Proper Capitalization in Your Writing

The English language is full of quirks which make proper grammar difficult. Learning the rules and the exceptions to the rules is important if you want to have your writing taken seriously. Using capitalization correctly is one of those areas where things can get confusing. Learning the basics though can help you discern when to capitalize a word and when to use lower case letters.

Let's start with an easy one. The first letter of every sentence is always capitalized. No exceptions. This may be the only grammar rule that does not have any exceptions so it should be easy to remember.

Proper nouns are always capitalized. These can include not only a person's name but also company names, nationalities and geographic areas. Where many people get confused is when proper nouns are used as common nouns. For example the nouns father and mother would be capitalized when used in the following sentence: Are Mother and Father coming with us? On the other hand in the sentence Are your father and mother coming with us? - they are not capitalized. This is because of the modifier "your" which comes before them. A good test for whether to use upper case or lower case in this situation is to replace the noun with a proper name. If that sounds correct then they are proper nouns and need to be capitalized.

A person's title is capitalized if it comes before their name but do not use capital letters if the title is used in place of their name. A few examples would be: Chairman Bob the chairman The exception to this rule is if their title is used in a signature such as:
Cordially yours, Bob Smith, Chairman

When spelling out acronyms only use capital letters when the terms the acronym represents are proper nouns, otherwise use lowercase.

Capitalizing book and publication titles sometimes confuses people. The basic rule in this situation is to capitalize at least the first and last words of a title. Also any other major words including is, be and are.

Do not capitalize little words such as a, an, the or any prepositions.

When writing about federal or state agencies you only need to capitalize them when you are referring to a specific agency. In the phrase "the federal government" you would use lowercase but the phrase "Federal Bureau of Investigation" requires capital letters for each word or what is referred to as title case.

You never need to capitalize the seasons, spring, summer, winter and fall unless of course they are the first word of a sentence.

The points of a compass though are a little different. Use lower case for these except when referring to a particular region. Some examples would be: Ken says North Michigan is a nice area. Head west and you will be there in no time.

Days of the week, months as well as holidays are always uppercase letters.

As you can see the rules of capitalization can be as confusing as the rest of the English language. One good tool to bring possible errors to your attention is spell check. Although this tool is not always correct it is helpful.