Category: capitalization rules

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Business Writing Capitalization Cheat Sheet

How did business writing capitalization start? Why do we capitalize words in general?

These interesting resources answer those questions. Capitalize on this mini link library to learn more.

The Linguist List: The History of Capitalization
Why we capitulate to capitalization.

The New York Times: Me, Myself and I
English is the only language in which the first-person singular pronoun, “I,” is capitalized. Author Caroline Winter will enlighten you on why it’s all about the “I.”

The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation
Take one of GrammarBook.com’s quizzes to test your capitalization knowledge.

Title Capitalization: Your Online Capitalization Case Tool
This handy site does what it says — it automatically capitalizes titles for you if you lack time to do it yourself or you truly don’t know how. It will help you keep your capitals in line, which is great for homework or for publication to ensure your titles follow the right style.

Case Converter
To ensure you cover all the cases, this tool will convert to the one of your choice: all uppercase, all lowercase, to capitalize the first letter of every word or just the first word of every sentence. It’s up to you. You can then cut-and-paste the results or save them to a text file.

I’ve also covered business writing capitalization rules in my Five-Minute Business Writing Tips newsletters.

Do caps “entrap” you? Do they make your life difficult? If so, contact me for a free consultation.

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5 More Ways to Use Capital Letters in Business Writing

1. To use capital letters in business writing properly, capitalize “government” when you refer to the U.S. Government or any foreign nation.

Examples: the Mexican Government; Her Majesty’s Government

2. Capitalize “state” when used with a name or in place of the name, but use lower-case with a general term.

Examples: the State of Maine or State government; state law

3. Capitalize “the,” or its foreign equivalent, when it is the authorized part of a geographical name, of a book title or work of art, or when it’s part of a company’s or an institution’s legal name.

Examples:

  • Geographical names: The South
  • Art work titles: The Student Prince
  • Company or institution names: The Hartford

Note: This rule is often disregarded in informal writing when referencing periodicals, ships, firm names, etc.

Examples: the National Review; the Enterprise; the Jones Company

4. Capitalize parts of a work when you refer to them in the same work.

Example: For more guidelines, read Appendix B.

5. Capitalize all names of celestial bodies except for the earth, moon, stars, and sun, unless they are personified or used in an astronomical context.

Examples: Jupiter; the Andromeda Galaxy; Sirius

Source: The Elements of Grammar by Margaret Shertzer
 

Advice from someone who knows how to use capital letters in business writing can help you improve your writing and make you look smarter and more skilled in your field.

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The Classy Writing Blog: Capitalization Cheat Sheet ‏

“How did business writing capitalization start? Why do we capitalize words?…” Read more.

Quotes

“Failure to use capitals properly will mark you as semi-literate just as quickly as mistakes in spelling or punctuation.” ~ Larry Trask, The Linguist List (History of Capitalization)

“One reason capitalization matters is that a word’s meaning can change depending on whether it’s uppercase or lowercase.” ~ Rob Reinalda, “When Should You Capitalize Words?” Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips.

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5 Capitalization Rules in Business Writing

1. Proper nouns — This is one of the primary capitalization rules in business writing: capitalize the name of a person, a place, or a thing.

Scrabble tiles that spell out the word "SEO," an example of an initialism--part of the rules of capitalization in business writing.

Example: Luke Skywalker was from the planet Tatooine and helped defeat the Death Star.

This includes people with specific job titles and department names: Certified Financial Planner Bob Cash of the Investment Department. What if we refer to Bob by just his job title? The Certified Financial Planner said he wants the reports finished next week.

The Internet – Some language experts consider the Internet a proper noun — it’s a reference to a thing, and therefore, they capitalize it. But, nowadays, even the Associated Press Stylebook keeps it lowercase.

2. Sentences — Capitalize the first word at the beginning of a sentence, whether or not it’s complete, including the first word of each item in an outline.

3. The four seasons — Capitalize “fall,” “winter,” “spring,” and “summer” if they’re part of proper names.

Examples:

  • Summer Olympics
  • ABC Widget Co.’s Fall Income Report

4. Titles — Generally speaking, you should capitalize nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, verbs, and the first words in titles of books, movies, plays, songs, etc. This is also a matter of style. Some people prefer to capitalize the first letters of all words in a title.

Examples:

  • movie: The Big Short
  • newspaper: The Wall Street Journal
  • website: Facebook
  • TV show: Mad Men
  • play: The Teahouse of the August Moon
  • song and musical performer: Yesterday by The Beatles
  • report or document: “The Science of Color”
  • book: How to Win Friends and Influence People
  • brand: Pitney Bowes

5. Acronyms and initialisms:

Acronyms – Acronyms are abbreviations that can be pronounced as words. When you refer to one used as a proper name, capitalize the letters.

Examples: FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)

Initialisms – Initialisms are words formed from the first letters of a phrase, but they can’t be pronounced as words. Capitalize them if they’re proper names, but if they aren’t, you don’t have to. In the following examples, “ETA” and “PC” aren’t proper names, so you shouldn’t capitalize the phrases they’re based on:

Examples: FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), ETA (estimated time of arrival), PC (personal computer)

Sources: Grammar Girl, The Elements of Grammar by Margaret Shertzer

Advice from someone who knows capitalization rules in business writing can help you improve your writing and make you look smarter and more skilled in your field.

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Quotes

“The rules of capitalization are so unfair to words in the middle of a sentence.” ~ John Green, Paper Towns

“What we admire, we capitalize.”  ~ Murray Munn

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5 More Business Writing Capitalization Rules

1. Degrees — Among the many business writing capitalization rules, capitalize all academic degrees following a person’s name, whether or not they’re abbreviated.

Examples: Hunter S. Thompson, Ph.D., Sigourney Weaver, Master of Fine Arts

2. Titles — Capitalize all academic and religious titles, or other titles of rank, honor, or respect before a name.

Examples: Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, President Wilma Smith, Dr. John Henry

3. “Federal” — Capitalize it when you refer to the U.S. Government.

Example: Federal Government

4. Directions — Capitalize points of the compass when they refer to specific parts of the country.

Examples: The Northeast, the West

5. Quotations — Capitalize the first word of every complete quotation.

Example: The soldier cried, “Halt! Who goes there?”

Source: The Elements of Grammar by Margaret Shertzer

Advice from someone who knows business writing capitalization rules can help you improve your writing and make you look smarter and more skilled in your field.

BOOK FREE A COACHING SESSION

Quotes

“I love you. You are the object of my affection and the object of my sentence.”  ~ Mignon Fogarty, Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing

“A man’s grammar, like Caesar’s wife, should not only be pure, but above suspicion of impurity.” ~ Edgar Allan Poe