Watt the Pad ?!

3d. Capitalisation of made-up terms

I often see this mistake -- even in published novels. The capitalisation (that's not a typo. Us Australians follow the British spelling) of made-up objects, species, etc. when they should not be capitalised.

But MsReviewer, you tell me, Tolkien did it. He capitalised his species.

Ah, yes. Tolkien. Here are just some excerpts I took from his Lord of the Rings trilogy:
                                                            

• "It is hoped that the Orcs will be content with driving us from Moria."

• "Here let us hope that the virtue of the Elves will keep us tonight from the peril that comes behind."
                                                    

             

But then he also capitalises other words, seemingly at random:
                                                                  

• The Company retreated to the other side of the chamber.

• The lightning flickered still, far off among the mountains in the South.
                                                               

                   

So before you use Tolkien as a justification in your misuse of capitalisation (or as a justification in your misuse of anything, actually), keep in mind that he is a professional linguist. He worked on the bloody Oxford English Dictionary and his professorship was in the department of Languages. (Oh, see there, I capitalised Languages!)

I'm not saying you need a doctorate in Languages to "pull a Tolkien". I am saying that you need to know what the blooming eff you're doing; and quite frankly, a lot of wattpad writers don't.

Here is his explanation in his letters to his publisher:
                                                                              

❝ Men with a capital is, I think, used in text when 'human kind' are specifically intended; and man, men with a minuscule are occasionally and loosely used as 'adult male' and 'people'. ❞
                                                                 

                                    

In other words, Tolkien follows the very accurate understanding that when a word refers to a proper noun, capitalisation is required. However, when it is not a proper noun, it should not be capitalised.

Much of Tolkien's work is poetic, and in that sense, proper- and im(?)proper nouns are distinguished much for poetic effect. Most likely, your story does not require this distinction, especially if you're writing at a YA grade.

The word dog does not refer to a race, which is why we don't capitalise it. Its scientific name, Canis lupus, however, is capitalised -- much like a human is not capitalised, but Homo sapiens or an American is.

So when you write The Elf nocked his arrow, in what way are you referring to this elf? Most of the time, you probably mean elf -- lowercase.

Unless, for example, he came from the realm of Elfador, whose inhabitants are known as Elfs. And the fact that Elfador happens to be a realm of elves is just a convenience.

The same goes to any created tech. Do we capitalise laptop, or telephone when we write?

The correct answer is no, and if you answered otherwise, gtf off wattpad and retake your English class. Please.

Likewise, if my story has a handy-dandy teleportation device known in-world as a trecker, I would not capitalise said device unless I wanted to be looked down upon by the inhabitants of said world.

The only exception is if the Trecker is a name-brand of teleportation devices, the same way a Macbook Pro is a name-brand of a laptop.

So. Learn the difference. I don't want to have to keep reading these annoying mistakes on wattpad.