Good Grammar and Capitalization
Proper capitalization is one of the cornerstones of good grammar, yet many people fling capital letters around carelessly.
Not every word deserves to be capitalized. It’s an honor that must be warranted, and in writing, capitalization is designated only for very special words.
Capitalization of Titles
Keep in mind that there are several contexts in which we can examine capitalization. For example, when writing a title (of a blog post, for example), almost all of the words in the title are capitalized. This is called title case.
Title case is used for titles of books, articles, songs, albums, television shows, magazines, movies… you get the idea.
Capitalization isn’t normally applied to every word in a title. Smaller words, such as a, an, and the are not capitalized. Some writers use a capitalization rule for only those words longer than three letters. Others stretch it to four. There’s no fixed grammar rule for which words are capitalized in a title and you should check your style guide for specific guidelines.
Capitalization of Acronyms and Abbreviations
Acronyms and many abbreviations are capitalized, regardless of whether the words they stand for warrant capital letters.
First Word of a Sentence
As I’m sure you know, the first word in a sentence is always capitalized.
Capitalization of Proper Nouns
In a recent post on parts of speech, I explained what constitutes as a noun. To keep things simple here today, we’ll refer to a noun as a person, place, or thing. You need not worry about the other parts of speech because only nouns are eligible for perennial capitalization.
There are two types of nouns that matter in terms of capitalization: proper nouns and common nouns. Proper nouns are the names of specific people, places, and things. Common nouns are all the other, nonspecific people, places, and things.
When considering whether to capitalize, ask whether the noun in question is specific. This will tell you if it’s a proper noun, which should be capitalized, or a common noun, which remains in all lowercase letters.
Proper Noun Capitalization Example
The word country is not specific. It could be any country. Even if you’re talking about the country in which you live, which is a specific country, the word itself could indicate any number of nations. So keep it lowercase because it’s a common noun.
Conversely, Chile is a very specific country. You can tell because Chile is actually the name of a particular land in which people reside. When you discuss the people of that land, you won’t capitalize the word people. However, if you’re talking about Chileans, you definitely capitalize because Chileans are a very specific people, from a very specific country, Chile.
Hopefully that makes sense. If not, keep reading because I’m about to confuse you even more.
Capitalization of Web and Internet
Have you ever noticed the word Internet capitalized? How about the word Web? The linguistic jury is still out on these newfangled technology terms, but generally speaking, the Internet is one great big and specific place. The Web is just another word for that same place.
Wait — what about websites? Do they get capitalized? Only if you’re referring to the name of an actual site, like Writing Forward. A website can be any number of pages online. Think of it like a city in Chile, which is similar to a website on the Web or Internet.
Capitalization of Web and Internet is not a hard and fast grammar rule. Lots of people write these words in all lowercase letters. Do note, however, that when these terms are used as adjectives (also known as modifiers or descriptive words), they should never be capitalized:
I was accessing the Internet from an internet cafe.
The first occurrence of “Internet” uses capitalization because it refers to the (specific) Internet. But an internet cafe is a type of cafe and in this example, internet is used as an adjective rather than as a proper noun, and is therefore not capitalized.
Again, capitalizing Web and Internet is optional.
Common Capitalization Errors
Folks often think that capitalization should be applied to any word that’s deemed important. Here’s an example:
We sent the Product to the local Market in our last shipment. Have the Sales Force check to see if our Widgets are properly packaged.
It’s not uncommon, especially in business writing, to see nouns that are crucial to a company’s business capitalized. This is absolutely incorrect. Here’s correct capitalization of our example:
We sent the product to the local market in our last shipment. Have the sales force check to see if our widgets are properly packaged.
Now, in a rewrite of the example, some of the words will be again capitalized, but only if they are changed into proper nouns – names or titles of things and people.
We sent the Widgetbusters (TM) to WidgetMart in our last shipment. Have our Sales Manager check to see if our widgets are properly packaged.
What about Capitalization for job titles?
Ah, this one’s tricky. Job titles are only capitalized when used as part of a specific person’s title:
- Have you ever met a president?
- Did you vote for president?
- Do you want to become the president?
- Nice to meet you Mr. President.
- He once saw President Obama in a restaurant.
Again, this has to do with specificity. “The president” or “a president” could be any president, even if in using the phrase, it’s obvious by context who you mean. However “Mr. President” or “President Obama” are absolutely specific individuals and they call for capitalization.
