1 - The first word of every sentence. 2 - The first-person singular pronoun,
I. 3 - The first, last, and important words in a title. (The concept
"important words" usually does not include articles, short prepositions
(which means you might want to capitalize "towards" or "between," say), the
"to" of an infinitive, and coordinating conjunctions. This is not true in
APA Reference lists (where we capitalize only the first word), nor is it
necessarily true for titles in other languages. Also, on book jackets,
aesthetic considerations will sometimes override the rules.) 4 - Proper nouns. 5 - Specific persons and things: George W. Bush, the White House,
General Motors Corporation. 6 - Specific geographical
locations: Hartford, Connecticut, Africa, Forest Park Zoo, Lake Erie, the
Northeast, the Southend. However, we do not capitalize compass directions or
locations that aren't being used as names: the north side of the city:
we're leaving the Northwest and heading south
this winter.
When we combine proper nouns, we capitalize attributive words
when they precede place-names, as in Lakes Erie and Ontario, but the
opposite happens when the order is reversed: the Appalachian and Adirondack
mountains. When a term is used descriptively, as opposed to being an
actual part of a proper noun, do not capitalize it, as in
"The California deserts do not get as hot as the Sahara
Desert." 7 - Names of celestial bodies: Mars, Saturn, the Milky Way. Do not,
howver, capitalize earth, moon, sun, except when those names appear
in a context in which other (capitalized) celestial bodies are mentioned.
"I
like it here on earth, but
It is further from Earth to
Mars than it is from
Mercury to the
Sun". 8 - Names of newspapers and journals. Do not, however, capitalize
the word the, even when it is part of the newspaper's title: the Hartford Courant.
9 - Days of the week, months, holidays. Do
not, however,
capitalize the names of seasons (spring, summer, fall, autumn, winter).
"Next winter, we're traveling south; by
spring, we'll be back
up north." 10 - Historical events: World War I, the Renaissance, the Crusades.
11 - Races, nationalities, languages: Swedes, Swedish, African
American, Jewish, French, Native American. (Most writers do not capitalize
whites, blacks.) 12 - Names of religions and religious terms: God, Christ, Allah,
Buddha, Christianity, Christians, Judaism, Jews, Islam, Muslims. 13 - Names of courses: Economics, Biology 101. (However, we would
write: "I'm taking courses in biology and earth science this summer.")
14 - Brand names: Tide, Maytag, Chevrolet. 15 - Names of relationships only when they are a part of or a
substitute for a person's name. (Often this means that when there is a
modifier, such as a possessive pronoun, in front of such a word, we do not
capitalize it.)
Let's go visit Grandmother today. Let's go visit my grandmother
today.
I remember Uncle Arthur. I remember my Uncle Arthur. My uncle
is unforgettable.
* - This also means that we don't normally capitalize the name of a
"vocative" or term of endearment:
Can you get the paper for me, hon?
Drop the gun, sweetie. I didn't mean it.
Capitalizing People's Titles
and the Names of Political Entities
One of the most frequently asked questions about
capitalization is whether or not to capitalize people's job titles
or the names of political or quasi-political entities. Most writing
manuals nowadays seem to align themselves with the tendency in
journalistic circles: less is better. When a title appears as
part of a person's name, usually before the name, it is capitalized:
Professor Farbman (or Professor of Physics
Herschel Farbman), Mayor Perez, U.S. Secretary of State
Colin Powell. On the other hand, when the title appears after the
name, it is not capitalized: Herschel Farbman, professor of
history; Eddie Perez, mayor of the city of
Hartford; Juan Carlos, king of Spain. Although we don't
capitalize "professor of history" after the individual's
name, we would capitalize department and program names when they are
used in full*: "He worked in the
Department of Behavioral
Sciences before he started to teach physics." (We do
not capitalize majors or academic disciplines unless they refer to a
language, ethnic group, or geographical entity: Roundbottom is an economics major, but he loves his courses in
French and
East European studies.)
The capitalization of words that refer to institutions
or governmental agencies, etc. can well depend on who is doing the
writing and where or from what perspective. For instance, if I were
writing for the city of Hartford, doing work on its charter
or preparing an in-house document on appropriate office decor, I
could capitalize the word City in order to distinguish
between this city and other cities. "The
City has a long
tradition of individual freedom in selecting wallpapers." If I were
writing for the College of Wooster's public relations staff, I could
write about the College's new policy on course withdrawal. On
the other hand, if I were writing for a newspaper outside
these institutions, I would not capitalize those words. "The
city
has revamped its entire system of government." "The
college
has changed its policy many times."
We don't capitalize words such as city, state, federal,
national, etc. when those words are used as modifiers "There are
federal regulations about the relationship of city and
state governments". Even as nouns, these words do not need to be
capitalized: "The city of New York is in the
state of
New York" (but it's New York
City). Commonly accepted
designations for geographical areas can be capitalized: the Near
East, the American South, the North End
(of Hartford), Boston's Back Bay, the Wild West.
Directions are not capitalized unless they become part of the more
or less official title of a geographical entity: "He moved from
south
Texas to South Africa."
Capitalization in E-Mail
For some reason, some writers feel that e-mail should
duplicate the look and feel of ancient telegraph messages, and their
capitals go the way of the windmill or they go to the opposite
extreme and capitalize EVERYTHING. That's nonsense. Proper and
restrained capitalization simply makes things easier to read (unless
something is capitalized in error, and then it slows things down).
Without the little tails and leaders we get in a nice mixture of
upper- and lower-case text, words lose their familiar touch and
feel. Text written in ALL CAPS is extremely difficult to read and
some people regard it as unseemly and rude, like SHOUTING at someone
close at hand. Restrain your use of ALL CAPS in e-mail to solitary
words that need further emphasis (or, better yet, use italics or
underlining for that purpose, if your e-mail client provides for
that treatment).
Words Associated with the Internet
There is considerable debate, still, about how to
capitalize words associated with the Internet. Most dictionaries are
capitalizing Internet, Web, and associated words such
as World Wide Web (usually shortened to Web),
Web page, Web site, etc., but the
publications of some corporations, such as Microsoft, seem to be
leaning away from such capitalization. The Yale Style Manual
recommends capitalization. The words e-mail and online
are not capitalized. The Guide to Grammar and Writing is a
monument to inconsistency on this issue.
The most important guiding principle in all such
matters is consistency within a document and consistency
within an office or institution. Probably the most thorough and most
often relied upon guide to capitalization is the Chicago Manual
of Style, but the Gregg Reference Manual is also highly
recommended.
*We acknowledge a debt to "A Guide to
Wesleyan Style," a publication of the Office of Publications of
Wesleyan University.
