The grammar guide is back and for Part II, we’ll be covering the topic of capitalization! Simple as it may seem, capitalization rules are often forgotten. I have gotten a few capitalization questions recently so I thought it would be a useful topic for part II of our grammar guide.
So let’s get started with just a few basic capitalization rules…
Always capitalize the first word of a quoted sentence.
“I can’t wait to work with Agency Entourage,” she said.
Always capitalize proper nouns.
Dallas, Texas
Capitalize a person’s title when it precedes the name but don’t capitalize when the title is acting as a description following the name.
President Obama
The president held a rally in Cleveland.
Capitalize job titles in signature lines.
Hayley Wood, Interactive Producer
Capitalize points of the compass only when they refer to specific regions.
We have ten employees who are from the South.
Go south two blocks then turn right.
We work in the southeast part of the city.
Don’t capitalize the names of the seasons.
I love the cooler weather in fall but I love spring flowers.
Capitalize legal materials such as statutes, acts, codes, bills, regulations, constitutions, etc.
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
U.S. Constitution
Capitalize websites, databases, software or apps.
Facebook
Mashable
Angry Bird Guide for iPhone
Quicken 2013
In titles of blog posts or articles, capitalize words that are the first or the last word in the title as well as words that are not conjunctions (and, but, or), adpositions (to, over), articles (an, a, the), or the “to” in infinitives.
“Best Social Media Management Practices in Real Estate Webinar”
“10 Ways to Build Healthy Bones (and Keep Them Strong)”
Capitalize acronyms and if plural, just add a lowercase s to the end. One exception is if if there are two consecutive s in the word.
PDFs
CDs
SOS’s
Words beginning with e- are not capitalized.
e-book, e-business, e-commerce, e-reader, email (no hyphen or capitalization)
Feel free to add your own capitalization knowledge in the comments or on our Facebook page. Then come back to our blog for Part III of our grammar guide!
