As a technical writer, who must often refer to such things as geographic locations, company names, temperature scales, and processes or apparatuses named after people, you must learn to capitalize consistently and accurately. What follows are ten fundamental rules for capitalization. Check out the first rule. It gets fumbled in papers all the time.
Capitalize the names of major portions of your paper and all references to figures and tables. Note: Some journals and publications do not follow this rule, but most do.
Examples
- my Introduction
- Airshaft 3
- see Figure 4
- Table 1
- Appendix A
- Graph
Capitalize the names of established regions, localities, and political divisions.
Examples
- Wheeling Township
- the French Republic
- Lancaster County
- the United Kingdom
- the Wheat Belt
- the Arctic Circle
Capitalize the names of highways, routes, bridges, buildings, monuments, parks, ships, automobiles, hotels, forts, dams, railroads, and major coal and mineral deposits.
Examples
- Highway 13
- Route 1
- Michigan Avenue
- the White House
- Alton Railroad
- the Statue of Liberty
- Herrin No. 6 seam
- the Queen Elizabeth
Capitalize the proper names of persons, places and their derivatives, and geographic names (continents, countries, states, cities, oceans, rivers, mountains, lakes, harbors, and valleys).
Examples
- Howard Pickering
- Great Britain
- Chicago
- British
- New York Harbor
- Gulf of Mexico
- Rocky Mountains
- Florida
- Aleutian Islands
- the Aleutian low
Capitalize the names of historic events and documents, government units, political parties, business and fraternal organizations, clubs and societies, companies, and institutions.
Examples
- the Second Amendment
- the Civil War
- Congress
- Bureau of Mines
- Republicans
- Ministry of Energy
Capitalize titles of rank when they are joined to a person’s name and the names of stars and planets. Note: The names earth, sun, and moon are not normally capitalized, although they may be capitalized when used in connection with other bodies of the solar system.
Examples
- Professor Walker
- President Barron
- Milky Way
- Venus
Capitalize words named after geographic locations, the names of major historical or geological time frames, and most words derived from proper names. Note: The only way to be sure if a word derived from a person’s name should be capitalized is to look it up.
Examples
- Coriolis force
- Fourier coefficients
- English tweeds
- Walker Circulation
- Hadley cell
- Petri dish
- Boyle’s law
- Russell volumeter
- Planck’s constant
- Klinkenberg effect
- Middle Jurassic Period
- Mesozoic Era
- the Industrial Revolution
- the Inquisitio
Capitalize references to temperature scales, whether written out or abbreviated.
Examples
- 10 oF — Fahrenheit degrees
- 22 oC — Celsius degrees
Capitalize references to major sections of a country or the world.
Examples
- the Near East
- the South
Capitalize the names of specific courses, the names of languages, and the names of semesters.
Examples
- Anatomy 20
- Russian
- Spring semester 2009
- Fall term, 2006
Common Capitalization Errors
Just as important as knowing when to capitalize is knowing when not to. Below, I set forth a few instances where capital letters are commonly used when they should not be. When in doubt, consult a print dictionary.
Do not capitalize the names of the seasons unless personified.
Examples
- spring
- winter
Do not capitalize the words north, south, east, and west when they refer to directions.
Examples
- We traveled west.
- The sun rises in the east.
Do not capitalize commonly used words that have come to have specialized meaning.
Examples
- navy blue
- india ink
- pasteurization
- biblical
Do not capitalize the names of elements.
Examples
- tungsten
- nitrogen
- oxygen
- californium
Do not capitalize words that are used so frequently and informally that they have generalized meaning.
Examples
- north pole
- big bang theory
- arctic climate
- midwesterner