A reader asks about the capitalization of this title: “We Should Be People-oriented”:
In this book I’m editing, there are many such [compounds], all with the second element uncapped. I looked for but didn’t find it in the CMS [The Chicago Manual of Style]. Is there a rule on this? It looks incomplete to me!
The question of whether to capitalize the second element of a compound word in a title is one of style. Different style guides recommend different usage.
Compare the following pairs:
Surviving the Top Ten Challenges of Software Testing: A People-Oriented Approach
Studying individual Development in An Interindividual Context: A Person-oriented ApproachAnti-feminism in the Academy
Anti-Intellectualism in American LifeCapital in the Twenty-First Century
Wealth and Power: China’s Long March to the Twenty-first CenturyNeruda: Concerto in E-flat for Trumpet & Strings
Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-Flat Major
The Chicago Manual of Style addresses the question of hyphenating the second element of a compound in a title in paragraph 8:159.
1. Capitalize the second element of a compound in a title UNLESS it’s an article, a preposition, a coordinating conjunction (and, but, for, or, nor) or a modifier like sharp or flat after a musical key:
Surviving the Top Ten Challenges of Software Testing: A People-Oriented Approach
Neruda: Concerto in E-flat for Trumpet & Strings
2. If the first element of the compound is merely a prefix or combining form (like anti-, pre-, etc.) that cannot stand by itself as a word, do not capitalize the second element of the compound UNLESS it’s a proper noun or proper adjective:
Anti-feminism in the Academy
Cane Fires: The Anti-Japanese Movement in Hawaii, 1865-1945
3. Capitalize the second element in a hyphenated spelled-out number like twenty-one or twenty-first:
Capital in the Twenty-First Century
Two-Thirds of a Ghost
Note: The third rule reflects a change in Chicago style. Here’s what the latest edition has to say: “This departure from previous Chicago recommendations recognizes the functional equality of the numbers before and after the hyphen.”
Related posts:
Up Style and Down Style
Exceptions for Hyphenating Compound Adjectives
I could not have an editor who would write, “Is there a rule on this? It looks incomplete to me!” instead of Is there a rule ABOUT this? or . Is there a rule REGARDING this? or Is there a rule IN RESPECT TO this?– anything but the lazy “on” as the all-purpose preposition. It looks and sounds artless to me. I think he has bigger concerns than capitalization of hyphenations.