2015-11-16 Writing: capitalization rules

Greg Malivuk
[email protected]
http://www.pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk
---
I walk to school.
He walks to school. (he/she/it verb)
I take a walk in the evening.
I take walk in the evening. (plural noun)

Greg’s in class. = Greg is in class.
Greg’s been here before. = Greg has been here before.
Greg’s class is in room 102. (possession)

He’s in class. = He is in class.
His class is in room 101. (possessive pronouns don’t have an apostrophe)
---
subject		object		possessive
------------------------------------------
I		me		my
you		you		your
he		him		his
she		her		her
it		it		its
we		us		our
you		you		your
they		them		their

They eat lunch.
I see them.
Their friends go dancing.
---
Capitalization - When do we need to use CAPITAL letters?

- The first-person pronoun I is always capitalized.
- days of the week and months of the year: Monday, Tuesday, January, February
- names of people, companies, countries, and other specific (proper) nouns
- nationalities and languages: English, French, Canadian, European
(These adjectives come from proper nouns, like “England” or “Europe”, so the adjective is also capitalized.)
- The first letter in a sentence is always capitalized.

Other words are NOT capitalized in normal English writing.
“He gets home at 8:00 and then he eats dinner.” (NOT: and then He eats dinner)

(Personal titles like “Mr.” and “Sir” are capitalized, because they are part of a person’s name.)
---
Capitalizations in Titles of Books and Movies
(p. 82 of the handout from last week)

1 The first letter of a title is always capitalized.
2 Nouns (and pronouns), Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs, and Quantifiers (like numbers)
3 Don’t capitalize articles (a/an, the) or short prepositions or conjunctions (in, at, on, and, or)
4 Capitalize longer, “important” prepositions like “after”, “until”, and “unless”.

Do not use a period (.) or quotation marks “” in your paragraph title.
---
http://titlecapitalization.com/ - This website will automatically change the capitalization in titles you type there.
---
p. 83 practice 11 - Correct the capitalization in these book titles.
2 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
3 A Tale of Two Cities
4 Around the World in Eighty Days
5 The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
6 A Journey to the Center of the Earth
---
After the first word, the words we capitalize in titles are the same words we pronounce strongly. The words we don’t capitalize are usually pronounced very short.