C APITALIZATION R ULES

C APITALIZATION To capitalize means to begin a word with a capital letter.

R ULE 1-C APITALIZE THE FIRST WORD OF EVERY SENTENCE. T his assignment is due early next week.

R ULE 2 -T HE FIRST WORD OF A DIRECT QUOTATION IS CAPITALIZED IF THE QUOTATION IS A COMPLETE SENTENCE. Mrs. Crawford said, “Start with the dictionary.”

R ULE 3 -S OMETIMES OTHER WORDS INTERRUPT A DIRECT QUOTATION. D O NOT CAPITALIZE THE BEGINNING OF THE SECOND PART OF AN INTERRUPTED QUOTATION UNLESS THE SECOND PART BEGINS A NEW SENTENCE. “Start with the dictionary,” said Mrs. Crawford, “ w here you can find a lot of useful facts.” “Start with the dictionary,” said Mrs. Crawford. “ Y ou can find a wealth of useful facts in the dictionary.”

Remember to capitalize the first word of a sentence and the first word of a direct quotation that is a complete sentence. “ M y pen pal,” said Mark, “lives in Germany.” “ H ow long have you been writing to him?” asked Thad. “ D oes he have a friend?”

R ULE 4 -D O NOT CAPITALIZE THE FIRST WORD OF AN INDIRECT QUOTATION. A N INDIRECT QUOTATION DOES NOT APPEAR IN QUOTATION MARKS AND DOES NOT GIVE A PERSON ’ S EXACT WORDS Thad said that he had been writing to Karl for a year.

R ULE 5 -C APITALIZE THE FIRST WORD IN THE SALUTATION OF A LETTER. C APITALIZE THE TITLE AND THE NAME OF THE PERSON YOU ARE ADDRESSING. C APITALIZE THE FIRST WORD IN THE CLOSING OFA LETTER. D ear P resident L incoln, Y ours very truly,

R ULE 6 A proper noun names a particular person, place, or thing. Always capitalize a proper noun. Capitalize the names and initials of people. Capitalize a title or its abbreviation when it comes before a person’s name or is used in direct address. W yoming J ackson T. B rowne D r. Ali Shek

R ULE 7 Do not capitalize a title when it follows a person’s name or stands in for the name. Dolores Hernandez is the c aptain of this ship. The ship has a leader named C apt. Dolores Hernandez.

R ULE 8 Capitalize the names and abbreviations of academic degrees that follow a name and the abbreviations Jr. and Sr. Capitalize words that identify family members when the words are used as titles or as substitutes for a person’s name. **DO NOT capitalize if the name follows an article (a, an, the) or a possessive noun or pronoun. U ncle F rankie Diane’s g randmother my s ister an a unt M other and U ncle George were the last to arrive.

R ULE 9 Capitalize the names of cities, counties, states, countries, continents, geographical features such as mountains and rivers, and sections of a country. M ount V ernon W estchester C ounty N ew J ersey E thiopia A frica I ndian O cean the G rand C anyon B ering S trait O lentangy R iver B ay of B engal C ape of G ood H ope

R ULE 10 Capitalize the names of streets and highways as well as the names of specific buildings, bridges, and monuments. R oyal F orest B oulevard A venue of the A mericas P ulaski S kyway W orld T rade T owers G olden G ate B ridge L incoln M emorial

R ULE 11 Do not capitalize words like city, state, mountain, river, street, and bridge if they are not part of a specific name. On our trip we drove through ten states and five major cities, but we did not see any mountains. Turn left at the next street, and take the bridge over the river.

R ULE 12 Capitalize proper nouns and adjectives but not common nouns and adjectives. M ark K lees a punctuation m ark N ew Y ork C ity a c ity in New York

R ULE 13 Capitalize the names of clubs, organizations, businesses, institutions, and political parties. Capitalize brand names but not the nouns following them. the R otary C lub G irl S couts of A merica I mperial P roducts, I nc. R ockefeller F oundation the R epublican p arty S pinoff y arn

R ULE 14 Capitalize the names of important historical events and periods of time. Capitalize the names of days of the week, months of the year, and holidays, but not the names of the seasons. the C ivil W ar the I ce A ge summer S aturday A ugust the F ourth of J uly

R ULE 15 Capitalize the first word, the last word, and all important words in titles. C harlotte’s W eb R omeo and J uliet “ T he R ansom of R ed C hief” “ O ld K ing C ole” G one with the W ind S esame S treet N ational G eographic the N ew Y ork T imes C hapter 7

R ULE 16 Capitalize the names of ethnic groups, nationalities, and languages as well as proper adjectives formed from these names. M exican A mericans the S lavic countries speaking P ortuguese I talian food