campuswide Oberlin experienced a campuswide power outage.

canceled preferred usage (not cancelled)

cannot

CD, CDs

capital, capitol Capital refers to the city where a seat of government is located. Lowercase. When used as a financial term, it describes money, equipment, or property used in a business.

Capitol refers to the building in Washington and other buildings that house governments. The meeting was held on Capitol Hill in the west wing of the Capitol. Follow the same practice when referring to state capitol buildings.

capitalization Avoid the unnecessary use of capital letters. If there is no listing in this style guide for a particular word or phrase, consult the most recent Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.

• Departments, programs, and offices: Do not capitalize unless using the official, formal name. See academic departments and programs, administrative offices.
• Majors, minors, interdisciplinary programs: Do not capitalize unless they are proper nouns. See academic disciplines; majors, minors, and interdisciplinary programs.
• Academic and professional titles: Capitalize when they appear immediately before a name. Lowercase titles when they are used alone or in constructions that set them off from a name by commas. See titles, academic and professional.
• Names of courses: Capitalize official course titles. Do not use italics or quotation marks. See course titles.

catalog not catalogue. Refers to the Oberlin College online course catalog.

century Lowercase, spelling out numbers less than 10: the first century, the 20th century, hyphenate when used as adjective. 20th-century leader.

CFO chief financial officer

chair Title of person at Oberlin who heads a department or committee. Not chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson.

Chair is used as both a noun and a verb. Chris Canavan is chair of the Board of Trustees. Professor Jones chaired the meeting. See bias-free language.

CIO chief information officer

city names Most city names should be accompanied by their state or country names. However, some domestic and foreign cities are so well known that they can stand alone. They are:

• Atlanta

• Baltimore

• Boston

• Chicago

• Cincinnati

• Cleveland

• Dallas

• Denver

• Detroit

• Honolulu

• Houston

• Indianapolis

• Las Vegas

• Los Angeles

• Miami

• Milwaukee

• Minneapolis

• New Orleans

• New York

• Oklahoma City

• Philadelphia

• Phoenix

• Pittsburgh

• St. Louis

• Salt Lake City

• San Antonio

• San Diego

• San Francisco

• Seattle

• Washington

• Baghdad

• Beijing

• Berlin

• Djibouti

• Geneva

• Gibraltar

• Guatemala City

• Havana

• Hong Kong

• Jerusalem

• Kuwait City

• London

• Luxembourg

• Macau

• Montreal

• Moscow

• New Delhi

• Ottawa

• Paris

• Quebec City

• Rome

• San Marino

• Singapore

• Tokyo

• Toronto

• Vatican City

city Lowercase in all city of constructions: the city of Chicago, the town of Auburn. Apply the same principle to phrases such as state of Ohio, the states of New York and Michigan. See state.