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On Capitalisation
By Jackie Walters
EuroLogos.com
www.eurologos.com
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The modern trend is to reduce the use of capitalisation.
Proper nouns must begin with a capital letter,
but many associated words may be written in
lowercase without any loss of meaning. The important
thing is to maintain consistency throughout
a document.
It is customary to capitalise:
- The major words in a title;
- Proper nouns (names), including most adjectives
derived from proper nouns (Spanish
from Spain, Freudian from Freud);
It is sometimes tricky to figure out what
counts as a proper noun: it is customary to
capitalise Renaissance and Romantic
when they refer to historical periods, but
not when they mean any old rebirth or something
related to romance. (Even more confusing,
Middle Ages is usually capitalised,
but medieval isn't, even though they
refer to the same thing, and one is just a
Latin translation of the other. Go figure.)
- Banks, Companies, and Corporations, as well
as Conferences, Meetings, and Negotiations
Note: the names of currencies are generally
NOT capitalised, e.g., the dollar, the euro,
etc.
- Personal titles and positions when they
refer to a specific person (Mr. Smith; Ms.
Inger Larsen, Minister of Commerce, the Minister;
Captain Beefheart, Reverend Gary Davis; Sir
John Richardson, Governor of the Central Bank,
the Governor). It is common to capitalise
President or King when referring to one President
or King of a country, but you would refer
to all the presidents or all the kings of
all countries, and the presidents of corporations
don't warrant caps unless you're using president
as a title. Similarly, "at a meeting of ministers
of finance..." Help!!!!
- The names of agencies, organisations, institutions,
etc., as well as their abbreviations (United
Nations, UN, NATO, EU).
- Geographic terms--Physical, Political,
Economic
Geographic terms should be capitalised when
they refer to specific places, area, regions,
topographic features, nationalities, political
and economic groups, etc. They should be in
lowercase when they are used in a general
sense or as descriptive adjectives.
Europe: the Continent; continental Europe;
the European continent, southern Europe [in
a general, i.e., purely geographical sense];
Western Europe [referring to a specific group
of countries].
the Western hemisphere; the western half of
the globe
the Third World; the Middle East; Middle Eastern;
Central America; central Asia; the Mississippi
River but the Mississippi and Brahmaputra
rivers.
- Government Terms
Names (nouns) relating to a specific government
should be capitalised. The names of specific
governmental departments, agencies, ministries,
officials, etc., whether in full or in shortened
form, should be capitalised. But governmental
terms used as adjectives or used as nouns in
a general sense, and common nouns when they
are not a part of a proper noun, should be written
in lower case.
the Government of France; the French Government;
French government agencies
the Prime Minister of (country); representatives
of the fifteen countries - ministers of finance,
central bank governors, and others of ministerial
rank - will meet on July 10 in Paris, the French
Minister of Finance will act as chairman.
Certain historical terms are capitalised, others
are not: the Middle Ages; the Depression; the
depression of the 1930s; World War II; the Industrial
Revolution [referring to England in the eighteenth
century]; the space age.
World Wide Web addresses can be case-sensitive,
but domain names, the part of the address after
the @ that ends in ".com" or ".org" or whatever,
are not. So you won't go on a detour if you
capitalise the first letter of a dot-com company's
name. Stylistically, however, it is important
to decide whether you're dealing with a name
or an address. Internet addresses that are simply
addresses should be lowercased, but if the name
and the address are functionally the same, use
the name (typing the name Amazon.com into a
browser, for example, will get a Web user to
the address: www.amazon.com),. But don't use
a Web address to invent a website name that
doesn't exist:
- WRONG: Bill Walsh runs a website called
TheSlot.com.
- RIGHT: Bill Walsh runs a website called
The Slot (www.theslot.com).
Capitalisation tips
- If a title comes BEFORE a name, capitalise
it. (Mayor Joe Smith was on television.)
- If a title comes AFTER a name, don't capitalise
it. (Joe Smith, mayor, was on television.)
- All national titles are capitalised no matter
when/how used. (George W. Bush, President.)
- Capitalise family relationships when used
as a name (Mother) but not as a description
(my mother).
- Capitalise geographic locations (the South)
but not directions (south of the border).
- Capitalise months, days, holidays (June,
Monday, Christmas) but not seasons (summer,
winter).
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