emphasis instead of all caps. Chicago style avoids the use of artificial emphasis in any form, including italics, which are sometimes perceived by readers as a writer’s crutch and (heaven forbid) a result of careless editing. We are also conscious of the wide influence of email etiquette, in which the use of all caps is criticized as the equivalent of shouting. I’m afraid there is rarely a place for all capitals in published work these days.”
Q. I work for a company that every two or three years puts out what it refers to as a medium-term management plan. When we refer to this plan in running text, such as in our annual report and in-house publications, should we treat this as an essay and place quotation marks around the name, as a notice and use capitalized headline style, or as a freestanding publication requiring italics?
A. Someone gets to decide and tell everyone else. It can be recorded in your house style guide so everyone in the company treats it the same way. (You have a house style guide, right?)
Q. Help! I’m teaching a grammar and usage class to my coworkers. I was sailing along, pointing out that
it’s correct to use a lowercase s when referring to Washington the state. My next sentence, however, used capitals in this way: “the
City of Olympia.” I did so, I admit, out of habit. So when does a name become official? Thank you.
A. If you are talking about the official powers of the city or state (the authorities who can sign contracts and pass laws)
or the exact geographical entity, uppercase.
The City of Chicago regularly auctions used vehicles and equipment.
The new school is not technically located within the Village of Victor.
The state of Illinois has many tourist attractions.
Obviously there will be times when the meaning is blurred, and in those cases be sure to keep track of your choices in order
to maintain consistency.
Q. Some years ago my advisor in college drummed into my head that the titles of tables appear above the table, and titles of
figures should go below the figure. Can you verify this? Thanks.
A. Partly. Chicago style puts the table title at the top (please see chapter 3) because often tables have other matter that
appears below (sources, notes). Often, too, qualifying information essential for interpreting the table (measures, dates,
etc.) appears in the title, so it makes sense to put it at the top where the reader will see it first. A figure caption can
go above, below, or on the side of the figure. Its placement is usually a design decision, not an editorial one.
Q. We are preparing a publication on imperialism and are doing our best to follow CMOS’s instruction that “words denoting political divisions . . . are capitalized when they follow a name and are used as an accepted part of the name” (paragraph 8.51). And so we have “the Ottoman Empire,” “the Roman Empire,” “the American empire,” “the Japanese empire,” etc. But we are concerned that such a treatment, in the scope of the whole publication, may appear inconsistent or preferential. (Is it, after all, the British “Empire” or “empire”?) Do you think it would be acceptable in this context to use the lowercase “empire” in all instances? Of course, even as I put that question to you, writing “the Ottoman empire” doesn’t seem quite right. We would be grateful for any advice you might have on this point.
A. Although we often bend a rule for the sake of “regional consistency,” you risk confusion by tampering with a fairly strong tradition of capping officially recognized territories subject to an emperor or a king or queen. It’s doubtful that many readers would think it inconsistent to cap the British Empire and lowercase the American empire, when the intended meanings of the words are different.
If you choose not to make a distinction, you may appear to be making a political statement—perhaps less preferable to appearing to be inconsistent.
Q. My question relates specifically to the term “world-class” and how it is used
at my firm. Essentially, the term “world-class” is core to our value proposition,
our products and deliverables, and our marketing material. Since this term is very special, we wonder if it is okay to capitalize
in the middle of a sentence: “In order for a firm to achieve World-class performance . . .”
Our inclination is to always capitalize the W and not the C. Finally, can we exercise our judgment, and just decide how it
should appear in all instances regardless of common standards, given the special nature of this term to our business?
A. Chicago editors would not approve of capping a regular word midsentence (even such a very special one), but we’re
not editing marketing copy. CMOS is not primarily aimed at that sort of content, and it’s not always appropriate for marketers to apply
Chicago guidelines. You might put together a house style sheet so everyone’s on the same page with signature
style decisions like the one you cite.