h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

From what I gather from the EF conversation at F47997?thread=873672, compass points (north, south, north-east etc.) should not be capitalised in the Edited Guide. Is this sort of an official policy? If yes, it should be mentioned here...

This has come up on the yahoo group before.

And I wish I could remember! There are situations where each/one not the other is correct.

Might be better asking on the subs group as someone might remember what the general consensus was

A note on this page would be very useful - it is where I always come when I can't remember things!

As I understand it, if you're pointing a direction, it should be lower case: 'The marketplace is to the north of the clock tower'. However, if you're describing a region, it should be capitalised: 'He had travelled from the North to get there.'

Now someone else will contradict me

Hi Jimster,

sounds as if this could possibly be correct. Is it going to be an editorial policy?

I always assumed it already was. Or at least that it was a common enough convention.

Oh, then it hadn't got my attention. I have always been unsure what to do with compass points (very few things in English are obvious for me, I'm not a native speaker), but got around the issue simply by doing the capitalisation consistent through the entry I was subbing. Now the thing it's clear - no need to add it to the Style Guide.

On a similar point, should it be north west and north westerly, or north-west and north-westerly? The second 'seems' right to me.