Capitalization Help (page 2)

Modern Rules of Capitalization

Capitalization custom varies among languages. The full rules of capitalization for English are complicated, but they have changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer terms. To the modern reader, an eighteenth-century document seems to use initial capitals excessively. Compared with Old English and English used in the eighteenth century, current capitalization strives to clarify the text. For example, a capital letter signals the beginning of a new thought. Capitals also clarify by distinguishing between common nouns and proper names… and those are just two among many rules! Here are capitalization rules you need to master.

Rules of Capitalization

1. Capitalize the first letter of the first word in a sentence.

Books make a great gift.

2. Capitalize the pronoun I and the interjection O or Oh.

I decided to stay home for dinner.

And Oh! that even now the gust were swelling ("Dejection," a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge)

3. Capitalize the first letter of the first word in each new line of poetry if the poet has capitalized it.

What is so rare as a day in June?

4. Capitalize the deity, place names, street names, persons' names and initials, organization names, languages, and specific course names.

God in His Universe, Allah, Columbia River, New York City,

New York, Main Street, John T. McMasters, American Red Cross,

Spanish I, Algebra, Modern European History

5. Capitalize Mother, Dad, and other titles if you can insert the person's name, and titles like Grandma and Major when they appear with a formal name. If you can replace the "mother/mom" or "father/dad" with the person's formal name, "Mother/Mom" or "Father/Dad" should be capitalized.

Mother is really my best friend.

Donna is really my best friend.

If you cannot replace the "mother/mom" or "father/dad" with the person's formal name, then "mother/mom" or "father/dad" should not be capitalized.

My father is really tall.

Fred is really tall.

6. Capitalize days, months, holidays, and special days.

Monday, May, Christmas, New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Day

7. Capitalize historical events, documents, periods, or movements but not the small words that surround them.

World War II (not In World War II); Declaration of Independence (not Declaration Of Independence); Magna Carta, Middle Ages, Romantic Movement

8. Capitalize names of organizations, businesses, and institutions.

The American Red Cross, American Airlines, Providence County Mental Health

9. Capitalize specific places, structures, or geographic locations. Carefully consider the names of places. Capitalize directions that are names (North, South, East, and West when used as sections of the country, but not as compass directions). We capitalize the Middle East and Southeast Asia, because these regions have their own distinctive identity; however, we write central Europe and southeast Rome, because these regions are not thought of as having the same kind of identity. Note, too, the difference between South Africa (the name of a particular country) and southern Africa (a vaguely defined region).

The Ku's have moved to the Southwest.

Mac's house is two miles north of Providence.

Turn south at the next corner.

Other examples include:

the Lake District; Newport, RI; Radio City Music Hall; the Northeast; the Midwest

10. Capitalize the names of languages, races, and nationalities.

English, Native American, Portuguese

11. Capitalize religions and their followers.

Christianity, Christian; Islam, Muslim; Judaism, Orthodox Jew

12. Capitalize religious terms for sacred persons and things.

Christ, Allah, Buddha, the Bible, and the Koran

13. Capitalize the Roman numerals and the letters of the first major topics in an outline.

I, II, III, A, B, C,

14. Capitalize the first word of a direct quotation.

My son asked, "Will you buy me a guitar for my birthday?"

15. In a broken quotation, capitalize the first word in the second part of the quotation only if it starts a new sentence.

"I'll start the meeting," she said, "if you will finish it after lunch."

"I'll start the meeting," she said. "You can finish it after lunch." (You starts a new sentence.)

16. Do not capitalize the report of something said.

My son asked if I would buy him a guitar for his birthday.

17. Capitalize brand names but not products.

Dodge, Xerox, Kleenex tissue

18. Capitalize titles when they precede proper names, but not when they follow proper names or are used alone.

Principal Walters, Superintendent Konner

Example: Mr. Walters, principal; Mr. Konner, superintendent

19. Capitalize the titles of books, plays, and films. Do not capitalize the small, unimportant words in those titles.

Example: The Secret Life of Bees, Romeo and Juliet

Practice exercises for this study guide can be found at: Capitalization Practice