Capital ideas
Unless you’re e.e. cummings, use standard capitalization; it makes things so much easier on our readers. According to the authorities I’ve read, our brains scan the shapes of words when we read. Capital letters are cues we use to help decode what a collection of letters means. Non-standard capitalization is just harder to read and comprehend.
There are a few differing standards where capitalization is concerned—for example, some think it should be french fries, and others prefer French fries. (I’d rather have onion rings, myself.) In those cases, do what seems right to you and be consistent about it. The following guidelines are generally accepted by most everyone:
Capitalize the first letter of a sentence. You knew that already, but some people are a bit lax about it, especially in casual writing. However, if you let yourself get sloppy about capitalization when it doesn’t matter as much, you can find yourself getting sloppy about it when it counts very much. Sure, your word processor might fix that for you, but you’re not always using your word processor to write. Humor me and do it the old fashioned way, OK?
Capitalize the first letter of a complete sentence following a colon, and the first letter of a quotation if it is a complete sentence.
Capitalize proper names (other than e.e. cummings, I suppose), months and days.
Capitalize the titles of things, such as books, magazines, streets, buildings.
Sometimes you’ll run into words that are capitalized on one instance, but not in another. Usually this occurs when you’re talking about a thing in both specific and also general terms. In this case, you capitalize the specific thing, but not the general. For example:
"Of all the streets in town, I prefer Main Street."
"The Manchester Building is the oldest building in the district."
In other cases, the thing might be a title of a person as well as a class of people. "You’re not like any other judge I’ve met, Judge Dredd."
If you happen to be in a position of influence regarding a product or company name, do all of us a favor and resist those who would insert a lower-case e or i in the front, creating something like eWigets or iThingy. Just don’t do it. It isn’t cute anymore.
Finally, do not use all capital letters; most people consider this the same as shouting. It’s very bad form whether you’re writing e-mail, commenting on a web forum or blog, sending an inter-office memo, or chatting online. If you feel you must use it for emphasis do so SPARINGLY. (Yes, I am shouting.)
Roy Jacobsen
Post a Comment
View Printer Friendly Version
Email Article to Friend
Reader Comments