Research About capitalization of words in: Abbreviations, Acronyms, After Period, Names of languages, Occupations, Titles

Capitalization

         Capitalization is writing a word with its first letter as a uppercase and the remaining letters in lower case. 

These are some of the rules of capitalization:

·         The first word of every sentence, even when that sentence is in parentheses. Example:

-My personal motto is simple: Live and let live. (Actually applying it, however, is difficult when I’m around certain people.)

·         Names of particular people, places, and things, including nicknames and trademarks. Example:

-Tom Jones, Uncle Sam, Aunt Susan: Cedar Grove Road, Campbell High School, Empire State Building, Paris; Big Ben, Old Vic, Big Brother; Kleenex, Laundromat, Xerox, etc.

·         People of all cultures and their races, nationalities and languages. Example:

-Ohioan, Floridian, Southerner, Italian, Latin, Eskimo, Spanish, English, French, Russian, Yiddish, etc.

·         The first person pronoun “I”. Example:

- I must take English and math.

·         Days of the week, months, and holidays. Example:

-Friday, December, Valentine’s Day, Christmas, Presidents’ Day, etc.

·         Historical documents, periods, and events. Example:

-the Bill of Rights, Constitution, Ten Commandments, Vietnam War, Renaissance, Romantic Era, Eocene Period, etc.

·         Names of specific geographic areas. Example:

-Deep South, Arctic Circle, Old West, Pacific Northwest, Yellowstone National Park, etc. (Note: words like north and south are not capitalized when referring to direction but are capitalized when referring to specific areas of the country: the North, the South, etc.)

·         Religions and their followers, holy books, and holy days, as well as words referring to specific supreme beings. Example:

- Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, Hindu, Buddhist, Jew, Catholic, Muslim, Jew, Baptist, Methodist, Mormon; Holy Bible, Quran, Torah, Book of Revelations; Yom Kipper, Easter, Ramadan; Allah, Jehovah, Buddha, God, etc. (Note: Also capitalize pronouns that refer to specific supreme beings.)

·         Personifications. For example:

- In “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” T.S. Eliot writes, “I have seen the Eternal Footman hold my coat and snicker;” “Old Man Winter came roaring into the valley.”

·         Companies, organizations, institutions, government agencies. Example:

-Microsoft, General Electric, Federal Express; Atlanta Falcons, American Red Cross, Phi Beta Kappa; Harvard University, Institute of Noetic Sciences; Congress, United Postal Service, Department of Homeland Security, etc.

·         Shortened forms of capitalized words and acronyms. Example:

- D.C., LA, IRS, CNN, NATO, OPEC, NASA, etc.

·         Titles if they precede the name but not if they follow it. Example:

-Governor Bobby Jindal; Bobby Jindal is a governor; Aunt Grace; Grace Holt is my favorite aunt; Colonel Tom Jones; Tom is a colonel; etc.

·         All words in the title of a story, poem, article, play, film, song, symphony, work of art, etc, excluding conjunctions, prepositions, articles and the “to” in infinitives unless they are the first word in the title. Example :

-“To Build a Fire;” “Those Winter Mornings;” “How to Become Rich in Ten Easy Steps;” “Rock Around the Clock;” For Whom the Bell Tolls; Death of a Salesman; No Country for Old Men; Moonlight Sonata; The Hands of God, etc. (Note: Titles of shorter works are in quotations; titles of longer works, including musical compositions and works of art, are italicized).

·         Titles of specific courses of study but not individual subjects. Example:

-I am taking history this semester; Last semester I had Dr. Yancy for History 102; I do not enjoy literature; I hated my American Literature 125 class

·         Many abbreviations and acronyms. Example:

-Dec., Tues., Lt. Gen., M.F.A., UNESCO, MIRV.

Exceptions to the Rules of Capitalization

        One reason that capitalization matters is because a word’s meaning can change depending on whether it's uppercase or lowercase and sometimes depends upon its usage in given instances. In English, we capitalize words that are proper nouns, and these are the ones that describe a specific thing or entity.

    We lowercase words that are considered common nouns and they can be used to describe many things, such as any one of the multitude of white colored houses in the world.

For example:

- “When he jumped from the plane without a parachute, Tom plunged to earth”. In this sentence, “earth” refers to the ground (a common noun).

-“Tom dreamed of being an astronaut and looking down on Earth from space”. In this second sentence “Earth” refers to a particular planet (a proper noun).

Abbreviations

 An abbreviation (from Latin brevis, meaning short) is a shortened form of a word or phrase. Usually, but not always, it consists of a letter or group of letters taken from the word or phrase. For example, the word abbreviation can itself be represented by the abbreviation abbr., abbrv. or abbrev.

We have to capitalize abbreviations only if the words they stand for are to be capitalized.     For example: U.K. (United Kingdom), but p. (page).

Acronym

         An acronym (pronounced AK-ruh-nihm, from Greek acro- in the sense of extreme or tip and onyma or name) is an abbreviation of several words in such a way that the abbreviation itself forms a pronounceable word. The word may already exist or it can be a new word. Examples:

- FBI = Federal Bureau of Investigation, CEO = Chief Executive Officer, RIP = rest in peace, UFO = unidentified flying object, etc.

Acronyms are usually capitalized with a few exceptions:

     Acronyms which have become regular words such as laser and scuba. Some acronyms of proper nouns in which function words are not capitalised, such as TfL (Transport for London) and LotR (The Lord of the Rings)

Period or no period

Periods/full stops are used for

• Initials in names (examples: J.F. Kennedy, Robert E. Lee)

• Latin abbreviations that need no explanation (example: e.g., i.e.)

• Contraction (example: Dr., Ltd.)

• Abbreviations end in lower case/small letters (example: Dec. for December)

Periods/full stops are not used for

• Abbreviations in upper case/capital letters (examples: UNESCO, CNN)

• Abbreviations of countries (examples: USA, UK)

• Abbreviations of compass directions (examples: NW, SSE)

• Metric abbreviations (examples: kg, cm)

Bibliographies

Reinalda R. (2009) When you Should Capitalize Words? Consultado el día 16 de agosto del 2011 de http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/understanding-capitalization.aspxhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalization

www.word-mart.com (2006-2010) Punctuation and Capitalization Tips. Consultado el día 16 de agosto del 2011 de http://www.word-mart.com/html/punctuation_and_capitalization.html#CapitalAbbrev

saber ingles.com( 1996-1998) Common acronyms. Consultado el día 16 de agosto del 2011 de http://www.saberingles.com.ar/lists/acronyms.html

*Dejen comentarios por favor. Comentar no cuesta nada, pero nada de insultos.