When to use capital letters and when to avoid them
May 27th 2009 17:56
Capital letters are used for proper nouns, initialisms (acronyms and so on), and the beginnings of sentences. Discerning between upper- and lower-case letters is one of the first things we learn in school, but somewhere along the way, many of us started to use Capital Letters quite Randomly and/or Excessively.
In real life, I know of no one who does it more than my own husband (and in fact, it was reading something he'd written that caused me to write this post). Below, I use one of his sentences as an example.
Proper nouns versus common nouns
To know which nouns should be capitalised, you need only remember the difference between proper nouns and common nouns.
Common nouns are easy; they're names of persons, places, or things that are generic. Examples of common nouns are jazz musician, town, and hamburger. There are many types of jazz musicians, towns, and burgers.
On the other hand, proper nouns are specific names of persons, places, or things, and they denote specific, usually unique entities (or classes of entities). Examples of proper nouns are Bleeding Gums Murphy, Springfield, and Krusty Burger.
In the following sentence (which is capitalised incorrectly), which nouns are proper and which are common?
Nero's the Captain of the Romulan Ship Nerada.
"Nero" and "Nerada" refer to specific things--the person and the ship, respectively--so they are proper nouns.
"Captain" and "Ship" are generic things, so they are common nouns. The sentence is rewritten correctly as the following:
Nero's the captain of the Romulan ship Nerada.
Words like "captain" might confuse some, because it is also used as a title. As a title, it should be capitalised because titles are proper nouns (or part of them). Here are some examples of nouns used as both common and proper nouns:
Barack Obama is the President of the United States.
Do you think he will make a good president?
Give my regards to the captain of the Enterprise.
Captain Kirk would like to see you now, Yeoman.
Who is that nubile young miss in the picture?
Miss Otis regrets she's unable to lunch today.
And of course, there are words--outside of titles--that function as both common nouns and proper nouns:
My favourite fruit is blackberry.
I love my BlackBerry handheld device!
Don't overemphasize
"'Well worthy impe,' said then the Lady gent,/'And Pupill fit for such a Tutours hand,'" Edmund Spenser wrote in The Faerie Queene.
That's all well for Spenser, but do you live in the 16th century? You don't, so don't write like you do. Section 7.50 of The Chicago Manual of Style notes, "Initial capitals, once used to lend importance to certain words, are now used only ironically...Capitalizing an entire word or phrase for emphasis is rarely appropriate."
Accepted and ironic uses of capitalisation are things like:
Shhh! I have a Very Important Secret to tell you.
"If that makes me an Evil Person," she said with a titter, "then fine!"
As always, don't overdo it. Even if you think a lot of words or phrases can be capitalised, think about whether they should be. Too much typographical emphasis is not only an eyesore; it's also self-defeating.
In real life, I know of no one who does it more than my own husband (and in fact, it was reading something he'd written that caused me to write this post). Below, I use one of his sentences as an example.
Proper nouns versus common nouns
To know which nouns should be capitalised, you need only remember the difference between proper nouns and common nouns.
Common nouns are easy; they're names of persons, places, or things that are generic. Examples of common nouns are jazz musician, town, and hamburger. There are many types of jazz musicians, towns, and burgers.
On the other hand, proper nouns are specific names of persons, places, or things, and they denote specific, usually unique entities (or classes of entities). Examples of proper nouns are Bleeding Gums Murphy, Springfield, and Krusty Burger.
In the following sentence (which is capitalised incorrectly), which nouns are proper and which are common?
Nero's the Captain of the Romulan Ship Nerada.
"Nero" and "Nerada" refer to specific things--the person and the ship, respectively--so they are proper nouns.
"Captain" and "Ship" are generic things, so they are common nouns. The sentence is rewritten correctly as the following:
Nero's the captain of the Romulan ship Nerada.
Words like "captain" might confuse some, because it is also used as a title. As a title, it should be capitalised because titles are proper nouns (or part of them). Here are some examples of nouns used as both common and proper nouns:
Barack Obama is the President of the United States.
Do you think he will make a good president?
Give my regards to the captain of the Enterprise.
Captain Kirk would like to see you now, Yeoman.
Who is that nubile young miss in the picture?
Miss Otis regrets she's unable to lunch today.
And of course, there are words--outside of titles--that function as both common nouns and proper nouns:
My favourite fruit is blackberry.
I love my BlackBerry handheld device!
Don't overemphasize
"'Well worthy impe,' said then the Lady gent,/'And Pupill fit for such a Tutours hand,'" Edmund Spenser wrote in The Faerie Queene.
That's all well for Spenser, but do you live in the 16th century? You don't, so don't write like you do. Section 7.50 of The Chicago Manual of Style notes, "Initial capitals, once used to lend importance to certain words, are now used only ironically...Capitalizing an entire word or phrase for emphasis is rarely appropriate."
Accepted and ironic uses of capitalisation are things like:
Shhh! I have a Very Important Secret to tell you.
"If that makes me an Evil Person," she said with a titter, "then fine!"
As always, don't overdo it. Even if you think a lot of words or phrases can be capitalised, think about whether they should be. Too much typographical emphasis is not only an eyesore; it's also self-defeating.
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