3.8: Capitalization

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Some teachers blame text messaging. After all, how many times have you written out a quick text message, not worrying about where you need to capitalize? You, like many others, have probably done this quite often.

Interestingly, capitalization errors appeared on the most-common error list even before everyone was walking around with their heads over their cell phones text messaging every other minute.

Of course, the reality is that teachers now often complain that students don’t even capitalize I in a sentence. That could likely be related to text messaging. Still, other capitalization errors may not be.

Whatever the reasons behind the errors, it’s important to be aware of capitalization rules. Be careful to capitalize words that should be capitalized, such as proper nouns, and not capitalize words that should not be capitalized.

But, how can you know what should and shouldn’t be capitalized? If you are unsure, review the differences between proper nouns and common nouns in the Parts of Speech area of the Excelsior OWL.

Capitalization errors can really have a negative impact on the impressions your readers have of your writing. Take a look at the following sentence:

Screenshot 2020-05-06 at 20.05.39.png

Now, take a look at the sentence with correct capitalization:

Screenshot 2020-05-06 at 20.05.49.png

It’s important to edit carefully and review the rules if necessary!