2016-06-08 Writing: capitalization and commas

Greg Malivuk
[email protected]
http://www.pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk
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Capitalization
- names of people, countries, companies, etc. (proper nouns)
	(Including initialisms: IBM, BAE, LG, MIT, BU, USA)
	(Also including titles: Mr., Mrs., Ms., Dr., etc.)
- initials are often capitalized even if it’s not a proper name: MBA, MD, IT
- nationalities and languages (“proper adjectives” and nouns that come from proper nouns)
- the personal pronoun “I”
- days of the week and holidays, and months of the year
- the first letter of a sentence
- Every word in the greeting of a formal letter, but only the first word in the closing
	(Words like “Sir” and “Ma’am” are capitalized because they are like a person’s name.)
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p. 157 - Correct the capitalization in this letter.
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p. 158 - Look at the rules about using commas.
The names of states and countries, if they are to give more information about a city, are separated with commas just like years:
“I have lived in Boston, Massachusetts, since January 5, 2008.”
If I just write a year or state by itself, I don’t need commas.
	“I have lived in Massachusetts since 2008.”

Remember that we also need to use commas before certain conjunctions (like “so” and “but”), after sentence adverbs, (Therefore,... However,... etc.), after dependent clauses (When I get home, I will cook dinner.), and to separate lists.
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Homework: p. 159 - add commas to the four paragraphs.