Using Capital Letters
Using capital letters properly is a sign of respect for your audience and subject. By not using, or misusing capital letters, your readers may think that you don’t know what’s correct (or even worse, don’t care). It may send a message to others that makes you look thoughtless. None of us would want that.
If you want to know when to use capital letters (majuscules) in writing, take a look at the guidelines below from Improving Communications.
Capitalize:
The first word in a sentence.
Use the materials sparingly.
Proper nouns (not common nouns)
Stephen King (vs. writer)
Names of cities, states, and countries
Omaha / Nebraska / Ireland
Names of races, people, and languages
Caucasian / French / Italian
Days, months, and holidays
Tuesday / March / Independence Day
Words pertaining to the sacred
God / Christ / Buddha / Allah
Important words in titles
“Let’s Groove” / Angela’s Ashes
Direction names (used as nouns)
He lived out East. / The South is hot.
Words used as names
Dad / Grandma / Mother
Titles referring to a specific person
Doctor Jones (not the doctor)
“Capital idea, my boy! Capital idea!” (The immortal words of Thurston Howell III)
This information is from the Effective Business Writing class. If you’re looking for ways to improve your communication skills, register for one of the public classes scheduled currently for the New York City area.
>>Click here to find out more about majuscules and minuscules.
Rich Atkins is the Managing Director of Improving Communications, a New York-based corporate training firm that, in addition to Speaker Services, offers Business Writing, Public Speaking & Presentation Skills, Sales and Negotiation, Customer Service, Leadership, Staff Development, and Human Resources training. He is also the Director of Improving Communications UK and Improving Communications IE.