Grammar Girl on capitalizing Ground Zero

Should You Capitalize “Ground Zero”?

More than a decade after 9/11, style guides still disagree about whether writers should capitalize “ground zero” when it refers to the site of the 2001 New York suicide attacks.
I believe “ground zero” should be capitalized because it is a proper noun that names a specific place, not simply a descriptive common noun. Style guides for The Guardian and The Baltimore Sun concur.
On the other hand, the Associated Press and The New York Times keep “ground zero” lowercase.
When style guides disagree, if you are not bound by one style, you get to choose which style you prefer. Once you choose a style, be consistent.

About Beth McLaughlin

M E (Beth) McLaughlin started Adept Word Management in 1990 as a medical transcription company. Over the years there have been various threats to medical transcription, and as a result she has constantly sought new and innovative ways to transcribe for myriad types of clients. This has resulted in Adept transcribing over the years for the Human Genome Project, NASA astronaut debriefings, The New York Times, the United Nations, the Nobel Prize company, among others! She holds a double major in Anthropology and Sociology and did graduate coursework in Healthcare Administration.

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