That’s it for Capitalization
Do you have questions? Need clarification on capitalization or good grammar? Do you have your own capitalization capers that need to be addressed or do you have more capitalization rules to add? Leave a comment!
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Hi, I’ve got a question about something I didn’t see directly addressed in your post. I guess it’s pretty much the same thing you discussed in the section on job titles, but applied to places and things.
If I mention a proper noun (e.g. Mount Sinai Hospital, or Economic Stimulus Project), and then refer to it later in the form of a common noun (the hospital, the project), should that be capitalised or not?
Thanks in advance for your guidance on this.
Hi Dan. When you refer to anything as a common noun, you will not capitalize it. This is similar to referring to the president versus President Obama – you only capitalize when used as a proper noun.
Hi
I have a title Action Learning System, which obviously whenever referred to in the document is all capitalised, however when only part of it is referred to in a sentence do I still capitalise that one word? I.e. Learning or System?
Thanks for your help.
Jane
Jane, I think that you’re okay if you capitalize shortened versions of the name of your product, i.e. Learning or System. however, for the purpose of building brand/name recognition, I think it’s best to use the full name, capitalized. Also, once you name it as a system, it would be correct to refer to “the system” or “this system” using lowercase. In many cases, however, particularly in sales and marketing copy, key words are always capitalized. This is usually more a matter of style (choice) than grammar. If it were me, I would either use the full name or an abbreviation (ALS).
Hi Melissa
Thanks so much for your speedy reply. It’s such a difficult one, and I don’t think I’ve come across it before, so thanks so much for your help.
Definitely a website I’m adding to my Favourites (correct capital???)
Jane
Looks like you’re using British spelling (favourites) rather than American (favorites). I think the same applies here – you can refer to “favorites” in a general sense or you can refer specifically to the “Favorites” menu on your browser. Personally, I’d go with lowercase, but it’s a style issue so you get to choose.
Sometimes I have problems with whether to capitalize “the” when it’s ambiguous whether it’s followed by a proper noun or the beginning of a proper noun.
For example, “I live in the United States of America” versus “Dwayne Johnson is known as The Rock”. In those two cases, it’s obvious to me whether I should capitalize “the” or not, but in some cases, I am not so sure. I guess it has more to do with whether “the” is included into the pronoun or not than with the actual grammar.
.-= Kelvin Kao´s last blog ..The End of an Era =-.
Kelvin, you’ve raised an excellent question, one I’ve wondered about more than once, so I checked with The Chicago Manual of Style. It looks to me like you’ve got it right with “the United States of America.” I went through over fifty pages on capitalization and “the” is never capitalized when it precedes a name or title. For example, we would write: the Army, the Buddha, the Prince of Whales, etc. If you pick up a style guide, you’ll be able to look up specific terms when you run into this question again.
This is very useful. What about items in a list you are referencing. Should they be capitalized? For example, in this post ( http://www.rickety.me/2010/01/global-warming-no-big-deal/ ) items in the list are “economy”, “jobs”, etc. I am thinking I should have capitalized them.
.-= rick@rickety´s last blog ..Nice Idea While It lasted =-.
Hi Rick, words like “economy” and “jobs” are not capitalized unless they are part of a title or proper name. If you present them in a bulleted list, then you can capitalize the first letter of each item on the list, but that is a style rather than a grammar issue.
THANK YOU FOR.. uh.. clearing all that up
.-= RhodesTer´s last blog ..I Think We Have Ghosts =-.
WELL… uh… you’re mighty welcome RhodesTer
My grammar is terrible. Thank you so much for this post.
You’re welcome!
Guilty of the first point. I always capitalize every word in a blog post title. Bad habits are easy to fall in to and I guess I should think a little more about it.
.-= Dave´s last blog ..Get Paid To Take Paid Surveys Online =-.
Actually, I don’t think it’s technically wrong to do that. From what I’ve read, title capitalization is a style issue, but the convention is definitely toward keeping short words lowercase. Personally, I sort of eye it and go partially on what looks aesthetically pleasing.
Thanks for the article, as I enjoy brushing up on grammar skills. I do have two questions though: Do you capitalize the first letter after a colon? Also, is the subject line of an e-mail considered a title? Thanks for your time.
