CAPITALIZATION RULES! 6 th grade Language Arts

THINGS THAT WE ALWAYS CAPITALIZE  ALWAYS capitalize the pronoun “I”, even in contractions such as:  I’ve, I’ll, etc..  Capitalize the first word in every sentence.  Capitalize the first word of direct quotations if the quotation is a complete sentence.  Examples  Several people shouted, “Stop the bus!”  My father asked, “When will you be home?”  “How much longer,” asked Brian, “is this speech going to last?”  “The Hawaiian islands,” she said, “have many birds and flowers found nowhere else.”

MORE THINGS WE ALWAYS CAPITALIZE  Capitalize all proper nouns (specific people, places, or things). Capitalize initials, as well.  Examples:  Joe Smith, Eiffel Tower, Tappan Zee Bridge, Joshua Tree National Monument  Brian J.T. Jameson, L.T. Cornwall  Capitalize geographical names, including streets, cities, states, and nations, etc.  Examples:  Warren Street, London, Florida, Italy, Great Plains, Canary Islands, Amazon River, Lake Travis, Hudson Bay, Black Sea, Atlantic Ocean

CAPITALIZING PERIODS OF TIME  Capitalize names of specific events, periods of time, and documents (including days, months, and holidays).  Examples:  Middle Ages, World War II, Bill of Rights, Fiddler’s Convention, Super Bowl  Seasons of the year are not capitalized unless part of a title or an event name.  Capitalize names of specific organizations, government bodies, political parties, nationalities, and languages.  Examples:  The ambassadors attended the first session of the Austrian Parliament.  She delivered a brief address in Japanese and received a warm applause.  I graduated from the University of North Texas.

CAPITALIZING REFERENCES TO RELIGION AND MONUMENTS  Capitalize references to religions, deities, and religious scriptures  Examples:  God, Father, Allah, Buddha, Holy Spirit, Genesis  Do NOT capitalize the words god or goddess when referring to Greek mythology. A god’s or goddess’s name, however, is capitalized.  Capitalize names of specific places and items (monuments, memorials, buildings, celestial bodies (except moon and sun), awards, air/sea/space/land crafts, trademarks).  Examples:  Statue of Liberty, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Empire State Building, Earth, Aries, Newberry Medal, Voyager 2, Krazy Korn

AWARDS!  Capitalize names of awards, but do not capitalize ‘the’ in from of the name of the award  Examples:  the Academy Awards, the Pulitzer Prize, the Medal of Honor