Capitals

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Capitals

Post by K » Tue Jan 14, 2014 6:34 am

Capitals exist to give words and sentences structure. More structure is more clarity. Make use of them appropriately.

Improper Usage
"CAPS LOCK is cruise control for cool" is a sarcastic remark that people make when you are typing in all capitals. It is, in fact, not cool. It reads as though you are yelling in an emotionally reckless, driveling manner, whether you actually are or not. If you are actually trying to sound like a shrieking, drunken baboon, it is very effective.
One of the few writing habits that is more annoying is the Capitalization Of The First Letter Of Every Word. By doing this, you are saying, "I am intelligent enough to use the Shift key when typing the first letter of my sentence, but I'm sloppy, dumb, and annoying enough to do it for every word!" This reads in a manner that implies that you are trying to be annoying and do not comprehend English, emphasis, or whatever you're talking about.
Next, we have the RANDOM capital words that are strewn THROUGHOUT the ENTIRE sentence. When you write this way, you may think that you're placing emphasis. What you're really doing is yelling like a nine-year-old, rather than as a three-year-old, ensuring that whatever you are saying comes across as a tantrum with 20% less drool than the ALL CAPS variety.
Finally, we have the "no caps." Literate folks have learned to tolerate this simply because it is the most frequent offender, but it still isn't right. "Because internet" is not an excuse. Writing without any capitals shows that you are too lazy and/or illiterate to write in a coherent manner. It reads in a childish, unstructured manner.
Seasons used to be capitalized. They now are not unless they're part of a title, such as, "The Spring 2009 semester of college was brutal on Ellen."

You may read that and say, "I use caps to add emphasis. How do I emphasize words mid-sentence without them?"
Well, first, emphasis doesn't have all the conversational importance that it's cracked up to have, I say. Still, there's sense in some. Italicize them. Alternatively, bold them. Underlining is more specific to titles and categories, but even using underlines for emphasis is more acceptable than caps.
"What about on Facebook?"
Facebook is stupid, but you can at least surround the word(s) with /forward slashes/ or \back slashes\ to demonstrate emphasis, there. Yeah, it's comparatively sloppy and doesn't heed punctuation rules perfectly, but it's acceptable for Facebook.

Proper Usage
Summarily, the rules are, "Beginning of sentences, proper nouns (names, generally), and other titles." Please, read the details.

Beginning a sentence with a capital is a simple matter of English structure. Our language is built on sentences, not run-on rants, and distinguishing the beginning of one with a capital is just as important as establishing the end with a mark of punctuation.
This applies to quotes! Unless it's a, ". . . partial quote," specifically entering mid-way through the sentence, you should capitalize the beginning of a quoted sentence, as I did above. Again, it's a structure thing. I can't explain it any more than that without being rather redundant and obvious.
Apply the same to colons: If you start a new sentence after the colon, it's capitalized. If the colon is used mid-sentence, such as, "There's only one thing that I want you to do: leave," the remaining fragment doesn't get a random capital. Ending a sentence with a colon to transist into a list does not incite any more capitals; the items are not a new sentence on their own.
Most poetry, including song lyrics, capitalizes the first letter of each line, even mid-sentence. Oddly, this is grammatically correct.
Salutations and closings in letters are not full sentences or real titles, but capitalize the first letter as though they were sentences.

Names naturally start with capitals to show individual significance. "Caleb" is not just any word; it's a word that specifically refers to myself and all the quirks of my identity. On the internet, many usernames start with lowercase letters. It is acceptable to write those without capitalizing, but only because those are how the names are originally designed.
This applies to names of deities, whether you believe in them or not. There is still individual significance, in literary terms. I am a devout Christian, but I capitalize Zeus and Allah, not just Jesus, Yeshua, Christ, God, and other Christian capitals. This is not to say that I give them any significance in belief; this merely shows that I acknowledge them as names.
Note: The non-specific form, "god," is also correct in context. When referring to the Christian god, it is proper to refer to Him as "God." When referring to the Muslim god, it is proper to refer to him as "Allah." They are both gods in their given belief systems. The Christian one is capitalized simply because that is used as the name. (We believe that there are no other gods, that it is unfair to consider any other being to be on the same or a similar level. Thus, we don't quibble about a name, because names are for people who have to be identified. It's pretty easy to identify someone if they're the only one.)
Also, we capitalize all other nouns in which we specifically refer to God the Father or God the Holy Spirit. Christians do so as a symbol of respect and recognition for the Trinity. Non-Christians may do so as a sign of respect for Christians and their beliefs, though this is not always recognized as an official capitalization rule, and we won't really get upset if others don't follow it, anyway. Examples: He, Him, His, the Lord, the One, the King . . .
Days of the week (Wednesday), months (August), holidays (Halloween), nations (Peru), and languages (Mandarin) are all named. Always capitalize them.
"Earth," "Sun," and "Moon" are variable, and even the most educated experts have their disagreements on it. The way that I first learned it has always made sense to me: When you're referring to the celestial bodies by their names/titles (Our moon's name is Luna, and the sun is Sol. These are strictly names and are always capitalized.), capitalize them. When referring to them in part or abstractly ("earth manipulation power," "She regarded the dust and dirt as a 'healthy layer of earth,'" "'He donned sunscreen because he knew what the sun did to him on his last visit," "She howls like a wolf when the moon hits her," . . .), decapitalize.

