RLA 6.10Dvii - Capitalization

RLA 6.10 Dvii

editing:

editing:

The Rules of Capitalization

teks/objective:

The student is expected to edit drafts usingstandard English conventions, including: capitalization of proper nouns, including abbreviations, initials, acronyms, and organizations

edit drafts

standard English conventions

abbreviations

proper nouns

acroynms

Start

The rules of capitalization

Capitalization is like a road sign. It calls attention to things you don't want to miss. Understanding capitalization rules will allow you to make sure your writing looks consistent and professional at all times and will give clarity to your reader.

Geography, History, and Places

I and First Words

Proper Nouns & Proper Adjectives

Titles of Documents, Art and Literary Works

Family Relationships & Official Titles of People

Abbreviations, Initials, & Acronyms

i and first words

Click on each of the plus signs to learn more!

a. Capitalize the pronoun I.

b. Capitalize the first word of each sentence.

c. Capitalize the first word of a direct quotation.

d. Capitalize the first word in salutations and closings of letters

i and first words

On your handout, write at least one example sentence that uses correct capitalization of I and first words. You can use an example from the previous slides, or write your own sentence. When you're finished, click the next arrow to begin the quick check for this section.

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i and first words

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i and first words

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i and first words

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i and first words

4. Which words in the sentence below should be capitalized? Select all that apply.

Proper Nouns & Proper Adjective - Holidays, Months, and Days of the Week languages, races, and nationalities

Proper nouns & proper Adjectives

A common noun names a type of person, place, thing, or idea. A common noun is not capitalized unless it begins a sentence or is part of a title.

A proper noun names a specific person, place, or thing and should always be capitalized.

A proper adjective is either an adjective formed from a proper noun or a proper noun used as an adjective.

Proper Nouns & Proper Adjective - Holidays, Months, and Days of the Week languages, races, and nationalities

Proper nouns & Proper Adjectives

When you're writing, you should always capitalize proper nouns and proper adjectives. Some examples of these are:

Names of people

Months, days, and holidays

Names of religions, languages, races, and nationalities

Names of awards, prizes, and medals

Names of clubs, organizations, businesses, and institutions

Quick Check

Proper nouns & Proper Adjectives

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Proper nouns & Proper Adjectives

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Proper nouns & Proper Adjectives

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Proper nouns & Proper Adjectives

Family Relationships & Titles of People

a. Capitalize the titles of abbreviations that come before the names of people.

b. Capitalize words showing family relationships when used as titles or as substitutes for a name.

Names of people

Quick Check

Family Relationships & Titles of People

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Family Relationships & Titles of People

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Family Relationships & Titles of People

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Family Relationships & Titles of People

Geography, History, & Places

a. Capitalize geographical names and places

b. Capitalize historical events, periods, and documents

c. Capitalize addresses including the street, city, and state

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Geography, History, & Places

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Geography, History, & Places

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Geography, History, & Places

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Geography, History, & Places

Titles of Documents, Artworks & Literary Works

Capitalize the first and last words and all important words in the titles of artworks and literary works.

Unless it is the first word in a title, do not capitalize an article (a, an, or the), a conjunction, or a preposition that has fewer than 5 letters.

Examples: (click on any of the words below for more information)

Magazines

Short Stories

Poems

Historic Documents

Books

Report

Movies & TV

Songs

Quick Check

Titles of Artworks & Literary Works

"I Got the Sun In The Morning"

Quick Check

Titles of Artworks & Literary Works

Check your understanding of how to capitalize titles of books, historic documents, poems, short stories, and reports.

Quick Check

Titles of Artworks & Literary Works

"Joy to the World"

Quick Check

Titles of Artworks & Literary Works

Abbreviations, Initials, & Acronyms

Abbreviations

TIP

= a shortened form of a word or phrase

Acronyms

Initialisms

*Note - If a word or term is capitalized when it is fully spelled out, its abbreviation will also be capitalized.

