The Complete Guide to Writing in English

Capital Letters

Capital Letters

We all know that we need to use capital letters in our writing. It's no secret; the shift key is on the keyboard for a reason. Many people, however, fail to use them properly or just give up on the whole idea claiming it is too difficult to know when to use them and too tiring to type them.

Well, the truth is that writing that fails to correctly utilize capital letters looks unprofessional and immature. Very few readers will continue to read a story that looks bad and typing the entire thing in lower case letters looks really bad. It does not take much more time to type properly than it does to slap something on the page but the effect on how people see your writing is immense. It is worth the effort. Take the time and you will be rewarded with comments praising your work.

So here is what you need to know (rules are in regular type, examples in italics):

Always capitalize the first word in a sentence.

The flowers are pretty.

Always capitalize proper nouns (a person's name, place names, an organization, titles, or a specific event).

Trygve Lie was the first Secretary-General of the United Nations which was founded after the end of World War II.

Capitalize a personal title or honorific when it comes before a person's name.

Dr. Madison, Mr. Jones, Mrs. Smith, General Washington, Reverend Thompson, President Taylor, His Royal Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Salman Al-Khalifa.

Capitalize the major words in the title of a work of literature or journalism.

The Da Vinci Code, The Voices of the Night, A Song for Nero, The Celestine Prophecy

Always capitalize the first letter in a quotation.

The stable boy said to the lady, "Your eyes are as blue as the sky."

Capitalize all of the letters in an acronym unless the acronym has become a word in common usage like radar, laser and scuba.

NASA, MRI, USA, AIDS, FAQ, BBC, IRA, ATM, RAM

Capitalize the first word in a line of poetry (unless you're e.e. cummings)

The roses have wilted,

The violets are dead.

The sugar bowl is empty,

And so is your head.

Capitalize adjectives derived from the name of a country and nationalities.

Spanish flamenco, French toast, Russian roulette, English muffin, Indonesian, Thai

Capitalize the days of the week and the months of the year.

It was a beautiful autumn morning on the last Tuesday of November.

Capitalize the names of holidays.

Christmas, New's Year Day, Valentine's Day, Easter, Memorial Day

Do not capitalize the names of the seasons of the year unless you are personifying them.

It felt like summer would go on forever; Old Man Winter was late this year.

Use capital letters for the names of oceans and continents (they're proper nouns).

Africa, North America, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean

 

If you are referring to your own family member by title instead of their name, capitalize the title.

Where did Mom go?

But: My mom is really nice.

 

Capitalize the nominative form of the singular first person pronoun, "I" and all it's contractions; I'll, I've, I'd, I'm.

I'd really like to know if I can go to the concert.

Capitalize the names of organized religions, officially recognized sects and their adherents.

The Shia Muslims and the followers of Christianity have lived together in harmony for many generations.

Proper nouns and titles referencing deities are always capitalized.

God, Allah, Odin, the Lord, the Messiah

 

The names of major books of scripture should be capitalized but the only adjective derived from them that is commonly capitalized is Koranic.

The Bible, the Koran, the Talmud, the Vedas

DO NOT USE ALL CAPS TO TRY TO MAKE A POINT. That is what an exclamation point is for. If the exclamation point is not the emphasis you are going for, then use italics. Using ALL CAPS works against you because it not only makes your writing look amateurish, but it also forces your reader to stop and decipher it because we are trained to read words in a lower case form from a young age and when processing a word in ALL CAPS, our brains have to stop and put the words together letter by letter. Believe me, you do not want to sacrifice the rhythm and flow of your prose; you will lose the attention of the reader.

This is by no means an exhaustive list so if you don't find the answer you are looking for here, then try looking at the Wikipedia Style Guide. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style_(capital_letters)