Capitalization
Some teachers blame text messaging. After all, how many times have you written out a quick text message, not worrying about where you need to capitalize? You, like many others, have probably done this quite often.
Interestingly, capitalization errors appeared on the most-common error list even before everyone was walking around with their heads over their cell phones text messaging every other minute.
Of course, the reality is that teachers now often complain that students don’t even capitalize I in a sentence. That could likely be related to text messaging. Still, other capitalization errors may not be.
Whatever the reasons behind the errors, it’s important to be aware of capitalization rules. Be careful to capitalize words that should be capitalized, such as proper nouns, and not capitalize words that should not be capitalized. But, how can you know what should and shouldn’t be capitalized?
Capitalization errors can really have a negative impact on the impressions your readers have of your writing.
Rules of Capitalization
Text messages, casual e-mails, and instant messages often ignore the rules of capitalization. In fact, it can seem unnecessary to capitalize in these contexts. In other, more formal forms of communication, however, knowing the basic rules of capitalization and using capitalization correctly gives the reader the impression that you choose your words carefully and care about the ideas you are conveying.
Capitalize the First Word of a Sentence
Incorrect: the museum has a new butterfly exhibit.
Correct: The museum has a new butterfly exhibit.
Incorrect: cooking can be therapeutic.
Correct: Cooking can be therapeutic.
Capitalize Proper Nouns
Proper nouns—the names of specific people, places, objects, streets, buildings, events, or titles of individuals—are always capitalized.
Incorrect: He grew up in harlem, new york.
Correct: He grew up in Harlem, New York.
Incorrect: The sears tower in chicago has a new name.
Correct: The Sears Tower in Chicago has a new name.
Tip
Always capitalize nationalities, races, languages, and religions. For example, American, African American, Hispanic, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, and so on.
Do not capitalize nouns for people, places, things, streets, buildings, events, and titles when the noun is used in general or common way. See the following chart for the difference between proper nouns and common nouns.
Common Noun |
Proper Noun |
museum |
The Art Institute of Chicago |
theater |
Apollo Theater |
country |
Malaysia |
uncle |
Uncle Javier |
doctor |
Dr. Jackson |
book |
Pride and Prejudice |
college |
Smith College |
war |
the Spanish-American War |
historical event |
The Renaissance |
Capitalize Days of the Week, Months of the Year, and Holidays
Incorrect: On wednesday, I will be traveling to Austin for a music festival.
Correct: On Wednesday, I will be traveling to Austin for a music festival.
Incorrect: The fourth of july is my favorite holiday.
Correct: The Fourth of July is my favorite holiday.
Capitalize Titles
Incorrect: The play, fences, by August Wilson is one of my favorites.
Correct: The play, Fences, by August Wilson is one of my favorites.
Incorrect: The president of the united states will be speaking at my university.
Correct: The President of the United States will be speaking at my university.
Tip
Computer-related words such as “Internet” and “World Wide Web” are usually capitalized; however, “e-mail” and “online” are never capitalized.
Summary
- Capitalize the proper names of persons, places and their derivatives, and geographic names (continents, countries, states, cities, oceans, rivers, mountains, lakes, harbors, and valleys).
- Capitalize the names of historic events and documents, government units, political parties, business and fraternal organizations, clubs and societies, companies, and institutions.
- Capitalize titles of rank when they are joined to a person’s name, and the names of stars and planets. Note: The names earth, sun, and moon are not normally capitalized, although they may be capitalized when used in connection with other bodies of the solar system.
- Capitalize words named after geographic locations, the names of major historical or geological time frames, and most words derived from proper names. Note: The only way to be sure if a word derived from a person’s name should be capitalized is to look it up in the dictionary. For example, “Bunsen burner” (after Robert Bunsen) is capitalized, while “diesel engine” (after Rudolph Diesel) is not.
- Capitalize references to major sections of a country or the world.
- Capitalize the names of specific courses, the names of languages, and the names of semesters.
- Do not capitalize the names of the seasons, unless the seasons are personified, as in poetry (“Spring’s breath”). (It is, of course, highly unlikely that you would personify a season in a technical paper.)
- Do not capitalize the words north, south, east, and west when they refer to directions, in that their meaning becomes generalized rather than site-specific.
- Do not capitalize words that are used so frequently and informally that they have come to have highly generalized meaning.
Sources:
“Capitalization.” By The Pennsylvania State University – Joe Schall. Retrieved from: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/styleguide/chapter/capitalization/ Licensed under: CC-BY-NC-SA
“Capitalization” By University of Minnesota. Retrieved from http://open.lib.umn.edu/writingforsuccess/chapter/2-4-capitalization/ Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA