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Abbreviations, Initials, & Acronyms

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Abbreviations, Initials, & Acronyms

2. Correct or Incorrect? Are all the abbreviations correctly capitalized, or not?

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Abbreviations, Initials, & Acronyms

3. What choices correct the capitalization mistakes in the following sentence?(Check all that apply.)

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Abbreviations, Initials, & Acronyms

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Capitalize historical events, periods, and documents

Historical events are capitalized, as are special events and recognized periods of time. Here are a few examples:

• Vietnam War
• Stone Age
• Memorial Day
• Super Bowl

• the Middle Ages
• World War II
• the American Revolution
• the Declaration of Independence

Capitalize the first word of a direct quotation. Do not capitalize the first word that comes after the interruption in the quote or the identification of the speaker. Do not capitalize an indirect quotation.

Examples:

• direct quotation
• "The first Sheep to Shawl Festival will include spinning, dyeing, and weaving demonstrations," announced the director of the Handcrafts Center.

• direct quotation interrupted
• "We'll even have sheep and llames to pet," she continued, "and yarns, books, and small hand looms to buy."

• indirect quotation
• The director of the Handcrafts Center announced that the Sheep to Shawl Festival would benefit the scholarship fund.

Capitalize names of religions, languages, races, and nationalities

Examples: Religions

• Christianity
• Islam
• Hinduism
• Buddhism

Races

• American Indian or Alaska Native
• Asian
• Black or African American.
• Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander.
• White

Languages

• English
• Spanish
• Chinese
• Arabic

Nationalities

• American
• Mexican
• Chinese
• Egyptian

Capitalization of Abbreviations

Abbreviations are shortened versions of a word to be said in the simplest way possible. Many abbreviations are capitalized (MBA, VIP, DNA, ATM, URL), while others are lowercased (e.g., i.e., etc., laser).

Needs a Capital Letter

I Maria France Atlantic Ocean

Does NOT Need a Capital Letter

duck pool jump many

Capitalize the pronoun I

“I” is the only pronoun that is capitalized in the English language, regardless of where it is in the sentence. Examples:

• Oliver asked if I knew whether the Bad Lands are in North or South Dakota.

• My mother and I used to go to the cinema on Wednesdays.

• Are you going to the party? I was hoping you and I would meet there.

Capitalize the names, surnames (last names), and nicknames of people

Always capitalize people's (and animals') names. Also, capitalize words, such as mom and uncle, only when they are used as names or before names. If a name indicating a family relationship (such as mom or uncle) is preceded by a word like my, his, her, their, or the, that name should not be capitalized. Examples:

• Queen Victoria
• Martin Luther King Jr.
• Harry Potter
• Grandma Lucy
• Aunt Rachel

Capitalization of Acronyms

Acronyms are abbreviations made from the first letters of a series of words and pronounced as words on their own. Examples are:

• NATO (North American Trade Organization)
• ASAP (as soon as possible)
• scuba (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus)

The titles of songs and other musical compositions should be capitalized. Examples include the "Star-Spangled Banner" and "You Raise Me Up."

Songs

The entire title of long-form works like magazines and newspapers should be italicized, not in quotation marks. You should also capitalize all the words in the title of a magazine or newspaper. Example: A copy of the magazine National Geographic is delivered to Karina’s house daily. Note: If the word “the” is part of a newspaper’s or magazine’s title, capitalize and italicize it. If it’s not part of the title, do not capitalize or italicize it.

Magazines

Poems

Capitalize the names, surnames (last names), and nicknames of people

Always capitalize people's (and animals') names. Also, capitalize words, such as mom and uncle, only when they are used as names or before names. If a name indicating a family relationship (such as mom or uncle) is preceded by a word like my, his, her, their, or the, that name should not be capitalized. Examples:

• Queen Victoria
• Martin Luther King Jr.
• Harry Potter
• Grandma Lucy
• Aunt Rachel

Proper nouns include an extensive category of nouns, such as -

• names and nicknames of people and animals
• geographical names
• organizations trademarks
• celestial bodies
• attractions
• book titles
• museums

Edit Drafts

During the editing stage of the writing process, students further improve their drafts and often prepare them for publication by correcting errors in mechanics, grammar, and spelling. Applying standard rules of the English language correctly helps the audience understand the information more easily by not having to interrupt their thinking to decide what the writer intended to say.

