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A CAPITAL IDEA!The Uses and Rules of Capital Letters

Capital Community College

. . . a guide

to the proper care and feeding

of capital letters

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A CAPITAL IDEA!The Uses and Rules of Capital Letters

Capital Community College

Capitalize the rst word of everysentence unless that sentence is

in parentheses incorporated withinanother sentence.

Capitalize the personal pronoun I.

Glacial till or debris (some geologists call

this material garbage) is oftendeposited in formations called morains.

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A CAPITAL IDEA!The Uses and Rules of Capital Letters

Capital Community College

Capitalize the names of familyrelations when they are used assubstitutes for names: went to visit my Uncle Ted and !unt"ar#aret.

went with mymom anddad to visit myaunt anduncle.

Grandma and Grandpa live with Dad and

Mom now.

Notice the role of the modifying pronoun here.

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A CAPITAL IDEA!The Uses and Rules of Capital Letters

Capital Community College

In titles, capitalize the frst,last, and all important words.

Usuall, we dont capitalizearticles, prepositions, andcoordinatin" con#unctions.

In the La$e o% the&oods&ar and PeaceIKnow This Mch Is Tre

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A CAPITAL IDEA!The Uses and Rules of Capital Letters

Capital Community College

!apitali"e names of specific persons# places#

and geographical locations.

Don$t capitali"e directions.

' (rother Charlie, who used to li)ein the 'iddle East and write (oo$sa(out the *ld &est, now li)es in

+art%ord, Connecticut.

The mo)ed up north, tothe southern shore o% La$e

Erie.

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A CAPITAL IDEA!The Uses and Rules of Capital Letters

Capital Community College

!apitali"e names of da%s of the wee months#

and holida%s.

Don$t capitali"e the names of seasons.

$alentines %ay& which is always on'ebruary ()& falls onTuesday this year.

*e+t fall& before the winterstorms be#in& we,re headin#

south.

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A CAPITAL IDEA!The Uses and Rules of Capital Letters

Capital Community College

!apitali"e the names of historical events.

!apitali"e the names of religions andreligios terms.

The -attle of the -ul#e was an importantevent in orld ar .

God, Christ, Allah, Buddha, Christianity,

Christians,

Judaism,

Jews,

Islam,

Muslims

The 'eformation too& place in the siteenth centr%.

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A CAPITAL IDEA!The Uses and Rules of Capital Letters

Capital Community College

!apitali"e the names of nations# nationalities#

langages# and words based on sch words.

e sall% don$t capitali"e white and

blac&.

omalia, wedish, En"lish mu-n, Irishstew,apanese maple,ews harp,

/rench horn

There are very few blacks in this

predominantly white community.

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A CAPITAL IDEA!The Uses and Rules of Capital Letters

Capital Community College

!apitali"e the names of academic corses

when theyre used as titles.

*rand names . . . .

+e too$ Carpentr 010, (ut he didmuch (etter in his economics andEn"lish literature courses.

Ford, Kleenex, Levis (not jeans), xerox on a

Xerox copier, Advil (but aspirin)

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A CAPITAL IDEA!The Uses and Rules of Capital Letters

Capital Community College

!apitali"e titles when the% precede names.

. . . sall% notafter a name . . . .

Dean Arrin"ton introducedPresident Carter to ecretar2o""lesworth.

Joe Chuckles, who was chairman of the

board of directors in 1995, has since

retired.

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A CAPITAL IDEA!The Uses and Rules of Capital Letters

Capital Community College

+o can capitali"e the names of political entities

in in,hose pblications to avoid confsion.

+o wold not capitali"e those namesin a newspaper report# sa%.

The Count and Cit ha)e a"reed toreim(urse the %ederal "o)ernment %orsewer e3penses.

At the last council meeting, the county agreed to

reimburse the federal government.

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A CAPITAL IDEA!The Uses and Rules of Capital Letters

Capital Community College

Consult a good dictionary!

. . . li$e the online 'erriam4&e(sters5

http://www.m-w.com/netdict.htm

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A CAPITAL IDEA!The Uses and Rules of Capital Letters

Capital Community College

This PowerPoint presentation was created by

Charles Darling, PhD

Professor of English and Webmaster

Capital Community CollegeHartford, Connecticut

copyright Noember !"""

http://cctc.commnet.edu/