Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Capitalization



Capitalizing random words doesn't make you look classy. It makes you look like you are in a time warp from the 1700s when it was considered classy. If you want to emphasize something, use italic instead of a capital letter. The simple rule is to only capitalize the first word of a sentence, the pronoun “I”, and proper nouns.

An example of a proper noun is someone’s name or title. Sir Thistleworthy; Annie Applegate; Madam Attorney-General. Place names are also proper nouns: Melbourne, Victoria; the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Also watch out for changing the meaning of what you’re saying by adding capital letters. “I live in the White House”, has a very different meaning from “I live in the white house.” It would be much better to say, “I live in the white house” as your friend is about to enter the green house, or even the greenhouse (It’s never Greenhouse).

Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

No comments: