Capitalization and Titles PUNCTUATION LESSON

Capitalization First word of a sentence First word of each line in poetry, even in the middle of a sentence or thought The wind was a torrent of darkness Among the dusty trees. First word of a direct quote Andy said, “The movie was great.” First word and all other important words in titles of books, poems, stories, songs The Hunger Games “Jingle Bells”

Capitalization Proper nouns Proper adjectives James T. White; Easter; Florida; Greece Proper adjectives Chinese food; Russian language A person’s title before a name Mayor Hale; Doctor Johns; Governor Brown The abbreviations of titles Ms. Drake; Dr. Johns; Sen. Bennett Abbreviations of days and months Fri. Abbreviations of parts of addresses 375 N. Fourth St. Titles of members of the armed forces Major Ronald Nelson All letters in the abbreviations of states Las Vegas, NV

Titles of works need to be underlined OR put inside “quotation marks.”

Underlined: Longer/Bigger Works Novels Music Albums Magazines and Newspapers TV Shows Movies Paintings Long Poems Operas Note: When handwriting titles of longer works, underline them. When typing, italicize them instead.

Quotation Marks: Shorter Works Song titles Chapters in books Essays TV Episodes Short Poems Newspaper and Magazine Articles Magazine Articles Essays Photographs Short Poems Short Stories