Capitalization

Our style is to use lower case as much as possible (heaven, hell, for instance) but we do allow poetic license on a case-by-case basis. Capitalize “Earth” (the planet) only when it is NOT preceded by “the” or used in an idiomatic expression such as earth-shattering. Use lowercase “l” for left; that is, the left, not the Left. Generally, if a word is capped, its adjectival form is not, unless it is a proper noun (for example: The voters sent her to Congress. The congressional recess was upon them. She was French, with a pronounced French accent.).

For titles of articles and section headings:

1. Capitalize the first and the last word.

2. Capitalize nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and subordinate conjunctions (see list below).

3. Lowercase articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions (and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet), and prepositions four letters or shorter (see list below).

4. Lowercase the “to” in an infinitive (I want to play guitar).

Subordinate Conjunctions (capitalize):

• after

• since

• when

• although

• so that

• whenever

• as

• supposing

• where

• because

• than

• whereas

• before

• that

• wherever

• but that

• though

• whether

• if

• though

• which

• in order that

• till

• while

• lest

• unless

• who

• no matter

• until

• why

• how

• what

• even though

Prepositions (capitalize if five letters or more):

• aboard

• about

• above

• across

• after

• against

• along

• amid

• among

• anti or anti-

• around

• as

• at

• before

• behind

• below

• beneath

• beside

• besides

• between

• beyond

• but

• by

• concerning

• considering

• despite

• down

• during

• except

• excepting

• excluding

• following

• for

• from

• in

• inside

• into

• like

• minus

• near

• of

• off

• on

• onto

• opposite

• outside

• over

• past

• per

• plus

• regarding

• round

• save

• since

• than

• through

• to

• toward

• towards

• under

• underneath

• unlike

• until

• up

• upon

• versus

• via

• with

• within

• without

Variant spellings: use the first one listed in M-W (for example, toward, not towards).

Party: Capitalize when used with the proper name (Democratic Party, Communist Party), but lowercase when used alone (Even though he was a member of the Democratic Party, he did not support most of the party's positions). See Chicago for a discussion of capitalization of Communist, Socialist, Democratic, and so on.

Web addresses: Put in parentheses, without the www (magazine.scienceforthepeople.org). If you can, avoid printing web addresses in the text. They break up lines and cause formatting problems. Key words should be enough to direct the reader. If you need a deep link, provide it as a reference at the end. Note the date last checked, since a link could be dead when a reader tries to find it a few years from now. We lowercase web, website, webpage, and internet.

Ellipses: Chicago has removed the guesswork: To indicate an omission, or ellipsis, in quoted text, use three spaced periods preceded or followed by any other necessary mark of punctuation (including any period, which always precedes the three spaced periods).

Trademarked names as verbs: You tweet, but use Twitter. You Google using Google and Skype using Skype, just as you Xerox using a Xerox machine and copy using a copying machine. If you’re using a different search engine or transmission system, adjust accordingly.