cApItAliZatiOn bAsIcS

Does the title of this blog post make your brain hurt?

Me too.

To avoid things like that, let's go over the basics of capitalization together!

When to Capitalize Words

The beginning of every sentence

• Dogs like to play fetch.

• What is your favorite movie?

• Proper nouns (an individual/specific person, place, or organization)

  • Names: Harry Potter, Shaun, Mrs. Banks, Fluffy, Mom (not “my mom”), Senator Rosales

  • Places: Brooklyn Bridge, Seattle, Canada, Main Street, New England, “He is Chinese,” “She speaks Spanish,” Mount Everest, Salt Lake.

  • Organizations: Google, The New York Times, Washington Middle School

  • In a book, an author might make up a proper noun of their own--like, "This is my Five-Step Plan for weight loss." In that case, "Five-Step Plan" should always be capitalized and always look the same (remember that hyphen!).

• “I” --but not he, she, they.

  • I love to swim.

  • Dad thinks I’m going to be a great biologist someday. I think he's crazy.

• Days, months, holidays--but not seasons or cardinal directions!

  • Easter is held on a Sunday in spring, in either April or March.

  • “The North Pole is about a hundred miles north from here,” he said.

The Exceptions - Artsy Capitalization

• Sometimes, you will see things written IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS.

  • This signifies someone yelling, or otherwise acting very emotional.

  • It is done to grab your attention (STOP signs, and YouTube video titles, EXIT signs)

  • It should never be used in formal writing, and should only be used in creative writing sparingly (or risk having a lessened effect)

  • Click here for more about All Caps Writing.

• sometimes people won’t capitalize anything at all.

  • This is done by poet e. e. cummings to convey voice and a sad, melancholic tone.

  • It should never be used in formal writing

  • Perfectly “OK” in poetry writing.

  • In creative writing, there should be a reason for it, and should be used sparingly (as it can be a bit headache-inducing to read over long periods of time)

• Sometimes people will use cRaZy capitalization

  • Used to signify alarm, silliness, or uniqueness etc. in informal settings or memorable advertisement (FedEx, YouTube).

  • Should never be used formally, and is never grammatically correct

Stick to these rules, and you'll never have to worry about looking like that wAcKy bLog pOSt tITle!

~Christina