Good question about the email subject line! In most cases, issues surrounding new media and modern technology haven’t been settled among grammarians. However, I definitely consider an email subject line a title, and I do use title case in all subject lines. I also use title case for subheadings in my blog posts.
Here’s what Chicago says about capitalizing after a colon:
“When a colon is used within a sentence… the first word following the colon is lowercased unless it is a proper name. When a colon introduces two or more sentences… or when it introduces a speech in dialogue or an extract… the first word following it is capitalized.”
Basically, if the text that follows the colon is a complete sentence, it gets capitalized.
Hope that helps. You guys are asking some excellent questions about capitalization!
Beautiful walkthrough and examples.
I especially like how you juxtaposed common scenarios and their corresponding traps.
.-= J.D. Meier´s last blog ..Career Growth and Finding Your Way Forward =-.
Thanks J.D.
Wasn’t sure if I had a question, but turns out I do. Although I think you may have somewhat possibly answered it, but I had been curious about certain words in titles, like “the”, “of”, and, well, “and”. I thought in some occasions I saw these words capitalized in their titles (of course not when they are the beginning or end of said title). Some examples I thought would be movie titles such as “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” or “Men in Black”. I would think the “the” in “the Sundance Kid” would be capitalized… just because. And for a long time I debated with myself whether or not “in” in “Men in Black” should be capitalized, since they are also know as MIB. I think within the movie, my question is answered since Kay has business cards that clearly read “MiB” on them. (Men in Black is one of my all-time favorite movies, I know it by heart.) Anyway, I said all that to ask if titling in such a way is proper or is it more of a style?
I managed to escape this on titling my blog posts since I choose to keep the entire title in lowercase. Sometimes I do this because a post might be a line from a song or quote from a movie.
And regarding when to capitalize “president” …I’ve always been confused by that. So thanks for that, I think some of the newspapers I’ve read must have it wrong since I’ve frequently seen “the President did such and things and blah”.
What would it be like to be grammarian? What do their offices look like? How much do they get paid? I’m not really looking for answers to those questions… just some thoughts typed out loud.
.-= t. sterling´s last blog ..fripodding and remembering: “as time goes by” dooley wilson =-.
For the most part, it’s a style issue (in other words, it will depend on which style guide you use). However, if you’re talking about a title, you capitalize the first word if it’s “the” or “a.” For Butch and MIB, I don’t think “the” and “in” are capitalized (even with MIB; when you write out the full title, “in” is lowercase:
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Men in Black (MIB)
While IMDB is not a grammar resource, it’s a good place to go to check out how the industry is treating capitalization. Or, just look at the movie poster or DVD cover
I would use that as the official way to capitalize.
“As I’m sure you know, the first word in a sentence is always capitalized.”
Suppose some one’s username is “rickety” in lower-case, and you don’t know their real name. Do I write a sentence like this:
“Melissa Donovan is a fine writer. rickety is not so hot.”
Sounds like a silly question but I come across similar examples occasionally.
.-= rick@rickety´s last blog ..Debt Reduction Commission =-.
That’s a good question, Rick. I would say that if one adheres to the rules of proper grammar, a proper noun would be capitalized, whether it’s at the beginning of a sentence or not. Since the name of any person is a proper noun, it should simply be capitalized.
But that’s not much fun, is it? Creative writers have been bending the rules for many years, and that includes how capitalization and proper nouns are treated. Take e.e. cummings, for example. He often depicted his entire name in lowercase letters. I’ve seen some examples in which a publication opted to capitalize Mr. Cummings’ name and others where they leave it lowercase (I’m guessing out of respect). So, my second answer is that it’s up to the publication or editor.
Good post topic.
Thanks
I have a question. Suppose you are writing about sectors that a business is involved in. Such as xyz Investments is involved in diverse sectors such as food and beverages, leisure, transportation and tourism. Would it be capitalised, as technically this is the name of an industry?
Also say a bank provides services such as commercial and private banking, asset management, islamic finance, brokerage, financial market services, leasing and property managemenent. Would this be capitalised? I have seen it written both ways on the web. Technically these are names of services so my gut feeling is to capitalise but am just not sure!
Thanks
Mel, this deals with business writing, not creative writing. Businesses should use a style guide, either an established one or one that has been created for their industry or company. Generally, the lists you’ve asked about would not be capitalized, but in business writing, the styles are slightly different.