Skip to main content

Rules and Guidelines for Capitalization

When building your writing style, it is important to consider every aspect of it—grammar, punctuation, semantics, etc. Here we will look at a specific area, capitalization. We will see how to appropriately capitalize a word: where to use capital letters and where not to.

Basic Rules of Capitalization

1. Capitalize the first word in a sentence. This is a general rule known to all people. We always begin a sentence with a capital letter.

2. Capitalize the pronoun, ‘I’: We always capitalize the pronoun, ‘I’. Always. It doesn’t matter where this word comes, but capitalize it.

Jack and I were scolded by boss.

3. Capitalize proper nouns: Proper nouns include the names of people, countries, states, companies, brands, buildings, geographical features, rivers, mountains, etc. For instance:

George and Hopkins became friends when they were working for Microsoft, New York. They once went to Egypt with their families, and visited the Nile.

4. Always capitalize the names of publications: All words in the name should be capitalized except prepositions and articles. For example:

Macbeth is my favorite Shakespearean play.
I read The Firm by Grisham at least thrice.
God of Small Things is a Booker-prize-winning novel.
Jim subscribes to the New York Times. (No need to capitalize ‘the’.)

5. Begin quoted sentences with capitals: In fiction and non-fiction, we use quotes to put down dialogs. In this, always begin the quoted dialog with a capital letter. Here is more on using quotes. Example:

John said, “When I found him, he was quite unable to move.”

6. Capitalize months and days of the week: Always begin months and days of the week in capital letters. Example:

Joe will be free the second Friday of March.

7. Capitalize the names of courses: When your course has a specific name (not the name of the subject), capitalize it. This is almost similar to the proper name rule above.

Tim is taking a computer science course, Computer Science 101.

8. Capitalize the part that follows a colon appropriately: This rule differs according to the situation. Here is the complete guidelines of using colons. That link will have more information on proper capitalization after colons.

9. Capitalize historical events properly: When referring to historical events, capitalize all words appropriately. For instance:

Philip was involved in World War II.

10. Capitalize the nationalities of people. For instance:

The French have a peculiar way of driving.

11. Appropriately capitalize anything divine: This is a rule under dispute. Some writers prefer capitalizing the words associated with God, while others care not to. It perhaps depends on whether you are a believer or not. (I capitalize since I am a devout.)

Krishna, Allah, and Jesus are one; Thy Holy Name is gratification to all.

That’s all about the basic rules of capitalization. However, there are certain things we capitalize, not belonging to the list above. Here are the general stylistic guidelines for using appropriate capitalization.

Style Guidelines

1. When we refer to the technologies, we capitalize the words.

Microsoft’s Object Linking and Embedding technology is a great way to build dynamic documents.

2. Capitalize specific words: The words like ‘Internet’, ‘World Wide Web’ and others associated with them are always capitalized.

Jim works on the Internet for the last three years.

3. Properly capitalize terms showing your relationships: When you describe a person as a relationship, it is appropriate to capitalize the words, as in:

Jim comes next week with Aunt Sarah.

Here the word ‘Aunt Sarah’ is almost a proper noun. In situations, where we just use a descriptive text to the person, we do not capitalize the word. As in:

Jim comes next week with Sarah, his aunt.

4. Properly capitalize when referring to the names of important government bodies:

Tom works for the Internal Revenue Service.
The National Security Agency is somewhat covert in its operations.


5. Properly capitalize the designation of top officials: Here the rule similar to the relationship capitalization above applies. For instance:

The senators are meeting President Obama today.

But:

George W Bush, the president of the US, is meeting Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Improper capitalization

While it’s good to capitalize according to the above rules, there are certain occasions in which capitalization is improper. Here are some of such instances.

When in electronic mail, Internet Relay Chat, and social networking communities, it is inappropriate to capitalize all letters of a word anywhere. This practice is known as shouting and some people take offense at it. So, avoid capitalizing entire word in electronic communications.

It is not proper to capitalize any letter in the URL (the address of a website), a user name, or an email address. This is, however, a technological style guideline.

However, you can use capital letters profusely in your passwords!

Conclusion

Appropriateness in writing is determined by various aspects, and capitalization is one amongst. Read guidelines on all aspects of writing for building your proper style.

Copyright © Lenin Nair 2008

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Power of Short Sentences

Post dedicated to Thomas Hardy (see History Today below). There are monster sentences like the one you encounter as the first paragraph of Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens . One of my friends, whom I am getting equipped for his IELTS ( what is this? ), told me that the examination recommends long sentences. In writing classes also, I guess it’s longer sentences most tutors promote. But indubitably shorter sentences are more powerful . We will see why. Take a long sentence for instance: Tom Cruise, one of the finest actors in the whole world, is perhaps the most powerful celebrity to exist ever according to Time Magazine, but many people still dispute this fact and point out that there are more powerful and popular actors than Cruise, though they were unsuccessful in providing the total number of fans, who liked the films of those actors. This is a long sentence and it is very confusing . Though it has a logical construction and conveys a meaning, it falters in many occasions and seems

Creative Writing: Crafting Characters With Emotional Appeal in Mind

When you read the greatest fiction works ever, have you ever asked what was so compelling about them that you not only kept reading it, but you ended up reading all other major works of the writer? It may well be because the writer touched your emotional quotient quite a bit. Every reader has a unique taste . Some like to read suspense thrillers , some tender love stories, and some others dark horror and bloodshed stories . That’s why there are all sorts of genres out there. When a writer gives you what exactly you want, you will keep reading. Here we come to the emotional appeal. Character Imperfection Perfect characters may not always be the upshot of a writer’s deliberation. It may well be due to ignorance . Usually the upcoming writers take it for granted that if they create perfect characters, they will be able to garner a bigger audience . It is not true. You have to ask yourself what a character would do in a particular situation. Perfect characters—perfect gunmen, perfect

Another Tiny List of Confusables

Earlier, you may remember we published a list of confusable words . Here we are again, with such a list of words. Abjure/Adjure: Abjure means "to formally renounce (give up) something" such as a position. Adjure on the other hand means 'to appeal to' or 'solemnly order'. The governor decided to abjure his position due to political pressure. Normally, adjuring to the subordinates doesn't give many results. Amount/Number: Use amount when you have uncountable subject. Use number when it is countable. The amount of love one gets depends on the number of friends one has. Appraise/Apprise: Appraise is the word applied to quantitative evaluation of something. Apprise means 'communicate' or 'inform'. Appraising diamonds is the work of an expert. Joe apprised me of the schedule of events. Attorney/Lawyer/Solicitor: These terms are highly misinterpreted and confused by many people. Let me clarify. In the US, an attorney is any member