Dear Ecologgers -
Thank you very much to everyone that took the time to respond to my
original post. I never expected to generate this much discussion. Below
is a summary of responses.
As a reminder, my original question was, "In the statement, ....the
Narraguagaus and Penobscot rivers....." is the word "rivers" capitalized
or not? Based on the 31 different responses, it sure seems that the
issue is not as cut and dried as I had originally thought.
Of the 31 responses, 13 said do NOT capitalize, 7 said YES capitalize, 1
said it didn't matter, 1 said it was context specific, and the rest did
not answer the question and just threw out miscellaneous stuff on
capitalization styles (i.e., up vs down writing). I was greatly
surprised (and delighted) that only 1 person gave a "snarky" response,
and I ultimately got an apology from this person through a personal
follow up email.
For the 3 cases where a respondent specifically cited a style manual, I
have pasted their response below (2 = capitalize, 1 do not capitalize).
Clearly, this is not a settled issue, and my belief that I was
"supremely confident" I knew the correct answer (do not capitalize) has
been shattered.
Cheers,
Michael Cooperman, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow of the National
Research Council.
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From
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=2008_style_manual&docid=f:chapter3.pdf
<http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=2008_style_manual&docid=f:chapter3.pdf>
(The GPO Style Manual is intended to facilitate Government printing.)
3.8. The plural form of a common noun capitalized as part of a proper
name is also capitalized.
Seventh and I Streets
Lakes Erie and Ontario
Potomac and James Rivers
State and Treasury Departments
British, French, and United States Governments
Presidents Washington and Adams
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With regard to topographical names, the University of Chicago Press
(Manual of Style) recommends that when a generic term is used in the
plural either before or after more than one proper name, the term should
be capitalized if, in the singular form and in the same position, it
would be recognized as a part of each name. Formerly such plural terms
were capitalized only when preceding the proper names,
Lakes Erie and Huron
Mounts Everest and Rainier
the Adirondack and Catskill Mountains
the Hudson and Mississippi Rivers
BUT
the rivers Hudson and Mississippi
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I would defer to the Council of Science Editors manual: Scientific Style and
Format.
According to my 6th edition (there is one more recent), they recommend not capitalizing rivers in your situation...
"In a plural construction, lowercase may be used for the generic noun that would be capitalized in the singular unless the common noun precedes a group of proper nouns. Vancouver and Saltspring islands Lakes Ontario and Huron"
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