use one l with the first four words but two ls with the last word
Capital Times, the
although The is in its official name, use lowercase roman type for “the”; see CMS 8.170
capital, capitol
a capital is a city that is the seat of government or known for its eminence in a particular field (fashion capital); a capitol is a building where a legislature meets; lowercase capitol when referring generically to Wisconsin’s state capitol building, but the building in Washington, DC, is the Capitol
capitalization
avoid unnecessary capital letters: use them only when one of the principles listed in this guide, the dictionary, or the Chicago Manual of Style justifies their usage.
In particular, the following should be capitalized:
Proper nouns for people, places, or things: Allison, Atlanta, the Alamo
Proper names: when they are an official part of the full name of a person, place, or thing: Democratic Party, Lake Mendota, Park Street, Charles River, West Virginia, College of Letters & Science, University of Wisconsin–Madison. Lowercase when these stand alone in subsequent or generic references: the party, the lake, the street, the river, the state, the college, the university. Per CMS 8.56 and 8.66, uppercase these words in plural usages: the Democratic and Republican Parties, Langdon and State Streets.
captions
in On Wisconsin and Badger Insider, do not use graduation years in photo captions unless the individuals’ names do not appear elsewhere in a story; if one or some people are mentioned in an article that accompanies the photo, and one or others are not, use graduation years for all of the people listed in the photo caption; do not use boldface with names and graduation years in captions; see also photo references/identification
Carillon
uppercase for the bell tower on campus
chair
not chairman, chairwoman, chairperson
chancellor
Chancellor Jennifer L. Mnookin, University of Wisconsin–Madison chancellor Jennifer L. Mnookin, UW–Madison chancellor Jennifer L. Mnookin, UW chancellor Jennifer L. Mnookin, the chancellor
When referring to a person with a chronic illness, only refer to the condition if it is pertinent to the story you are confident there is a medical diagnosis. Ask your sources how they want to be described and, when in doubt, consider using people-first language, such as person with diabetes rather than a diabetic.
(Source: Disability Language Style Guide, National Center on Disability and Journalism)
cisgender
Describes people whose gender identity matches the one they were assigned at birth; that is, not transgender. Explain (on first reference) if necessary.
(Source: AP Stylebook)
cities
use this list to determine whether to include a state or country name after the city name; if it’s on this list, the city name may stand alone
International cities:
Barcelona, Beijing, Hong Kong, London, Madrid, Mexico City, Moscow, Munich, Paris, Rome, and Tokyo; but do use the country with Seoul, South Korea
U.S. cities:
Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Green Bay, Honolulu, Houston, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Madison (except if it’s Madison in a state other than Wisconsin), Manhattan, Miami, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Minneapolis/Saint Paul, New Orleans, New York City (when identified this way, but not just New York for the city), Omaha, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Tampa, Twin Cities, and Tucson; but do use the state with Kansas City (Missouri or Kansas), Portland (Oregon or Maine), and Saint Louis (Missouri)
our dictionary advocates spellings such as copresident, cofounder, coeditor, coauthor, and codirector with no hyphens; see the dictionary for the few exceptions that use hyphens
College Library at Helen C. White Hall
this is the proper name of the library that is often (incorrectly) referred to as the Helen C. White Library or White Library or just Helen C.
in a series of three or more elements, use a serial comma; however, news communications produced by the Office of Strategic Communication do not use a serial comma
commencement
lowercase for generic references to the ceremony; uppercase can be used in the official titles of events
communication arts
lowercase
compare with, compare to
compare with means to discern both similarities and differences; compare to notes primarily similarities
comprehensive campaign
use lowercase to refer to a multiyear campaign with campus audiences when not using its proper name; refer to it only by its proper name to noncampus audiences; use campaign on second reference; the proper name of the fourth comprehensive campaign in university history, which took place from 2015-21, was All Ways Forward, which uses initial caps, roman type, and no quotation marks
comprise
to include or contain (the whole comprises the parts): Wisconsin comprises 72 counties; it is synonymous with composed of: Wisconsin is composed of 72 counties; comprised of is incorrect
Congress
uppercase when referring to the U.S. Congress (or just Congress), which comprises the Senate and the House of Representatives; see also CMS 8.61
couple
words that stand for a group of things can mean the group as a whole (and thus take a singular verb) or the individual members of the group (and thus, a plural verb); the presence of the before the word often indicates that it’s singular: The couple lives in apartment 9A; when a comes before the word, and especially when of comes after it, it’s probably plural: A couple of professors live in apartment 9A
use the department abbreviation (or full name) with a space separating the department, the course number, and the course name: Poli Sci 377 Nuclear Weapons and World Politics; department abbreviations appear in the Course Guide; when referring to courses without including the number, do not use quotation marks: Physical Systems of the Environment, Solid State Physics
coursework
one word
court cases
italicize the names of legal cases, including the abbreviation v. (for versus): Bloomfield Village Drain Dist. v. Keefe, Miranda v. Arizona; a case name may be shortened in subsequent discussion: the Miranda case or simply Miranda; see also versus and CMS 8.82
courtesy titles
in general, do not use Dr., Mrs., Mr., or Ms; a written-out courtesy title that helps to put a person’s role in context (President Kennedy, Chancellor Mnookin, Dean Wilcots, Professor Jenkins) may be used on first reference
credentials
do not include credentials or degrees (PhD, MD, FASLA, FAAN, CFP, and the like) after names unless the person, school, or college is adamant about it
credits
when clustered or in a tabular format, use numerals: 3 credits, a 4-credit course, 1 credit hour; when including the number of credits in a list of courses, use the abbreviation cr with no period: Poli Sci 377 Nuclear Weapons and World Politics, 3 cr; Music 231 Elementary/Intermediate Violin, 2–4 cr.; in running text, spell out credits: All students must take 3 credits in art history; for additional examples, see the academic Guide
crew
crew team is redundant; it’s crew, the crew, or the team; see also teams