Titles follow a similar premise to names, but the rule is effectively expanded to many things of individual significance. Insignificant words (short prepositions, conjunctions, and articles) are not capitalized in titles. I'll skip straight to the examples.
"The Virgin Mary" is a title that is specific to the mother of Jesus the Christ. Yes, "virgin" is just an adjective to describe her, in the phrase, but it is a specific title, too. Both "the Virgin Mary" and "the virgin Mary" are correct.
Likewise, "God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit" is an example of three very specific titles. "The father of Jason" is not; in context, it does refer to a specific individual, but it does not refer to a particular, significant title.
"Governor Johnson" is a title when it's put together like that. "Johnson, governor of Lolcatzity," makes the same reference, but "governor of Lolcatzity" is a prepositional phrase that describes Johnson; it's not being used as his "title," in this case. "The governor was there" does refer specifically to him, but the word is being used generically again. If you directly address him, "I need your approval, Governor," you are using his title again; you're just chopping off his name as an implied part of it, which is acceptable for position-based titles.
The "direct address" clause applies to all would-be titles. "Can I get a diagnosis, Doctor?" is correct. Personally, I find the "direct address" clause to be stupid. That is all.
You may capitalize words such as department, bureau, and office if you have prepared your text in the following way: "The Bureau of Land Management has some jurisdiction over Indian lands. The Bureau is finding its administrative role to be challenging." Again, using it as a shortened title makes it require a capital, but only if the full name is stated immediately beforehand.
High-ranking officials get their own, special rules, just to confuse us. When referring to a president, secretary of state, or such like that generically, don't capitalize them. When you refer to a specific individual of such a position, whether or not their name is said or even implied, capitalize it. "The President will make a speech, soon." "One must be thirty-five years old to run to be a president for the U.S."
Note: At least prefixes and suffixes, such as "President-elect" and "ex-Governor" are consistent in that they are never capitalized.
Book, song, and other publication titles all qualify. However, if the artist made the title in an illiterate fashion, intentionally so or not, you should adhere to the official case, much the same as the above internet usernames exception. Short verb forms, "Is," "Are," and "Be," are capitalized in publication titles.
"The South" can be used as a title of a region. However, "We are heading south" is not to be capitalized because it is merely the direction, not the direction-based region title.
Note: You may notice that I seem to get this one wrong a lot. I habitually adhere to an older rule. When I was in first grade, the rule was to capitalize directions when they are nouns (as regional titles) or adverbs (In the above sentence, "south" describes how we are "heading." Describing a verb makes it an adverb.), and the issue was up for debate. By the time that I was in second grade, it had changed, but I was not made aware of the change and got into the elder habit.
Events and periods have titles, like the "Victorian Era," "Renaissance," "Age of Enlightenment," and "Reformation," but basic classifications, such as the "twenty-first century," don't count.
Capitalize "federal" or "state" when used as part of an official agency name or in government documents where these terms represent an official name. If they are being used as general terms, decapitalize. "The state has evidence to the contrary." "That is a federal offense." "The State Board of Equalization collects sales taxes." "The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been subject to much scrutiny and criticism lately." "Her business must comply with all county, state, and federal laws."
When giving your position as your title at the closing of a letter, such as, "Caleb Reed, Administrator," the title counts for a capital, even if it otherwise would not.

Yeah, it's probably a lot more complex than you had thought. It's fine to bookmark this and use it as a reference point. You aren't expected to get all the rules perfectly all the time, especially with all the seemingly random caveats to gov't titles and whatnot, but please try to at least get the basics.
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