Proper Nouns

Unlike a common noun which names general items (e.g., friends, states, buildings), proper nouns name specific people, places, or things/events, and always begin with a capital letter (e.g., Kylie, Texas, Eiffel Tower, Fourth of July). Students should be especially mindful of correct capitalization when using a proper noun presented as an abbreviation, initialism, acronym, or the name of an organization. Students should understand that if they do not correctly capitalize these types of proper nouns, readers are at risk of not understanding that a word is meant to refer to something specific and is not merely a misspelling or misuse of some other intended word or slang.

Movies & TV

When it comes to TV shows, capitalize all the important words in the title. However, do not capitalize articles, conjunctions, or prepositions, unless they are officially part of the title and appear first.

Capitalize geographical names and places

Geographic names of specific places are capitalized , including terms such as lake, mountain, river, or valley if they are used as part of a name. Do not capitalize general names for places. Here are some examples:

• Capitalized
• Snake River
• Sugarloaf Mountain
• Sun Valley

• Not capitalized
• a river
• the mountains
• a valley

Books

Capitalize the first word of each sentence

Example:

• Hey! I'm so glad to see you! How are you doing?

• I need your help. I have an exam tomorrow. Can you explain the last unit to me?

Capitalize words showing family relationships when used as titles of as substitutes for a name.

Examples:

• I'm writing a letter to Grandma.
• When did you see Cousin Lucy last time?
• I've missed you, Aunt May!

But if you speak about mothers, grandmothers, or other relatives in general, there's no need to use the capital letter. Also, you should use a lowercase letter in the titles of relatives if there is a possessive pronoun or a determiner before the title. Here are a few examples:

• Did you finish the letter to your grandma?
• Where does our cousin Lucy live now?
• Emma became a mother last week!
• I have a lot of cousins, but I've never met them.

Capitalize months, days and holidays

Examples:

• Months

We all hate Mondays. The concert was postponed to April next year. Do you have any plans for New Year's Eve?

• Days

• Holdays

Capitalization of Initialisms

Organizations, places, people's names, and other terms are often abbreviated, or made shorter, by their initials. Initials are the first letters of names or words. Initialisms are abbreviations made from word initials and pronounced as initials. Examples are:

• USA (United States of America)
• FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation)
• CIA (Central Intelligence Agency)

Capitalize the first word in a letter salutation and the name or title of the person addressed.

Examples:

• My dear Mrs. Oates,
• Dear sir,
• Dear Leon,

Capitalize only the first word in letter closings.

Examples:

• Very truly yours,
• Your friend,
• Warm regards,

Acronyms

Capitalize addresses including the street, city, and state

Standard English Conventions

Standard rules of the English language, including written mechanics such as punctuation, capitalization, spelling, paragraphing, etc. and written/oral grammar such as parts of speech, word order, subject-verb agreement, and sentence structure

Examples:

• Hispanic cooking
• Irish folk music
• Hawaii's coasts
• United States foreign policy
• San Francisco's hills

Abbreviations

a shortened form of a word or phrase used in writing in place of the whole word or phrase (e.g., Mr. for Mister or Dr. for doctor)

Capitalize names of clubs, organizations, businesses, and institutions

• North East Mall
• Starbucks
• Dollar Tree

• St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
• Harvard University
• Texas Tech University
• Birdville ISD

Examples:

• National Honor Society
• Key Club

• Girl Scouts of America
• Boy Scouts of America

Report

Short Stories

Historic Documents

Capitalize the names of awards, prizes, and medals

Examples:

• Emmy Award
• Pulitzer Prize
• Purple Heart
• Most Valuable Player

Capitalize the titles of abbreviations that come before the names of people.

Titles and academic degrees concerning specific people are considered to be part of a name and thus should be capitalized. These include but are not limited to professional, scientific, religious, state, and royal titles. A capital letter is required when referring to a person by title or academic degree or if the title is used together with a name. Here are some examples:

• Mr. or Mrs. Smith
• Father O'Connell / Deacon Patrick
• Queen Elizabeth II / President John F. Kennedy
• Professor Minerva McGonagall / Dr. Gregory House

At the same time, don't capitalize titles when they are used to describe something general. For example:

• How many kings and queens did England have?
• My professor gave a great lecture today.